A line of barefoot girls in headscarves and long patterned skirts carry large clay water jars on their backs past a brick wall. Newton & Co lantern slide no. 50 from the series "The Persians, Kurds, and Nestorians, their manners and customs", attributed by the Nelson Collection to Ernest Hoeltzer, late 19th century; published in The Living Races of Mankind (1901) as "Armenians water-carrying (Nestorians)" and by D'Allemagne (1911) as "Jeunes filles Nestoriennes faisant le métier de porteuses d'eau" (young Nestorian women working as water carriers).

Nestorian (Assyrian) girls carrying water jars

Assyrian recruits in slouch hats with plumes and rifles at the slope parade at RAF Habbaniya after three weeks of training. Photographed by Cecil Beaton in 1942.

Assyrian Levies recruits in uniform after training, Habbaniya, 1942

A line of Assyrian recruits to the Iraq Levies in headcloths, felt caps and striped robes stands in profile against the sky at RAF Habbaniya. Photographed by Cecil Beaton in 1942.

Assyrian recruits to the Iraq Levies at Habbaniya, 1942

An Assyrian dancer in an embroidered jacket and keffiyeh raises a dagger, accompanied by a zurna player and a drummer in patterned national dress, on a parade ground in Iraq. Photographed by Cecil Beaton in 1942.

Assyrian dancer and musicians performing the khigga, 1942

Three Iraq Levies in slouch hats, Sergeant Macko Shmos, Lance Corporal Adoniyo Odisho and Corporal Yoseph Odisho, look over the rail of the ship Orbita as it docks at Liverpool in 1946. They had volunteered as RAF ground crew and came for the London Victory Parade.

Iraq Levies arriving in Liverpool for the 1946 Victory Parade

A British instructor in a slouch hat drills a line of Iraq Levies recruits at Habbaniya who still wear their tribal dress: embroidered jackets, sashes, wide trousers and feathered caps. The Levies were then recruited largely from Assyrians, so many of these men are likely Assyrian.

Iraq Levies recruits drilling at Habbaniya

Athanasius Yeshue Samuel, Syriac Orthodox Metropolitan of Jerusalem, in a hood embroidered with crosses and a pectoral cross, points to an unrolled Dead Sea scroll beside three men at the Library of Congress. The scrolls he had bought were on exhibition there from 23 October to 6 November 1949.

Metropolitan Athanasius Yeshue Samuel with a Dead Sea scroll, 1949

The arched stone entrance of the church of St. Mark on Mount Zion, Jerusalem, catalogued by the photographers as the "Syrian Church"; an inscription is carved in the lintel above the door.

Entrance to the Syriac Orthodox church of St. Mark, Jerusalem

A framed Syriac inscription set into a stone wall at the church of St. Mark on Mount Zion, captioned by the photographers as a "Syrian or Syriac inscription found under plaster about 1520 A.D."

Syriac inscription in the convent of St. Mark, Jerusalem

The interior of the church of St. Mark on Mount Zion, Jerusalem, catalogued as the "Syrian Church" and noted by the Library of Congress as also known as the Assyrian Convent of St. Mark. Hanging lamps, a carved wooden pulpit and an ornate altar screen fill the nave.

Interior of the Syriac Orthodox church of St. Mark, Jerusalem

Clergy in vestments and black hoods process across a chequered marble floor during the Orthodox Holy Fire ceremony at Easter 1941; the photographers' log names the procession as the Syrian (Syriac) Orthodox one led by Archbishop Jacob Filixinos. The ceremony is held in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, likely the setting here.

Syriac Orthodox procession at the Holy Fire ceremony, Jerusalem, 1941

A packed Palm Sunday procession of the Syrian (Syriac) Orthodox community in Jerusalem, which the photographers' log says was led by Archbishop Jacob Filixinos. Boys in white robes carry palm fronds and tall candles through the crowd.

Syriac Orthodox Palm Sunday procession in Jerusalem, 1941

Patriarch Abraham Mar Shimun

Mountain refugees in the Russian consulate, Urmia

Faces, places & memories of the Assyrian people.