A Companion to Assyria

by Eckart Frahm

  Zadok, R. 1998. “More Assyrians in Babylonian Sources,” NABU 1998/55.

  Zaia, S. 2015. “State‐Sponsored Sacrilege: ‘Godnapping’ and Omission in Neo‐Assyrian Royal Inscriptions,” Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History 2, 19–54.

  Zauzich, K.‐T. 2010. “Serpot und Semiramis,” in: J. Fincke (ed.), Festschrift für Gernot Wilhelm anläßlich seines 65. Geburtstages am 28. Januar 2010, Dresden: ISLET, 447–65.

  Zawadzki, S. 1988. The Fall of Assyria and Median‐Babylonian Relations in Light of the Nabopolassar Chronicle, Poznan/Delft: Adam Mickiewicz University Press Eburon.

  Further Reading

  Comprehensive bibliographies of Neo‐Assyrian studies from 1948–2006 are provided by Hämeen‐Anttila 1987, Deller 1988, Mattila and Radner 1997, Luukko and Gaspa 2008, and Gaspa 2011–12. For an electronic bibliography, see H. D. Baker and M. Groß, https://www.zotero.org/groups/neo‐assyrian_bibliography (accessed 03/15/2016).

  Most of the primary sources pertaining to Neo‐Assyrian history are available in up‐to‐date editions. Many royal inscriptions are published in the series Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia: Assyrian Periods = RIMA, vols. 2 and 3 (Toronto, ed. A. K. Grayson) and Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia: Neo‐Assyrian Period = RINAP, vols. 1–4 (Winona Lake, ed. G. Frame). For additional texts and more discussion, see, inter alia, Fuchs 1994, Borger 1996, Frahm 1997, and id., Keilschrifttexte aus Assur literarischen Inhalts (= KAL), vol. 3. Letters to Neo‐Assyrian kings, treaties and loyalty oaths, literary and religious texts in Neo‐Assyrian language, Neo‐Assyrian prophecies, astronomical reports, grants and decrees, as well as legal and administrative texts are edited in the series State Archives of Assyria = SAA (Helsinki, ed. S. Parpola), a key resource for anyone working on the Neo‐Assyrian period. The five volumes of the series Cuneiform Texts from Nimrud (= CTN, London) provide copies and editions of Neo‐Assyrian texts from Kalḫu. Both RINAP and SAA are also available online on the Oracc website established by S. Tinney (http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap and http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao). Photos of numerous tablets from Assurbanipal’s library housed in the British Museum are found at http://cdli.ucla.edu/collections/bm/bm.html.

  For an introduction to the Assyrian “State Archives” and their potential as a historical source, see Fales 2001. The series State Archives of Assyria Studies = SAAS (Helsinki, ed. S. Parpola) provides valuable analyses of various political, social, economic, and cultural aspects of Neo‐Assyrian history. A substantial number of recent volumes of the series Wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichungen der Deutschen Orient‐Gesellschaft (Wiesbaden, various editors) and Berichte der Ausgrabung Tall Šēḫ Ḥamad/Dūr‐Katlimmu (Berlin, ed. H. Kühne) provide important new materials and studies related to the cities Ashur and Dur‐Katlimmu during the Neo‐Assyrian period. The Prosopography of the Neo‐Assyrian Empire = PNA (Helsinki, ed. K. Radner and H. Baker) serves as a “Who is Who” of Neo‐Assyrian times. Parpola and Porter 2001 includes a series of maps related to the empire. Essays on various topics concerning Assyria are found in Parpola and Whiting 1997 and Maul and Heeßel 2010. The web site “Assyrian empire builders,” established by K. Radner at http://www.ucl.ac.uk/sargon/, provides access to important resources for the reigns of Tiglath‐pileser III and Sargon II and useful materials for undergraduate courses on the Assyrian empire.

  Among the hundreds of important studies of specific aspects of Neo‐Assyrian history and culture, only a few can be singled out here. The selection is necessarily subjective, and certain areas, for example Neo‐Assyrian art and architecture, are not considered. On political and military history: Grayson 1982, Grayson 1991a–c, Frame 1992, Mayer 1995, Bagg 2011, and Radner 2014; historical geography: Liverani 1995; warfare: Fuchs 2005 and Fales 2010a; intelligence gathering: Dubovský 2006a and Frahm 2010; royal ideology: Maul 1999; the provincial system: Radner 2006–08; social and economic structure of the empire: Postgate 1985 and Radner 1997; religion: Menzel 1981, Maul 2000, and Meinhold 2009; literature, scholarship, and intellectual life: Parpola 1983, Frahm 1999a, D. Brown 2000, Fincke 2003/04, Frame and George 2005, Maul 2010, and the web site http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/cams/gkab/established by E. Robson; law: Jas 1996 and Radner 2003b; royal women: Svärd 2015; hydraulic engineering: Bagg 2000; the Neo‐Assyrian language: Hämeen‐Anttila 2000; Assyrian views of Assyria: Machinist 1993. Various aspects of Assyria’s “legacy” have been explored by the Helsinki Melammu project (bibliography and database at http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/). Studies on the rediscovery of Assyria in the nineteenth century and the history of modern scholarship on the Neo‐Assyrian period include Larsen 1996 and Holloway 2006.

  Notes

  1 This chapter is to a significant extent identical with an article on Neo‐Assyrian history written by me for the forthcoming Handbook of Ancient Mesopotamia, edited by Gonzalo Rubio. I am grateful to Rubio for giving me permission to reuse it here. The chapter in the present volume was originally assigned to another author, who proved unable to complete it, forcing me to step in at short notice.

  2 For remarks on “Assyrian uniforms,” see Postgate 2001.

  3 Royal inscriptions related to Aššur‐dan II: RIMA 2: 131–41. References to the king: PNA 1/I: 178–9 (K. Akerman). Historical sketch of his reign: Grayson 1982: 248–9.

  4 Royal inscriptions related to Adad‐nirari II: RIMA 2: 142–2; KAL 3: 43–9. References to the king: PNA 1/I: 30–1 (K. Radner). Historical sketch of his reign: Grayson 1982: 249–51.

  5 Royal inscriptions related to Tukulti‐Ninurta II: RIMA 2: 163–88; KAL 3: 49–56; Tournay 1998; Ahmad 2000. References to the king: PNA 3/II: 1332–3 (H. D. Baker). Historical sketches of his reign: Grayson 1982: 251–3; RlA 14: 178–9 (E. Frahm).

  6 Royal inscriptions related to Aššurnaṣirpal II: RIMA 2: 189–393; KAL 3: 57–61. References to the king: PNA 1/I: 205–7 (S. Fischer). Historical sketch of his reign: Grayson 1982: 253–9. Military campaigns and geopolitical horizon under Aššurnaṣirpal: Liverani 1992. The exact chronology of some of the campaigns is still debated.

  7 Royal and other inscriptions related to Shalmaneser III: RIMA 3: 5–179; KAL 3: 62–8; Frahm 2015a. References to the king: PNA 3/I: 1072–6 (H. D. Baker/S. Yamada). Historical sketches of his reign: Grayson 1982: 259–69; RlA 11: 581–5 (H. D. Baker). Campaigns to the west: Yamada 2000.

  8 Royal and other inscriptions related to Šamši‐Adad V: RIMA 3: 180–99. References to the king: PNA 3/II: 1225 (H. D. Baker). Historical sketches of his reign: Grayson 1982: 269–71; RlA 11: 636–8 (H. D. Baker).

  9 Royal and other inscriptions related to Adad‐nirari III: RIMA 3: 20–38; KAL 3: 69–70, 154–6(?); Radner 2012 = Siddall 2013: 193–7. References to the king: PNA 1/I: 31–4 (B. Oded and J. Brinkman). Historical sketches of his reign: Grayson 1982: 271–6; Siddall 2013.

  10 Royal and other inscriptions related to Shalmaneser IV: RIMA 3: 239–44. References to the king: PNA 3/I: 1076–7 (K. Radner). Historical sketches of his reign: Grayson 1982: 276–9; RlA 11: 585 (H. D. Baker).

  11 References to the king: PNA 3/I: 1076–7 (A. Fuchs, K. Radner, J. A. Brinkman); historical sketch of his reign: Grayson 1982: 278.

  12 There has been some discussion on whether Tiglath‐pileser III really was a son of Adad‐nirari III, and his alleged previous service as governor of Kalḫu is even more debated; for discussions of the relevant sources, see PNA 3/II: 1329 and Siddall 2013: 125–7.

  13 For other references to the king see PNA 3/II: 1329–31 (H. D. Baker). Historical sketches of his reign: Grayson 1991a: 71–85 and Yamada, RINAP 1: 1–2, 12–14; see also the “Supplementary Studies” in Tadmor 1994.

  14 References to the king: PNA 3/I: 1077 (H. D. Baker). Historical sketches of his reign: Grayson 1991a: 85–6; RlA 11: 585–87 (H. D. Baker); RINAP 1: 2, 14 (S. Yamada).

  15 A comprehensive edition of Sargon’s royal inscriptions by G. Frame in the RINAP series is in an advanced stage of preparation; for an overview, see RlA 12: 52 (A. Fuchs). Many of
the most important inscriptions are edited in Fuchs 1994 and Fuchs 1998; for recently discovered new texts, see KAL 3: 71–6, Frame 2009, Frahm 2013, and Lauinger 2015. References to the king: PNA 3/2: 1239–47 (Fuchs); historical sketches of his reign: Grayson 1991a: 86–102; RlA 12: 51–61 (Fuchs) (which should be consulted for references to the sources on which the following discussion of Sargon’s reign is based), and Melville 2016. See also Younger 2002 and, especially for the letters from Sargon’s reign (mostly published in SAA 1, 5, and 15), the “Assyrian empire builders” web site created by K. Radner at http://www.ucl.ac.uk/sargon/.

  16 Sources related to Sennacherib: Royal inscriptions: RINAP 3/1 and 3/2 (see also Luckenbill 1924, Frahm 1997, Frahm 2003, KAL 3: 84–6, and the overview in RlA 12: 15–16 (Frahm)). For a list of letters that may date to Sennacherib’s reign (they mostly deal with the situation in Babylonia during his first years), see Dietrich SAA 17: XXXVI–XXXVII, but note that some of these letters may actually belong to the reign of Sargon. References to the king: PNA 3/I: 1113–27 (Frahm). Historical sketches of his reign: Grayson 1991b: 103–22; Frahm 1997: 1–20; Frahm, RlA 12: 12–22; Grayson and Novotny, RINAP 3/1: 9–27, RINAP 3/2: 1–30. Frahm 2014 offers some “psychohistorical” reflections on Sennacherib and his times.

  17 Earlier, Dalley had suggested that Atalia was Sennacherib’s mother, but by 2008, it had become clear that this was very unlikely. In fact, as recently established by Elnathan Weissert and the present author, Sennacherib’s mother was most likely a woman named Ra’imâ (see Frahm 2014: 179–80).

  18 Sources related to Esarhaddon: Royal inscriptions: RINAP 4 (see also Borger 1956). Oracle queries: SAA 4. Most of the letters from Esarhaddon’s reign are edited in SAA 10, SAA 13, SAA 16, and SAA 18. References to the king: PNA 1/I: 146–52 (B. N. Porter and K. Radner). Historical sketch of his reign: Grayson 1991b: 122–41. For Esarhaddon’s Babylonian politics, see Frame 1992: 64–101 and Porter 1993.

  19 Sources related to Assurbanipal: Most of the royal inscriptions from his reign are edited in Streck 1916 and Borger 1996. Only portions of the correspondence from the king’s reign are available in modern editions, including SAA 10, SAA 13, and SAA 18. References to Assurbanipal: PNA 1/I: 159–71 (E. Weissert et al.). Historical sketches of his reign: Grayson 1991c and Arnaud 2007. For Assurbanipal’s Babylonian politics, see Frame 1992: 102–213.

  20 The campaign is mentioned, inter alia, in two Late Babylonian copies of a letter sent by Šamaš‐šumu‐ukin to Assurbanipal; they are currently being prepared for publication by the present writer.

  21 This date and the chronology of the following years remain debated among scholars. The problem is that the data recorded in the available sources cannot be entirely reconciled. The chronology used in this article follows Fuchs 2014 and is primarily based on archival documents. For other reconstructions, see the bibliographies in H. Schaudig’s entries on Sîn‐šarru‐iškun and Sîn‐šumu‐lišir in RlA 12: 522–5.

  22 For references to Sîn‐šumu‐lišir, see PNA 3/I: 1148 (R. Mattila); for a historical sketch, RlA 12: 524–5 (H. Schaudig). Some scholars (e.g., Da Riva 2001) date Sîn‐šumu‐lišir’s reign to 626 and not 627. Note that Sîn‐šumu‐lišir’s family background remains unknown and that it cannot be entirely excluded that he too was a member of the royal family.

  23 Note that the identification between Kainai and Ashur, cautiously defended by Hauser (2011: 126), remains uncertain.

  24 Similarly, the fall of the state of Akkad was blamed in later tradition on the great Akkad ruler Naram‐Sîn – even though that king had likewise a number of (less impressive) successors.

  CHAPTER 9

  Economy, Society, and Daily Life in the Neo‐Assyrian Period

  Karen Radner

  The Assyrian empire exercised its influence over an enormous number of people all over the Middle East, from Egypt to Iran, both inside and outside of the regions under direct control of provincial governors. When surveying the economy and society of the Neo‐Assyrian period, we must therefore first appreciate the constitutive force of one of the empire’s key strategies for achieving and maintaining control and cohesion: the large‐scale practice of deportation that profoundly transformed the entire region’s society and economy. We will then juxtapose the situation in the Assyrian heartland with that of the provinces and focus on the Nineveh region before turning our attention to the pastoralists operating within the empire. The chapter concludes with biographical sketches of a number of individuals who lived within the Neo‐Assyrian empire in order to highlight specific social and economic circumstances as well as certain aspects of daily life.

  The Crucible of Mass Deportation

  While deportation is well‐attested since the third millennium BCE, the Assyrian empire perfected the practice from the beginning of the “Reconquista” of the lost Assyrian territories in the west in the 10th century BCE onwards into an increasingly complex resettlement scheme that was implemented both inside and outside the regions under direct Assyrian control, not only in recently‐submitted enemy counties (Oded 1979). Orchestrated by the central administration, population groups were systematically resettled in order to make the most of the resources of the entire empire while protecting the state by reducing the possibility of local rebellions fueled by patriotic resentment. The high degree of social, cultural, and economic homogeneity that characterizes the Neo‐Assyrian period, despite the great climatic and geographical differences of the region (see Chapter 1), was the result of the deportations and became the most lasting legacy of the Assyrian empire.

  Growing from the traditional practice of integrating conquered armies and populations into the native territory, the blueprint for these carefully‐planned migrations was developed in the ninth century BCE. Deportations gained momentum in the second half of the eighth century BCE with the massive expansion of the Assyrian state, which necessitated the integration of an area that exceeded the mother country in size. Organizing and implementing these population movements were among the most important tasks of the state and provincial administrators. In the course of the following centuries, more than 1.5 million individuals (following the conservative estimate of Oded 1979: 20) were relocated, either by simply transferring them from one region to another or by moving them in more complex patterns.

  The imperial resettlement strategy is a frequent topic in the royal inscriptions, employing either a vocabulary of violence and pillage, fitting for the context of war, or the language of horticulture, which likens the deportees to precious trees that are uprooted and replanted in the best possible circumstances by that most conscientious of gardeners, the king of Assyria (Radner 2000). Just as a gardener transfers valuable plants to a nurturing new environment that the plants, in turn, would enhance, a key objective in the Assyrian resettlement strategy was to advance the agricultural infrastructure of the empire. The Assyrian heartland was a land of farmers and provided the template for the growing empire. The deportees were employed in the imperial mission to turn underdeveloped lands into fields and farms (cf. Kühne 2010: 120–6). Their task was to introduce new or hitherto‐neglected cultivation techniques into all of the Assyrian provinces, including artificial irrigation, beekeeping, and the cultivation and processing of flax, fruit, wine, and olive oil. The beneficial effects of the Assyrian state on local economies are best understood in what is today Israel and in the Khabur Valley in northeastern Syria, where the intensive archaeological exploration of the past decades has brought to light the enormous economic transformation under Assyrian rule; obvious examples are the establishment of an olive oil industry at Ekron in the province of Ashdod (Gitin 1997; James 2006) and the creation of a canal system as a means of irrigation and transportation to support and enhance the Khabur River (Pucci 2010: 168).

  The Assyrian state valued the deportees, their labor, and their abilities highly, and, therefore, their relocation was carefully planned and organized. We should not imagine treks of destitute fugitives that were easy prey for f
amine and disease; the deportees were meant to travel as comfortably and safely as possible in order to reach their destination in good physical shape. In Assyrian imperial art, deportees are shown as traveling in groups of men, women, and children, often riding on vehicles or animals, and never in bonds (Figure 9.1).

  Figure 9.1 A family of deportees leaving a captured Babylonian city on an ox‐cart: a man (boy?) and two women, one carrying a bag with her possessions. Detail from the wall decoration of Tiglath‐pileser III’s Central Palace in Kalḫu, later reused in Esarhaddon's Southwest Palace. British Museum, ANE 118882.

  Source: by Karen Radner. Reproduced with permission of the Trustees of the British Museum.

  There is no inherent reason to doubt these depictions since Assyrian narrative art does not otherwise shy away from the graphic display of extreme violence and contemporary text sources support the notion that the deportees were treated well, e.g. in a letter of an Assyrian official to his king, Tiglath‐pileser III (r. 745–727 BCE):

  As for the Aramaeans about whom the king my lord wrote to me: “Prepare them for their journey!” I will give them their (travel) provisions, sackcloth, leather bags, sandals, and oil. My donkeys are not available, but if my donkeys were available, I would offer my carts too for the journey.

  (SAA 19 17)

  That the state continued to support the deportees once they had reached their destination is clear from another letter by the same author:

  As to the Aramaeans about whom the king said: “They should be made to marry wives!” I have seen women in great numbers (there) but their fathers refuse to give them, saying: “Not until they give money to us.” Let money be given to them (the Aramaeans) so they can marry.

  (SAA 19 18)