Landscape and Settlement in the Neo-Assyrian Empire

Abstract

Archaeological surveys and satellite images are used to provide insights into the structure and scale of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. When this empire attained its peak during the eighth and seventh centuries B.C., it resulted in a distinct imprint on the landscape which differs significantly from that of the Bronze Age. In the Neo-Assyrian period, capital cities attained unprecedented size, rural settlement patterns were predominantly dispersed, the scale and extent of visible route systems increased, and irrigation systems were constructed for the intensification of agriculture and for the irrigation of parks and gardens. Beyond the core region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, a distinct outer zone of the Assyrian landscape in the northwest Levant is also recognizable, in the form of tell-based settlements. This may reflect the persistence of earlier Bronze Age social organization. This paper demonstrates the contribution that landscape archaeology can make to an understanding of the development of empires, particularly when it is applied with the record derived from excavated sites and cuneiform texts.