A Companion to Assyria

by Eckart Frahm

  Due to Assyria’s lack of natural boundaries, its rulers considered it desirable to establish a glacis around the Assyrian heartland, mainly against the inhabitants of the mountain regions that encircled Assyria from the northwest to the northeast (usually, these people put the assertiveness of a king to the test just after his accession to the throne). Expansion in the west held the promise of free access to resources, arable land, and trading routes. If nothing else, prestige was a strong stimulus to try to establish the border of the Assyrian state on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River. Tukulti‐Ninurta I was the first king to claim that he achieved this goal. But it was not until the reign of Tiglath‐pileser I that Assyrian armies crossed the Euphrates River and moved on to the Mediterranean Sea.

  In terms of power politics, it seems to have been likewise of fundamental importance to gain control over the Eastern Tigris region. That there are only rather sporadic and laconic references to this in royal inscriptions is not all that surprising if we consider the many setbacks the Assyrian military experienced there in the period under study. Defeats in battle were part of the day‐to‐day political life, but it was not appropriate to admit to them in the reports of royal deeds, which were addressed to posterity. Already in the 14th century BCE, efforts to rule the Eastern Tigris River region led to a conflict of interests with Babylonia. On several occasions during the time of Tukulti‐Ninurta I and Tiglath‐pileser I, Assyria succeeded in gaining an advantage and dominating its rival in the south, at least for a while. As soon as Assyrian pressure diminished, however, the Babylonians renewed their claim to districts east of the Tigris River, doing everything they could to prevail. In the end, a stalemate was reached. Neither Assyria nor Babylonia was able to vanquish its rival. They wore each other down and wasted resources that were, realistically, needed elsewhere. Only long after the Middle Assyrian period could Assyria regain its political power and, after incorporating the region east of the Lower Zab, Babylonia, and many other territories, evolve into a true empire.

  Abbreviations

  KAR=

  E. Ebeling, Keilschrifttexte aus Assur religiösen Inhalts, 2 volumes, Leipzig: 1915–23.

  MARV=

  H. Freydank et al., Mittelassyrische Rechtsurkunden und Verwaltungstexte, Berlin, Saarbrücken 1976–.

  RIMA=

  A. K. Grayson, The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia: Assyrian Periods, 3 volumes, Toronto: Toronto University Press 1987–96.

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  Further Reading

  A comprehensive up‐to‐date overview of the history of the Middle Assyrian period is currently not available; for short overviews see Cancik‐Kirschbaum 2003 and Postgate 2011. For a number of important recent articles on the political situation of the Middle Assyria state in the western part of the realm, see Düring 2015, for the situation in the eastern Tigris region and chronological problems of Middle Assyrian history, see Miglus and Mühl 2011. Brown 2013 provides a study of the structure of the Middle Assyrian state and how it eventually contributed to its decline (see also Cancik‐Kirschbaum 2014). Abraham 2001 deals with a number of economic and social aspects of Middle Assyrian history.

  CHAPTER 7

  Economy, Society, and Daily Life in the Middle Assyrian Period

  Stefan Jakob

  The Middle Assyrian State

  In the days of the Old Assyrian city‐state, the ruler’s power was limited by political bodies of various types, namely, the City Assembly and the City Hall (Dercksen 2004: 5ff.). A decisive change occurred when the Amorite Samsî‐Addu/Šamši‐Adad conquered the city of Ashur and made it a part of his Upper Mesopotamian Kingdom (Charpin and Durand 1997). This political entity did not last but left its mark. In the following period, there were attempts to return to ancient local traditions. A certain Puzur‐Sîn prided himself on having “destroyed the evil of Asinum, offspring of Šamši‐[Adad] … not of the flesh of [the city] Ashur” (RIMA 1, A.0.40.1001). Puzur‐Sîn was ignored by later tradition, especially the Assyrian King List (see, however, the discussion in Chapter 5). But the Middle Assyrian state was nonetheless characterized by features that were derived from both the traditional values Puzur‐Sîn had sought to promote and the proto‐imperial concept of an Upper Mesopotamian kingdom.

  The King

  The king as warrior

  Although traditional titles like “vice‐regent of the god Assur” (iššiak dAššur) or “overseer” (uklu) are attested in their royal inscriptions and decrees, the kings of the Middle Assyrian period had little in common with their Old Assyrian predecessors. There was no longer a City Assembly limiting the ruler’s power. The City Hall still survived, but served only as the place where standard weighing stones were kept (Faist 2010: 17).

  Along with the growth of their military power, Assyrian kings began to use an increasingly sophisticated system of royal titles. Aššur‐uballiṭ I (1353‐1318 BCE) was the first to call himself “king of the land of Ashur” (šar māt Aššur; RIMA 1, A.0.73.6). Several years later, his grandson Arik‐den‐ili (1307–1296 BCE) introduced the epithet “strong king” (šarru dannu; RIMA 1, A.0.75.1:2).

  Not surprisingly, this development accelerated during the 13th century BCE. Adad‐nirari I (1295–1264 BCE) already needed thirty‐two lines to present the list of his titles, including, inter alia, the general rubā’u ellu “holy prince,” šakanki ilāni “appointee of the gods,” as well as more specific titles such as nêr dapnūti ummān kaššî qutî lullumî u šubarî “defeater of the aggressive armies of the Kassites, Qutû Lullumu, and Šubaru” (see RIMA 1, A.0.76.1:1–4). Adad‐nirari introduces himself in this way in his building inscriptions, giving his genealogy, his individual achievements, and also, indirectly, the outlines of a political program: the supremacy over northern Mesopotamia, the fight against the enemies of the god Assur, especially against the Babylonians, and the extension of borders and boundaries.

  This development continued during the reign of Adad‐nirari’s son, Shalmaneser I (1263–1234 BCE), and reached its first peak after the accession of Tukulti‐Ninurta I (1233–1197 BCE). The royal inscriptions of his time illustrate how the epithets were highly dependent upon the current political situation (see Cifola 2004: 8). The description of Tukulti‐Ninurta’s military exploits from the first decade of his reign begins with a rather general epithet section (Streck 2007: 146f.). During the crisis years after the victory over the Kassite king Kaštiliaš IV, characterized by the fall of the puppet king Enlil‐nadin‐šumi, neither the Babylonian campaign nor the capture of his former adversary are mentioned. After regaining control over the south with the enthronement of Aš�
�ur‐šuma‐iddina, we observe an increase of royal titles again, especially in a building inscription on a stone tablet from the foundation deposit of the ziggurat in Kar‐Tukulti‐Ninurta (RIMA 1, A.0.78.23). Interestingly, there is another (very similar) inscription from a higher level of the same building (RIMA 1, A.0.78.24). It has, in addition, the epithets “king of the Land of Ashur and the Land of Karduniaš,” “king of Sumer and Akkad,” “king of Tilmun and Meluḫḫa,” and “king of the Upper and the Lower Seas,” besides “king of all people … ruler of rulers … king of kings” (see also IM 76787; Deller, Fadhil, and Ahmad 1994: 464ff.). Clearly, the first version was replaced by a second in order to bear witness to the glorious victories the king had achieved in the meantime.

  In Middle Assyrian royal inscriptions, only successful achievements were recorded, while defeats and other misfortunes were omitted or, at least, disguised. Therefore, the long period of decline after the assassination of Tukulti‐Ninurta in 1197 BCE remains widely undocumented in our sources.

  Another form in which Middle Assyrian kings celebrated their deeds in battle was the epic. The most impressive example is the “Tukulti‐Ninurta Epic” (written after the ruler’s victory over Kaštiliaš IV, most likely in the year 1220 BCE, see Foster 2005: 298ff.), but there are forerunners from the time of Adad‐nirari I (Brinkman 1976: 282).

  The king as priest

  The earliest evidence for the use of the title šangû, “priest,” by an Assyrian king comes from an inscription of Adad‐nirari I (RIMA 1, A.0.76.1:18), who called himself šangû ṣīru ša Enlil (“the exalted priest of the god Enlil”). The Middle Assyrian coronation ritual (which dates to a period no earlier than the foundation of the royal residence Kar‐Tukulti‐Ninurta around 1230 BCE) indicates that the king’s priestly functions were closely linked to the supreme god Assur: ina maḫar Aššur ilika šangûtka u šangûta ša mārēka lū ṭābat, “before Assur may your priesthood and the priesthood of your sons be pleasant!” (KAR 135 ii 10f.; Müller 1937: 12f.). Other sources emphasize as well the closeness of the Assyrian king to the god Assur and his role as the intermediary between god and mankind.