Aššur’s Newcomers: Evidence for the Maintenance of Population in Imperial Assyrian Capitals Through Resettlement Events

Assyrian urban centers in northern Mesopotamia experienced massive growth during the Neo-Assyrian period (950–612 BCE) of the Iron Age. Aššur was the original seat of the Assyrian empire, acting as the center of Assyria’s religion and culture even after the capital was shifted elsewhere in the ninth century BCE. During the height of the empire in the eighth and seventh centuries, the occupied area of Aššur expanded to almost double that of the preceding centuries. Historically, it is known that deported populations from across the empire were resettled in the Assyrian heartland, with Aššur being one of the most common destinations. That many of the newcomers to Aššur were foreign-born is indicated in the evidence from archival records of several houses in the Outer Town. Furthermore, nonlocal mortuary practices are present in these newly occupied areas more so than anywhere else in the city. I propose that the significant increase in urban density at Aššur—and the subsequent expansion and restructuring of its urban area—resulted from the purposeful resettlement strategies of the Assyrian kings in the first millennium BCE. Such sudden, enforced population increases radically changed the urban fabric of all central Assyrian urban centers, not just Aššur.

Content warning: Readers are advised that this article contains a photograph of human remains.