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2 Assessing the Politics of Neo‐Assyrian Agriculture
Author(s) -
Rosenzweig Melissa S.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
archeological papers of the american anthropological association
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.783
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1551-8248
pISSN - 1551-823X
DOI - 10.1111/apaa.12106
Subject(s) - empire , agriculture , politics , agrarian society , subsistence agriculture , power (physics) , political science , political ecology , economy , political economy , history , sociology , economics , archaeology , law , physics , quantum mechanics
In this paper, political ecology informs a study of agriculture under the Neo‐Assyrian empire. Rather than examining cultivation solely as an economy of subsistence practices, this work considers agrarian laborers, activities, and resources as participants in wider political processes of empire‐building. Both material and discursive manipulations of agriculture are discussed in order to demonstrate the ways in which rulers of Neo‐Assyria instituted agricultural colonization in Upper Mesopotamia for political gain. An archaeobotanical case study from the provincial capital of Tušhan is then presented to provide a closer look at the impact of these agro‐politics on the people and lands in the provinces of the empire. Plant use studies from Tušhan capture the flow of power through agricultural practice, emphasize the Neo‐Assyrian monarchy's rhetorical use of agriculture in strategies of imperialism, and, significantly, reveal the shortcomings of the empire's agrarian program.