The Geography of the Neo-Assyrian Empire

Following the concept of the series, but with more detailed commentaries, the work presents all the geographical names attested in non-literary, published Neo-Assyrian sources, with the corresponding attestations arranged first by spelling, then by reign and text genre. The first part of the commentary contains references to attestations in other historical periods and cuneiform, as well as West-Semitic languages. In the second part of the commentary, proposed identifications are critically treated with references to archaeological excavations, surveys, depictions on wall reliefs, and historical maps. Furthermore, the names are classified according to their linguistic affiliation and the corresponding etymologies are briefly commented on. Another important feature is that all the names of the known towns and villages in particular countries or provinces are listed, a further step in the detailed reconstruction of the imperial geography.

Leaving aside the difficulties resulting from managing an enormous amount of information, the time-consuming task of checking the attestations and the spellings with the cuneiform copies or photographs of the texts, and the equally time-consuming collecting and reading of the secondary literature, the historical geographer encounters many methodological problems. For instance, it is his task to distinguish if the same name corresponds to two different places, as the case of the land Bīt-Adini in North-Western Syria at the Upper Euphrates, and the homonymous land in Southern Babylonia. Another central point is to give a normalized form of the name according to its etymology, which conventionally encloses all the different spellings and can be quoted in the literature in a consequent way. Even as important is to follow a consistent convention to quote modern toponyms and to give their coordinates, in order that the reader can find them in a map.

The crucial point, after having collected all the references and information about a place, river or mountain, is to try to locate it. First, it must be located in relation with other names in the same region, second, and more difficult, identified with a modern place or region. This can be done only considering the information of the texts in relation with the archaeological data (if available) and with the physical geography. In many cases, no identification is possible. Some geographical names can be located certainly, while in most cases only proposals with different degrees of certitude, from certain to speculative, can be offer. In this last case, it is very important, that the difference between “certain or highly probable” and “probable or conjectural” is clearly shown in a map, for instance with a full and hollow dots. A common trap for scholars is to propose identifications based only in the similarity between a Neo-Assyrian and a later (Latin, Greek, Medieval, Islamic) or modern toponyms. If no continuity can be proved, and both names are separated by centuries or even millennia, no plausible identification can be guaranteed.

The historical geography of the Neo-Assyrian period is a fascinating field of research. The Assyrian kings claimed to rule over the world. A century after the pioneering work of Emil Forrer, this world is now available as a reference work for future research. Now the ball is on the field for the next generation of Assyriologists, archaeologists, and Biblical scholars.