The modern Assyrian flag (top) uses ancient Assyrian iconography, including the god Ashur (bottom left) and the star of the god Shamash (bottom right)

Assyrian continuity is the study of the connection between modern Assyrians and ancient Assyrians.^[1] Currently, the mainstream academic view is that Assyrians still existed after the fall of the Assyrian Empire,^[1][2] with modern Assyrians being the genetic descendants of Mesopotamia's Akkadian-speaking Bronze Age population.^[a][5]

Before the 19th century, Western historians wrongly believed that Assyrians no longer existed after the fall of the Assyrian Empire.^[2][5] European writers also wrongly equated Assyrians with Nestorians in the Middle Ages.^[5] Notably, Assyrians converted to Christianity centuries before Nestorianism occurred as a heretic Christian sect.^[5][7] Assyrians are mainly members of the Assyrian Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, and Syriac Catholic Church,^[8] whose teachings are different from Nestorianism.^[9]

The past misconceptions of Assyrians have been proven wrong by modern historians.^[10] It is also proven that the Akkadian-influenced East Aramaic dialects survived until today, with some of them used in Eastern Christian rituals.^[10]

Genetic testing of Assyrians is a new field of study, which has provided evidence for Assyrian continuity. In particular, Assyrians are found to have seldom intermarried with other groups,^[11] indicating that they have historically been closed due to their traditions.^[12]

Assyrian nationalism grew around the same time as European nationalisms.^[1] The multiple massacres inflicted on the Assyrians by the Islamic Ottoman Empire,^[13] which peaked in the Assyrian genocide,^[b][14] made Assyrian nationalism grow faster.^[1] European missionaries also contributed to the rise of Assyrian nationalism.^[1]

Horatio Southgate (1812–1894), an American missionary, wrote in the Narrative of a Visit to the Syrian [Jacobite] Church of Mesopotamia (1844) that Armenians called the Assyrian Christians Assouri (in a similar manner as medieval Arab writers and Northern Mesopotamian Christians called them Ashuriyun), implying the Assyrian ancestry of Assyrian Christians.^[1]

Among the first Western historians who found the link between modern Assyrians and ancient Assyrians included British archaeologist Austen Henry Layard (1817–1894), the discoverer of the Nimrud^[c] who gained much of his knowledge about Assyrian from the local Assyrian archaeologist Hormuzd Rassam (1826–1910).^[1] Assyrian nationalism spread among Assyrians after the Assyrian genocide and forced displacement of Assyrians worldwide.^[d][1]

Some historians, especially J.F. Coakley,^[1] John Joseph, David Wilmshurst and Adam H. Becker denied the Assyrian continuity.^[16] Despite their denial being rejected by mainstream historians, they remain a significant minority.^[17]

Modern Assyrians took offense with the denial of Assyrian continuity.^[18] They consider such denial a product of oppression by Arab nationalists, especially Saddam Hussein's regime, which promoted such denial to attack Assyrians' demand for autonomy by refusing to consider the Assyrians an ethnic group.^[18]