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Chapter 23 the Neo-Assyrian Provincial Administration at Tayinat

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Chapter 23 the Neo-Assyrian Provincial Administration at Tayinat Chapter 23 The Neo-Assyrian provincial administration at Tayinat (ancient Kunalia) Timothy Harrison Excavations at Tell Tayinat, located on the Plain of century prompted key changes to its organizational Antioch in southeast Turkey, have uncovered the structure. These included a significant reorganiza- remains of a late Neo-Assyrian settlement (c. late tion of the Assyrian provincial system, although this eighth–seventh centuries bc), including an Assyrian reorganization appears to have been initiated prior to governor’s residence and, most recently, a temple and Tiglath-pileser III (744–727 bc), and the considerable a collection of cuneiform tablets dating to this period. expansion Assyria experienced during his rule, possi- Historical sources attest that Tayinat (ancient Kunu- bly as early as the reign of Adad-nerari III (810–783 bc) lua) was destroyed by Tiglath-pileser III in 738 bc, (Postgate 1995, 2–5; Radner 2006, 43; Kühne 2013, 483, and then transformed into an Assyrian provincial 488–9; contra Harrison 2005, 24, and others). Provinces capital, renamed Kinalia, or Kunalia, as indicated within the Assyrian core (the ‘Land of Aššur’) were in the recently discovered Esarhaddon Oath Tablet, reduced in size, while the system as a whole expanded and supplied with its own governor and provincial considerably, as conquered lands were annexed to administration. The archaeology of the Late Iron Age the heartland. These changes, not surprisingly, pre- settlement at Tayinat therefore offers an opportunity cipitated a shift in the balance of power away from to examine both the physical dimensions of a Neo- the leading political families of Assyria, whose power Assyrian provincial centre, but also the bureaucratic was based in the home provinces, to an increasingly organization that was established to administer it. centralized government administration, controlled This paper will review the results of the Syrian- directly by the king (Grayson 1991a, 203–4; Postgate Hittite Expedition’s excavations at Tell Tayinat in the 1979, 193–4; 1992; 2007, 338–43). 1930s, together with the results of the ongoing Tayinat Although very little documentary evidence Archaeological Project investigations from this period. of this provincial administrative system exists, an They reveal a carefully planned provincial capital that ‘invisible’ hierarchical structure can be gleaned from incorporated Assyrian architectural elements and disparate sources, such as the occasional letters and imperial ideology skillfully interwoven with indig- administrative documents that were a by-product of enous social and cultural institutions. the machinery of government itself (Postgate 2007, 332). Together, these documents convey the ethos of a Neo-Assyrian imperial administration formally regulated administration, with a clear chain of command and delegated authority descending from The historical development of the Neo-Assyrian the king, but they rarely provide actual descriptions empire has been the focus of considerable study. Less of any particular office or its administrative duties well-documented has been the imperial bureaucracy and responsibilities (Postgate 2007, 334–8). Indeed, as that evolved to administer it, and in particular the Postgate concludes (2007, 358), the evidence indicates provincial administrations established in the periph- that the Neo-Assyrian imperial administration was eral regions annexed to the empire as it expanded. fundamentally non-bureaucratic, and depended on a This is in part because Assyrian royal inscriptions, sense of institutional loyalty and personal interaction though voluminous, were not concerned primarily throughout the system, both at the royal court and in with conveying such information (Postgate 2007, 331). the provinces, for it to function effectively. It is clear, nevertheless, that the rapid expansion of the At the provincial level, each province appears to Assyrian empire in the latter decades of the eighth have been governed by an administration that mir- 253 Chapter 23 rored the organizational structure of the royal court draining production and investment away from the at the imperial centre. In the newer provinces, these agricultural hinterland (Postgate 1979, 216–17). were typically established at the former capitals of vanquished states, which often lent the new provinces Neo-Assyrian Kunalia their names. Each province was administered by a governor (bēl pāhiti), who in turn was assisted by a The earliest Neo-Assyrian references to the North deputy (šaknu, or šaniu, literally ‘the second one’), or Orontes Valley region date to the reign of Ashurnasirpal deputies (šaknūte), and a major domo (rab bēti). The II (883–859 bc), and coincide with expanding Assyrian governor’s primary duties included maintenance of interest in the region. Patina (kurpa-ti-na-a-a) is first men- the province’s road networks and infrastructure, the tioned in the Banquet Stele (c. 879 bc) (Grayson 1991b, levying and collection of taxes, the distribution of 290, 293, A.0.101.30, lines 35, 144). More revealing is land, the preservation of law and order, and command Ashurnasirpal’s account of his campaign to north- of the locally stationed military garrison (generally, west Syria (c. 870 bc), in which he describes receiving the ṣ āb šarri, or ‘king’s troops’, and comprised of both tribute from Lubarna, king of Patina, at his royal city Assyrians and auxiliaries). The governor, in other Kunulua (uruku-nu-lu-a), before crossing the Orontes words, held overall authority and responsibility for River and continuing to the south (Grayson 1991b, both the civilian and military affairs of the province. 216–19, A.0.101.1, col. iii, lines 71–80). The account Under him, however, the delegation of authority places Patina in the Amuq Plain, and its capital Kunu- became more specialized, and responsibilities were lua north of the Orontes River, leaving Tell Tayinat the organized according to their civilian or military only viable candidate (Fig. 23.1). This identification has jurisdictions, although it is not always clear from the now been confirmed by the Esarhaddon Oath Tablet title of an office to which jurisdiction it was assigned found at the site (Lauinger 2011; 2012, 112, specifically (Postgate 2007, 333–34, 352–8). The šaknu was typically line T i 3; see further below). a military rank, though not exclusively so, and there Over the next century, Patina was an active is evidence that civilian authority had a hierarchical participant in a succession of anti-Assyrian coalitions structure similar to the military administration. The that attempted to thwart their westward expansion provincial military command appears to have been (for a more thorough review of this political history, organized according to a simple four-tiered hierarchy: see Hawkins 1982; Harrison 2001, 116–22; Osborne the governor as overall commander, followed by the 2011, 18–29). The Assyrians occasionally also became šaknu, the cohort commander, or ‘commander of 50’ embroiled in local conflicts. The most notable occurred (rab kiṣ ri), and then the ordinary soldier (Postgate in 829 bc, and is recorded on the Black Obelisk. We 2007, 343–7). are told that Lubarna (II?), king of Patina, was assas- Within the civilian administration, a secondary sinated by ‘the people of the land’ and a commoner administrative tier was occupied by ‘village inspec- inserted on the throne in his place, prompting Shal- tors’ (rab ālāni), who monitored the various districts maneser III to intercede and replace the usurper (qannu) that made up the provincial hinterland, and with his own ally (Grayson 1996, 69, A.0.102.14, lines reported to the governor. To ensure that the provincial 146b–56). For reasons that remain unclear, the name administration functioned efficiently – and in keeping of the kingdom shifted from Patina to Unqi (kurun-qi) with the dictates of the central government – provin- during this period as well. cial governors were expected to submit regular reports Finally, in 743 bc, Tiglath-pileser III launched his to the king, and their administrations were audited assault on the Syro-Hittite states of northwest Syria by officials who answered directly to the royal court (Hawkins 1982, 410–11; Grayson 1991a, 74–6). This (Postgate 1979, 216; Pečīrková 1977, 213–15; 1987, led, in 738 bc, to a campaign against the kingdom of 169–74; Grayson 1991a, 203–4). Unqi, justified by Tiglath-pileser on the grounds that The governor’s residence, or palace, thus formed Tutammu, king of Unqi, had broken his loyalty oath the operational hub of each province’s administration, with Assyria. The result, Tiglath-pileser reports, was functionally and structurally replicating the royal that Tutammu ‘disregarded his life’, his royal city palace at the regional level. By concentrating admin- Kunulua (specifically, ‘Kinalia’ uru[ Ki-na-li-a]) was istrative decision-making, and authority, in the hands captured, and many of its citizens were deported. of the governor, and localizing this activity within Tiglath-pileser then established Kunulua as the his residence, the Neo-Assyrian provincial system capital of a new Assyrian province called Kinalia, effectively consolidated power, and by extension the and installed a eunuch (ša rēši) as governor (bēl pāhiti) economic wealth of a province, in its capital. In time, (Tadmor & Yamada 2011, 39–40 [Tiglath-pileser III this may have had the unintended consequence of 12], 115 [Tiglath-pileser III 46], 131 [Tiglath-pileser III 254 The Neo-Assyrian provincial administration at Tayinat (ancient Kunalia) Gavur Dağları/ Amanus Mts. Kara Su Kurt Dağ Kızıl Dağ Tell Tayinat & Tell Atchana The Afrin River Valley Antakya/ Antioch Jabal al-Ala’ Orontes R./ Asi N. Jabal al-Aqra/ Mt. Cassius Sites Int. boundary The Amuq Elevation and Afrin Valleys High: 2200 m 0 5 10 20 30 km Low: 1 m Figure 23.1. Regional map showing the North Orontes Valley and the location of Tell Tayinat (created by S. Batiuk). 255 Chapter 23 49]; see also Kessler 1975). Kinalia, or Kullania, as it was one of the more significant additions to the citadel appears alternatively in a number of administrative during this period (Haines 1971, 43–4).
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