With its unique geographic diversity and abundant archaeological and textual data, the southern Levant is an excellent "laboratory" for studying how Assyrian domination operated. This collection of essays explains how Neo-Assyrian rule influenced the demographics, economy, and culture of the region.

A systematic study of Assyrian rule in the west that integrates archaeological and textual perspectives and reconsiders the "Assyrian Peace" paradigm has long been needed. Building on the unparalleled archaeological and textual information available from the Land of Israel and its surroundings, the studies in this book address various aspects of Assyrian rule, including life under Assyrian hegemony and the consequences of the Assyrian conquests. It includes a broad overview of the vast archaeological data from both the provinces and client kingdoms in the Land of Israel in the Assyrian period, as well as a systematic and chronological survey of Assyrian texts that mention the region or sites therein. The contributors employ widely divergent approaches to topics such as the description of Assyrian encroachment in biblical texts, the Judean experience of Assyrian control, the political structure of the Coastal Plain, and the architecture of hospitality, among others. Integrating various sources of information to reconstruct the demography, economy, architecture, and intellectual life of the southern Levant, the articles in this volume are important not only for the study of Assyrian rule but also for research on empires writ large.

In addition to the editors, the contributors to this volume include Amitai Baruchi-Unna, Yigal Bloch, Alexander Fantalkin, Wayne Horowitz, David Kertai, Lily Singer-Avitz, and Peter Zilberg.

About the Author

Shawn Zelig Aster is Senior Lecturer in the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology and the Department of Hebrew Bible at Bar-Ilan University.

Avraham Faust is Professor of Archaeology in the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology at Bar-Ilan University.

Reviews

"With regard to Assyrian involvement in the southern Levant, this volume provides both broad overviews of the data as well as in-depth studies on particular topics. Although each essay has its own merits, a strength of the book is the diversity of approaches employed in analyzing the various data in order to reconstruct Assyrian domination."

-Anthony P. SooHoo Orientalia

"With differing nuances and stressing the variability of policy across time and space, these studies confirm recent claims, programmatically expressed here by Faust, that only areas outside direct Assyrian control prospered in the southern Levant because Assyria's primary goal was resource extraction by manipulating the economy along the Levantine coast with minimum infrastructural investments."

-Thomas Renz Journal for the Study of the Old Testament

Book Information
ISBN 9781575067971
Author Shawn Zelig Aster
Format Hardback
Page Count 272
Imprint Eisenbrauns
Publisher Pennsylvania State University Press
Weight(grams) 748g
Dimensions(mm) 254mm * 178mm * 19mm