Though the Neo-Assyrian Empire has largely been conceived of as the main actor in relations between its core and periphery, recent work on the empire’s peripheries has encouraged archaeologists and historians to consider dynamic models of interaction between Assyria and the polities surrounding it. Imperial Peripheries in the Neo-Assyrian Period focuses on the variability of imperial strategies and local responses to Assyrian power across time and space.
An international team of archaeologists and historians draws upon both new and existing evidence from excavations, surveys, texts, and material culture to highlight the strategies that the Neo-Assyrian Empire applied to manage its diverse and widespread empire as well as the mixed reception of those strategies by subjects close to and far from the center. Case studies from around the ancient Near East illustrate a remarkable variety of responses to Assyrian aggression, economic policies, and cultural influences. As a whole, the volume demonstrates both the destructive and constructive roles of empire, including unintended effects of imperialism on socioeconomic and cultural change.
Imperial Peripheries in the Neo-Assyrian Period aligns with the recent movement in imperial studies to replace global, top-down materialist models with theories of contingency, local agency, and bottom-up processes. Such approaches bring to the foreground the reality that the development and lifecycles of empires in general, and the Neo-Assyrian Empire in particular, cannot be completely explained by the activities of the core. The book will be welcomed by archaeologists of the Ancient Near East, Assyriologists, and scholars concerned with empires and imperial power in history.
Contributors: Stephanie H. Brown, Anna Cannavò, Megan Cifarelli, Erin Darby, Bleda S. Düring, Avraham Faust, Guido Guarducci, Bradley J. Parker
Author(s): Craig W. Tyson; Virginia R. Herrmann
Publisher: University Press of Colorado
Year: 2019
Language: English
Pages: xxii+298
Imperial Peripheries in the Neo-Assyrian Period
Contents
List of Illustrations
List of Tables
Preface and Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Chronology of the Ancient Near East
Map—Expansion of the Neo-Assyrian Empire
1 Introduction: The Construction of the Imperial Periphery in Neo-Assyrian Studies
INTRODUCTION TO THE NEO-ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
THE ASSYRIAN HEARTLAND
MAJOR COMPETITOR STATES
NEO-ASSYRIAN IMPERIAL SUBJECTS AND PRACTICE
THE PERIPHERY IN NEO-ASSYRIAN STUDIES
Rediscovery of Ancient Assyria in an Age of Empire
Neo-Assyrian Studies in the Postcolonial Period
The Influence of World-Systems Theory
RECENT RESPONSES AND ALTERNATIVES TO WORLD-SYSTEMS THEORY
Pre-Modern Economic Systems
Time and Process
Peripheral Agency
THE PERSPECTIVES OF THIS BOOK
NOTES
WORKS CITED
2 At the Root of the Matter: The Middle Assyrian Prelude to Empire
CONCEPTUALIZING THE MIDDLE TO NEO-ASSYRIAN TRANSITION
COMPARING REPERTOIRES OF RULE IN THE MIDDLE AND NEO-ASSYRIAN PERIODS
DEALING WITH DIVERSITY
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
NOTES
WORKS CITED
3 Empire of Conflict, Empire of Compromise: The Middle and Neo-Assyrian Landscape and Interaction with the Local Communities of the Upper Tigris Borderland
SPHERES AND DYNAMICS OF INTERACTION
Warfare
Commodities
Symbolic Landscape
Agriculture
Material Culture
Indigenous Grooved Pottery and Other Types
Local or Imported Neo-Assyrian Pottery
Local Neo-Assyrian-Style Pottery
THE UPPER TIGRIS BORDERLAND SOCIOECONOMIC LANDSCAPES
The Middle Assyrian Period
The Neo-Assyrian Period
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
NOTES
WORKS CITED
4 The Southern Levant under the Neo-Assyrian Empire: A Comparative Perspective
THE SOUTHERN LEVANT IN THE SEVENTH CENTURY BCE: SETTLEMENT AND DEMOGRAPHY
Client Kingdoms in the South
Philistine Cities in the Southern Coastal Plain
The Kingdom of Judah
The Provinces
Territories of the Former Kingdom of Israel
Northern Coastal Plain (Phoenicia)
Transjordan
Discussion
THE SOUTHERN LEVANT IN THE SEVENTH CENTURY BCE: ECONOMY
Economy in the Client Kingdoms in the South
Economy in the Provinces
Assyria and Economic Prosperity: The Olive Oil Industry as a Temporal-Spatial Test Case
International Trade and Assyria: East Greek Pottery in the Provinces and Vassal Kingdoms
DISCUSSION: ASSYRIAN POLICY IN THE WEST
TEXTUAL EVIDENCE FOR ASSYRIAN INVESTMENT?
CONCLUSION
NOTES
WORKS CITED
5 Reaction, Reliance, Resistance? Judean Pillar Figurines in the Neo-Assyrian Levant
FIGURINES ACROSS THE EMPIRE
MAGICO-MEDICAL TRADITIONS ACROSS THE EMPIRE
MAGICO-MEDICAL RITUALS IN JUDAH
CONCLUSION
NOTES
WORKS CITED
6 Dining under Assyrian Rule: Foodways in Iron Age Edom
EDOM IN THE IRON AGE
ENTANGLEMENT, TASTE, AND FOODWAYS
BUSAYRA
CERAMIC EVIDENCE FROM SOUTHWEST JORDAN AND THE NEGEV
NEW CERAMIC EVIDENCE FROM BUSAYRA
CONCLUSION
NOTES
WORKS CITED
7 Peripheral Elite as Imperial Collaborators
EMPIRES AND IMPERIAL PRACTICE
NEO-ASSYRIAN AND NEO-BABYLONIAN IMPERIAL PRACTICE
THE AMMONITES IN IRON AGE I–EARLY IRON AGE IIB
PERIPHERAL ELITE AS IMPERIAL COLLABORATORS
Settlement Intensity and Complexity
Economic Changes
Sociopolitical Complexity
Elite Appropriations of Symbols of Status, Power, and Authority
Consumption of Luxury Goods
King and Administration
Religious Changes
Scale of Change
CONCLUSION
NOTES
WORKS CITED
8 East of Assyria? Hasanlu and the Problem of Assyrianization
ASSYRIAN MATERIAL CULTURE AT HASANLU: A MYTHOLOGY OF ABUNDANCE AND MEANING
ASSYRIANIZING OBJECTS AT HASANLU: EMULATION OR SHARED HERITAGE?
CONCLUSION
NOTES
WORKS CITED
9 In the Middle of the Sea of the Setting Sun: The Neo-Assyrian Empire and Cyprus—Economic and Political Perspectives
THE GREAT KING AND HIS VASSALS: THE EMPIRE FACING IADNANA
CYPRIOT KINGS AND THE ASSYRIAN MARKET: POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS OF ECONOMIC STRATEGIES
CYPRIOT QARTHADASHT: THE HISTORY OF A NEW KINGDOM
KISSING THE FEET OF THE GREAT KING: CONCLUDING REMARKS ON IDEOLOGY
NOTES
ABBREVIATIONS
WORKS CITED
10 Neo-Pericentrics
PERICENTICS
PATHWAYS TO POWER
Issue 1: A Definition of “Control”
Issue 2: What an Empire Aspires to Control
Issue 3: Measuring Imperial Control
IMPERIAL RELATIONSHIPS
THE PATHWAYS AND RELATIONSHIPS OF PERICENTRICS
NEO-PERICENTRICS
NOTES
WORKS CITED
About the Contributors
Index
