COMMUNICATIONAL PROCEDURES AND ADMINISTRATIVE STRUCTURES IN THE NEO-ASSYRIAN EMPIRE (original) (raw)

The random character of the Neo-Assyrian sources has stimulated, particularly in the last years, the research of appropriate models applicable to the interpretation of the history of the empire. This tendency, permeating as well other sectors of ancient Near Eastern studies, is to be considered positively and has revived the discussion about political institutions. 1 Epistolary texts and inscriptions have been studied aiming at tracing the outline of a political system based on patronage and at clarifying the functioning of characteristic structures such as the bīt bēli. 2 Together with the inscriptions of client rulers, which share, at least at the formal surface, the ideological perspective of the dominant power, these texts have been analysed in the framework of the Sargonids' cul-* This article is the first part of a study grown out from the workshop "Archives and Administration in the Neo-Assyrian empire", held in Verona in October 2005, and represents the revised version of the introductory communication presented there. It has largely profited from successive discussions on the topic also in occasion of a subsequent meeting of the group in march 2007. I thank M. Luukko for providing me with the new version of some Nimrud letters he his preparing and F.M. Fales and G.B. Lanfranchi for stimulating discussions on the topic.