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(I sent this to nettime when I started thinking about the history of the region; I have a number of texts and books from the late Armand Schwerner, who worked with the material. I've also been interested in semitic languages and the history of the early Mid-East. Anyway nettime refused to present this, calling it 'bog-standard' and implying the whole area was like this. I beg to disagree; in any case, here might be something to consider, or it might be something that's a dead-end.) The Assyrians publicized their atrocities in reports and illustrations for propaganda purposes. In the tenth and ninth centuries BCE, official inscriptions told of cruelty to those captured. Most were killed or blinded; others were impaled on stakes around city walls as a warning. The bodies were mutilated; heads, hands, and even lower lips were cut off so that counting the dead would be easier. These horrifying illustrations, texts, and reliefs were designed to frighten the population into submission. [...] When surrounding the capital city and shouting to the people inside failed, the Assyrians' next tactic was to select one or more small cities to attack, usually ones that could be easily conquered. Then the Assyrians committed extreme acts of cruelty to show how the entire region would be treated if the inhabitants refused to surrender peacefully. Houses were looted and burned to the round, and the people were murdered, raped, mutilated, or enslaved - acts all vividly portrayed in the Assyrian stone reliefs and royal inscriptions in the palaces. The Assyrian troops regarded looting and rape of a conquered city as partial compensation. [...] The annals of Assurnasirpal II vividly described such tactics: "In strife and conflict I besieged (and) conquered the city. I felled 3,000 of their fighting men with the sword. I carried off prisoners, possessions, oxen, (and) cattle from them. I burnt many captives from them. I captured many troops alive: I cut off of some their arms (and) hands; I cut off of others their noses, ears, (and) extremities. I gouged out the eyes of many troops. I made one pile of the living (and) one of the heads. I hung their heads on tress around the city. I burnt their adolescent boys (and) girls. I razed, destroyed, burned (and) consumed the city." This type of "psychological" warfare was especially convincing, and the inhabitants, "overwhelmed by the fearful splendor of the god Assur," surrendered. ----
From Daily Life in Ancient Mesopotamia, Karen Rhea Nemet-Nejat,
Hendrickson, 2008 =================================== Sargon, the ruler of Bel, the priest of Asur, the darling of Anu and Bel, the mighty king, king of hosts, king of Assyria, king of the four quarters, the beloved of the great gods and the mention of his name caused to go forth for the greatest deeds, the mighty hero girt with terror, who for the overthrow of the enemy sendeth forth is arms, the valiant warrior, forgot and trusted in his own strength. Against the kings and governors whom in Egypt had installed the father who begat me, to slay, to plunder, and to seize Egypt he marched., Against them he went in city which the father who begat me had conquered and to the border of Assyria had annexed. I summoned my supreme forces with which Asur and Istar had filled my ends the way ... he summoned his fighting men, With the might of Asur, Istar, and the great gods, my lords, who go at my side, in the battle on the broad plain I accomplished the overthrow of his forces. heard the defeat of his forces. That city I took; my troops I caused to enter and I stationed them therein. had conquered fortified cities, I captured. Their forces in numbers I slew; their spoil, their possessions, and their cattle I carried off. Their soldiers escaped and occupied a steep mountain Of a vulture within the mountain had they set their stronghold, In three days the warrior overcame the mountain he cast down the mountain, he destroyed their nest, their host He shattered, Two hundred of their fighting men I slew with the sword; their heavy booty like a flock of sheep I carried off; with their blood I dyed the mountain like crimson wool their cities I overthrew, I destroyed I burned with fire. they came to make war against me. I fought them and defeated them. Their warriors I overthrew with the sword, like Ramman I rained a deluge upon them, into trenches I heaped them, with the corpses of their mighty men I filled the broad plain, with the blood I dyed the mountain like scarlet wool. The team of his yoke I took from him, a pile of heads over against his city I set, his cities I overthrew, I destroyed, I burnt with fire. mile and female musicians, the whole of his craftsmen, as many as there were, and the officers of the palace I brought out and as spoil I reckoned. I besieged, I captured, I carried off their spoil. The walls of that temple had fallen in ruins. I was anxious, I was afraid, I was distressed and my countenance was troubled. (tablet translations) ================================================================= _______________________________________________ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
