THE EARLY NEO-ASSYRIAN PROVINCIAL ARMY OF GŪZĀNA

Year 2017, Issue: 20, 37 - 76, 12.11.2017

Miklos Kerekes

Abstract

The Neo-Assyrian army is generally known from sources discovered in the core of the empire, i.e., palace reliefs, correspondence from the royal archives and royal inscriptions. Most of these sources date back to the Sargonid period. The archaeological and textual records from the ancient city of Gūzāna provide an opportunity to balance the picture drawn from these sources. Based on its relatively peaceful transition from an independent Aramean kingdom to an Assyrian province at the turn of the 9th–8th century BC, it can be supposed that the Aramean-type army had a significant influence on the troops stationed in the province during the early Neo-Assyrian period.

The subjects of the present reconstruction are, on one hand, the bas-reliefs from the Temple Palace of Kapara, that serve as the main source of our knowledge on the Aramean armies. On the other hand, the archive of Mannu-kī-Aššūr from the early 8th century BC provides information about the Assyrian provincial army of the same period. By means of a detailed analysis, the texts from this archive give a more detailed and complex insight to the less-known provincial army in the early NeoAssyrian period. This paper also provides arguments for the existence of a workshop manufacturing composite bows.

Keywords

Gūzāna, Tell Halaf, Assyrian Army, Weapons, Composite Bow, Aramean

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