A Companion to Assyria is a collection of original essays on ancient Assyria written by key international scholars. These new scholarly contributions have substantially reshaped contemporary understanding of society and life in this ancient civilization.

The only detailed up-to-date introduction providing a scholarly overview of ancient Assyria in English within the last fifty yearsOriginal essays written and edited by a team of respected Assyriology scholars from around the worldAn in-depth exploration of Assyrian society and life, including the latest thought on cities, art, religion, literature, economy, and technology, and political and military history

Eckart Frahm is Professor of Assyriology at Yale University, USA. His primary scholarly interest is the political and intellectual history of Assyria and Babylonia during the first millennium BCE. Frahm is the author of five books:Einleitung in die Sanherib-Inschriften (1997),Historische und historisch-literarische Texte aus Assur(2009),Neo-Babylonian Letters and Contracts from the Eanna Archive (co-authored with Michael Jursa, 2011),Babylonian and Assyrian Text Commentaries: Origins of Interpretation (2011), andGeschichte des alten Mesopotamien (2013). Together with Enrique Jiménez and Mary Frazer, he is currently working on a project to publish a large number of Mesopotamian commentaries both in print and online.

Notes on Contributors viii

Acknowledgments xiii

Introduction 1Eckart Frahm

Part I Geography and History 11

1 Physical and Cultural Landscapes of Assyria 13Jason Ur

2 Assyria in the Third Millennium bce 36Lauren Ristvet

3 The Old Assyrian Period (20th18th Century bce) 57Klaas R. Veenhof

4 Economy, Society, and Daily Life in the Old Assyrian Period 80Cécile Michel

5 The Transition Period (17th to 15th Century bce) 108Shigeo Yamada

6 The Middle Assyrian Period (14th to 11th Century bce) 117Stefan Jakob

7 Economy, Society, and Daily Life in the Middle Assyrian Period 143Stefan Jakob

8 The Neo?-Assyrian Period (ca. 1000609 bce) 161Eckart Frahm

9 Economy, Society, and Daily Life in the Neo?-Assyrian Period 209Karen Radner

10 Post?-Imperial Assyria 229Stefan R. Hauser

Part II The Fringes of Empire: Assyria and its Neighbors 247

11 Assyria and the North: Anatolia 249Andreas Fuchs

12 Assyria and the East: Western Iran and Elam 259Andreas Fuchs

13 Assyria and the West: Syria and the Levant 268Ariel M. Bagg

14 Assyria and the Far West: The Aegean World 275Robert Rollinger

15 Assyria and the South: Babylonia 286Eckart Frahm

16 Assyria and the Far South: The Arabian Peninsula and the Persian Gulf 299Eckart Frahm

Part III Elements of Assyrian Civilization 311

17 Languages and Writing Systems in Assyria 313Mikko Luukko and Greta Van Buylaere

18 Assyrian Religion 336Stefan M. Maul

19 Assyrian Literature 359Alasdair Livingstone

20 Assyrian Scholarship and Scribal Culture in Ashur 368Nils P. Heeßel

21 Assyrian Scholarship and Scribal Culture in Kalhu and Nineveh 378Jeanette C. Fincke

22 Assyrian Legal Traditions 398Frederick Mario Fales

23 Assyrian Cities and Architecture 423John M. Russell

24 Assyrian Art 453John M. Russell

25 Assyrian Technology 511Ariel M. Bagg

26 Assyrian Warfare 522Stephanie Dalley

27 Thoughts on the Assyrian Empire and Assyrian Kingship 534Mario Liverani

Part IV The Afterlife and Rediscovery of Assyria 547

28 Assyria in Late Babylonian Sources 549Paul?]Alain Beaulieu

29 Assyria in the Hebrew Bible 556Eckart Frahm

30 Assyria in Classical Sources 570Robert Rollinger

31 The Archaeological Exploration of Assyria 583Mogens Trolle Larsen

32 Assyrian Christians 599Aaron Michael Butts

List of Assyrian Kings 613Eckart Frahm

Index 617