Abstract This study examines the policies and practices of population displacement during the Middle Assyrian period (ca. 1500–1000 BCE), a phase preceding the well-documented Neo-Assyrian deportations. Drawing on royal inscriptions, chronicles, and especially administrative documents, it reconstructs the nature, scale, and management of displaced groups under successive Assyrian kings. The analysis highlights that although less ideologically formalized than in later centuries, deportation during the Middle Assyrian period was already a key instrument of statecraft. Four principal categories of displaced persons are identified: fugitives, prisoners of war, deportees, and hostages. Special attention is given to the reign of Tukultī-Ninurta I, for which the richest administrative records survive. These sources reveal the large-scale and systematic relocation of diverse ethnic groups, their integration into labor systems (notably agriculture and construction), and their provisioning and surveillance by the state. The emergence of practices like godnapping and symbolic titulary underscores the ideological dimension of deportation. Furthermore, the paper demonstrates how deportation contributed to the territorial consolidation of the empire and the functioning of its economy. It concludes that the Middle Assyrian deportation system formed a foundational stage in the evolution of Assyrian imperial policies of population control.
Abstract The life of Balmunamḫe, son of Sîn-nūr-mātim, has been the subject of a century-long research that began in the 1910s with the first editions of Old Babylonian cuneiform texts from Larsa (modern Tell Senkereh), and which continues to this day due to the discovery and publication of new texts (legal and administrative documents, royal, business and private letters). After a brief overview of the research history, the article focuses on a group of 10 recently published or reedited letters from the State Hermitage Museum (DV-15058, 15059, 15230, 15233), the Yale Babylonian Collection (YBC 7566, NBC 7348, 8696), the Princeton Theological Seminary (PTS 256) and the M. Schøyen Collection (MS 3642, 3771). Eight of the letters shed new light on the multifaceted role of Balmunamḫe as a high-ranking official and manager of the economic institution “the House”; two other letters offer insight into the life of Balmunamḫe’s relatives (Ṣillī-Šamaš, Gimillum and Balmunamḫe II). The article ends with an appendix that provides a revised version of Balmunamḫe’s family tree.
The most recently published letters from the House of Urt & emacr;nu (Lackenbacher and Malbran-Labat 2016 = RSO 23) revealed a hitherto unknown battle between the Hittite army and Sutean tribes. It took place near Tuttul (modern Tell Bi'a), in the eastern periphery of the Hittite empire, a few decades before the end of the Late Bronze Age (LBA). The aim of this confrontation was to expel the Suteans from the Hittite borders. To accomplish this, several Syrian vassal kingdoms were commanded to send troops and chariots to the Hittite overlord, King Niqmaddu III of Ugarit being one of them (Cohen and Torrecilla 2022. "The Campaign against the Suteans and the Project in The Land of Muki & scaron;: A Consideration of Letters RSO 23 28-36, and 39 from the House of Urt & emacr;nu in Ugarit." IOSA 21: 29-49). Since the only version that we have is that of the Hittites, this paper investigates the context of the Tuttul showdown from the point of view of the Suteans, in order to understand the circumstances that led to the confrontation. With this purpose, near-contemporary texts from sites such as Emar or the Assyrian sites of D & umacr;r-Katlimmu, Harbe, or Tell Sabi Abyad mentioning Suteans and other semi-nomadic tribes such as the Ahlam & ucirc; are brought forth. The aim is discerning whether the battle was preceded by a situation of instability in or near the land of S & umacr;hu which might have caused a number of Sutean tribes to be displaced from their lands of origin. Incidentally, a conflict between Assyria and the land of S & umacr;hu - an ally of Babylonia - may have occurred not long before the battle of Tuttul, which may have also been roughly coeval with the Assyro-Babylonian conflict in which Tukult & imacr;-Ninurta I had Ka & scaron;tilia & scaron;u IV deposed.
This contribution aims to analyze the population movements that took place in the transition from the Middle to the Late Bronze Age, in northern Mesopotamia and the surrounding areas. This is mainly done through the study of the cuneiform sources from Tikunani, the vast majority of which are still unpublished. Through them, the general political situation in the Upper Tigris, the possible conflict scenarios, as well as the impact on the population of the area are evaluated. The role of 'abir & umacr; populations in this context is assessed as well.
In 676 bc, the Assyrian king Esarhaddon led an army across 1320 km of brutal desert to conquer a "forgotten" land called B & amacr;zu. This study follows his route across the Arabian Desert to discover B & amacr;zu in South Arabia (Yemen). Esarhaddon's ten recorded conquests in B & amacr;zu support this identification. With one exception, they correspond to the principal polities of ancient South Arabia, whereas the final toponym belongs instead to the Horn of Africa, on the far side of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. This vital crossing point between continents then provides the enigmatic starting point of the Sargon Geography, "the bridge of Baza [B & amacr;zu] at the border of the road to the Land of Meluhha [Kush]." This account of a back road into Kush (circumventing their extensive northern defenses) may have motivated Esarhaddon's difficult B & amacr;zu campaign, which was undertaken only two years before the first of his three known attempts to invade from the north. His final conquest before crossing the strait was the power controlling the South Arabian coast, Puda' or Pudan, Ptolemy's Pudn. This kingdom's location, on Wadi Zabid near the coast, coincides precisely with archaeological remains of what appears to have been the wealthiest trading power on the Red Sea coast. This, it will be argued, was the mysterious land to which the Egyptians sent much-celebrated maritime expeditions for sacred myrrh, the Land of Punt.
