Ancient Near East Thematic Analysis

In the study of the history of the Ancient Near East, the year 1200 B.C. marks a profound and unexpected shift in the balance of power among the various empires of the region. For the previous 2,000 years, the region of the world bounded by the Mediterranean Sea and by Egypt to its west, caressed by the mountains of Cappadocia and Armenia and the River Araxes to its north, rebuffed by the deserts of Arabia to its south, and blessed with the rivers Tigris and Euphrates and their many tributaries was an arena in which a host of influential and expansionist civilizations had vied for territory, resources, tribute, and the glory of their rulers, their peoples, their ways of life, and their gods, conquering each other and being conquered by other powers in the process. Unexpectedly, around the year 1200 B.C., each of the major empires then-existing in the region (Egypt during its 19th dynasty, Assyria, Babylonia, and the Hittites) underwent a period of general decline and, consequently, lost much of their power and influence in the region over …show more content…
During the nearly 300 years of Assyria’s hegemony over the Ancient Near East, the state deported approximately 4.5 million people in 157 documented deportations, exclusive of the number of Assyrians resettled as colonizers in newly-conquered territories and not counting the number people potentially deported in any undocumented deportations. Assyriologist Bustenay Oded underscores the scope and importance of mass deportations in his pioneering, comprehensive, and systematic study of the facts, implementation, and objectives of this practice and the identities of its