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Home , Deportation, Gundeshapur, Surena (4th century), Yazdegerd II

Mesopotamian and certainly reflect intermittent abandonment and to new settlements, whether near Persian migrations or far. Proxy data (climatic/environmental, D. T. Potts biological/pathological) may suggest the reasons behind such discontinuities and the motiva- tions for putative migrations, but without writ- Migration is a phenomenon that was fre- ten evidence arguments over the whys and quently adduced in 19th and early 20th-century wherefores of migration in prehistoric or ahis- archaeological and historical literature as an toric situations can never be resolved. explanation for the diffusion of specific cul- tural traits, such as pottery styles. The fact that written (epigraphic or literary) confirmation To cite just a few examples from the ancient of migration was in almost every case lacking, Near East, the appearance on sites in southern combined with the probability that alternative , northern Syria, and northern Iraq explanations (trade, artistic influence of one of material culture (ceramics, cylinder seals, area on another, changing fashions) could decorative wall cones, and sometimes proto- account for the appearance of similar material cuneiform tablets) that is southern Mesopota- culture in widely separated locales, meant mian in style (of Middle and Late type, that such diffusionist explanations went out c.3700–3300 bce) has been widely interpreted of fashion after the mid-20th century. Having as evidence of a phenomenon of migration and said that, migration undoubtedly did occur in colonization (e.g. Potts 2004 with earlier bibli- some situations, even though documentary ography; Algaze 2005). New foundations on evidence is lacking. virgin ground with no connection to anteced- ent local traditions (e.g. Habuba Kabira South, Tell Kannas, Jabal Aruda on the Middle Euphra- Agriculture and colonized lands tes in Syria) have been interpreted as true colo- Early agriculturalists almost certainly colo- nies emanating from a southern urban center, nized new lands (even if already occupied by most probably Uruk (modern Warka, in south- hunter-gatherers) to exploit favorable ecologi- ern Iraq). More than forty years of research on cal conditions; drought and disease may well this topic, however, has failed to account for have driven people from their home territories why such a pattern of migration took place, to new areas, a phenomenon well attested in though a host of different explanations have more recent times and one which undoubtedly been suggested (flight from oppressive condi- accounts for the many instances observed by tions, desire to bring new agricultural lands archaeologists of the cyclical abandonment of under cultivation, interest in the mother settle- sites and/or entire regions (e.g. Stone 2002). ment of the colony in establishing a network What archaeologists are prone to deem ‘dis- of sites capable of procuring desirable natural continuities’ in Antiquity rarely, except in cases resources, etc.). Similarly, the appearance of a of plague, reflected the demise of an entire Transcaucasian type of pottery (Khirbet Kerak population. Rather, discontinuities in the ar- or Red Black Burnished Ware) at sites in Israel chaeological sequence of a site or region – evi- and Syria during the mid-3rd millennium bce dence of occupation in one period, absence of may reflect an actual migration of peoples occupation in the next, followed by reoccupa- from the area of modern , , tion centuries or even millennia later – almost and Azerbaijan, but other explanations are

The Encyclopedia of Global Human Migration, Edited by Immanuel Ness. © 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd. DOI: 10.1002/9781444351071.wbeghm364 2 mesopotamian and persian migrations possible, even in cases where the actual ceram- were sometimes characterized by hyperbole ics can be shown to have been manufactured (e.g. the number of enemy combatants killed, in the . the dread inspired in the enemy by the victori- ous king), their veracity is often assured by Evidence of Mesopotamian migration contemporary economic texts such as lists of Linguistic evidence has frequently been adduced rations given to semi-free workers and slaves to demonstrate early migration, though this (prisoners of war) with foreign names. Such too can be ambiguous. Changing frequencies texts undoubtedly reflect reality, as do laconic of names, for example, increasing numbers records noting when a worker fled from his of individuals with Akkadian (an East Semitic work detail or a slave escaped the house of his dialect) names in the 3rd millennium bce, master (Limet 1995; Snell 2001). and Amorite (a group of West Semitic dialects) in early 2nd millennium bce Empire and (Limet 1995), have been interpreted as evi- dence of a steady immigration of new peoples, With the rise of the Neo-Assyrian empire in the largely from the Syrian steppe to the west of 9th century bce forced for politi- the river, to southern Mesopotamia. cal purposes began to be used as a tool of Similarly, the appearance of individuals in political, military, and economic policy. On the southern Mesopotamia with Kassite names one hand, deportations were intended to break (a non-Semitic and non-Indo-European lan- resistance amongst subject peoples, depopulate guage with no known affinities) in the mid- areas thought to be a threat to Assyrian inter- 2nd millennium bce, has been interpreted as ests, and diffuse the military capacity of rival evidence of a migration from the presumed powers and polities. On the other hand, depor- (but hypothetical) Kassite homeland, in the tations were sometimes intended to harness western Zagros region of (Heinz 1995). human resources in the service of , Likewise, the increased usage of Aramaic for whether of skilled craftsmen or of entire com- writing and Aramaic names, both in Assyria munities transplanted to regions that the and , have been taken as signs of pro- Assyrians sought to develop agriculturally gressive migration by Aramaeans from the (Oded 1979). At its height in the 7th century Syrian steppe into the -Euphrates valley the Assyrian empire extended from Egypt in the early 1st millennium bce (Fales 2007). and the Mediterranean coast in the west to the Even though these posited movements took foothills of the Zagros mountains in the east, place in periods for which we do have written and deportations occurred in all directions, sources, they are not recorded explicitly as involving hundreds (e.g. 160 people deported migration events or episodes. Rather, the “evi- from Si’imme, north of modern in dence” is a combination of absence + presence: southeastern Turkey, to Assyria; Garelli 1995: in one period, such names are absent; in the 80) and in some cases thousands (e.g. 90,580 succeeding period, such names are present; people deported from Bit Yakin in southern ergo a migration must have occurred. Babylonia to Melidi and Kummukh in Turkey; The nature of most of the extant written Na’aman and Zadok 1988: 44) of deportees sources from the 3rd, 2nd and 1st millennia (Akkadian šaglû) (Garelli 1995). bce is such, however, that voluntary, peaceful In some cases we have literary, annalistic migration is unlikely to have ever been historical evidence from the Assyrians that is recorded, while not absolutely out of the ques- corroborated by sources stemming from the tion. In the overwhelming majority of eco- subject peoples themselves. This applies, for nomic, religious, scholarly, and legal texts example, to Assyrian accounts of Elamites there is simply no occasion to note migration. from southwestern Iran deported to Egypt, On the other hand, military campaigns are Samaria in Israel, and Assyria (Potts 1999). The recorded in royal inscriptions and even if these deportations to Samaria are echoed in Ezra 4: mesopotamian and persian migrations 3

9–10. Recently discovered texts from Tell Israelites to Syria (on the Khabur river) and Shaikh Hamad (ancient Dur-Katlimmu) on Media (western Iran) following the capture of the Khabur river in Syria, moreover, attest to Samaria (Younger 1988). A Babylonian chroni- the presence of Elamites there in 602–600 bce. cle gives 2 Adar in the 7th year of Nebuchad- This is well after the fall of the Assyrian empire nezzar II’s reign (15/16 March 597 bce) as the and one may presume that these were the date of the capture of Jehoiachin (2 Kings 24: descendants of Elamites deported by the Assyr- 10–17) and the fall of Jerusalem which initi- ians 50–100 years earlier. Such groups, if given ated the Babylonian (cf. 2 Chron. 36: 10) land to work, and with the passage of time, (Grayson 2000). The different destinations of were probably not interested in returning to various deportee groups, and their subsequent their original homeland, particularly after the fates, varied from case to case depending on passage of several generations (with attendant factors such as the degree of resistance shown changes of language, culture, and intermar- by the subject people, their economic talents riage, one might also suggest). (e.g. olive oil production, weaving, metalwork, With respect to Israel and Judah, of course, ivory carving) and the economic aims that the effect of both Assyria and Babylonia on the Assyrians hoped to achieve by introducing the region’s population is well documented in new settlers in different parts of the empire Assyrian and Babylonian sources as well as the (Younger 1998). Bible. Isaiah presents an image of an efficient, overwhelmingly powerful Assyria devouring Persian geographic expansion Israel (Machinist 1983) and when Isaiah says, and migration “And I have removed the boundaries of peoples, and plundered their treasures” (Isaiah 10: 13b), The policies of the Assyrians and Babylonians it is not just the political boundaries of Assyria’s were familiar to and adopted by their immediate enemies that have been eradicated as region political successors, the Achaemenid Persians. after region was conquered, but the human Following the Persian conquest of Egypt in 525 ones as well, such that deportation with its bce Cambyses deported 6,000 Egyptians to mixing of peoples became a consequence of the in southwestern Iran (Ctesias, Persica lack of internal boundaries within the empire. F13.10; Diodorus Siculus 1.46.4), an ancient But there were deportations to Israel and Sa- city (founded c.4000 bce) and major adminis- maria as well, for example, from Kharkhar, trative center in Iran. The fact that Cambyses Kishesim, Karalla, and Uishdish in Media (western is said to have chosen the 6,000 deportees Iran), and north Arabia. Some of these depor- himself suggests a clear motive, though what tees were settled on the border with Egypt this might have been is not recorded. Like the (Na’aman and Zadok 1988). Assyrian deportations, those carried out by As Sargon II boasted after his conquest of the Persians were far flung: north African Bar- Ashdod in 712 bce, “I reorganized (the admin- caeans (from in Cyrenaica, modern istration of) these cities and settled therein Libya) were resettled in (today north- people from the [countries] of the east which ern Afghanistan/southern Uzbekistan); Mile- I had conquered” (Na’aman and Zadok 1988: sians from western Asia Minor were established 43). The Babylonian exile of the is, of at Ampe, near the mouth of the Tigris in course, one of the most famous deportations southern Iraq; Eretrians from the coast of in the Judeo-Christian tradition. This was less Euboea in Greece were shifted to Ardericca in an event than a process, beginning with Israel’s Kissia, a region in southwestern Iran; and Boe- transformation into an Assyrian vassal under otians from Greece were installed on the Tigris Tiglath-Pileser III (r.745–727 bce). Deporta- (Herodotus, Histories 4.204; 6.20; 6.119; Dio- tions in his reign are recorded in 2 Kings 15: dorus Siculus 17.110). 29 and 1 Chronicles 5: 26, while 2 Kings 17: 6 The case of the Eretrians recalls that of the and 18: 11 record Sargon II’s deportations of Elamites in Syria. These were captured in 490 4 mesopotamian and persian migrations bce shortly before the Battle of Marathon. did not harm those who surrendered voluntar- Deported initially to Susa, they were resettled ily, a change of allegiance, with a continuation by Darius at Ardericca and Herodotus, writing of a military career in Parthian service, is not about fifty years later, noted that “they have difficult to imagine. held this territory up until my time and have Tigranes the Great (c.95 bce), king of preserved their ancient language” (Herodotus, Armenia, is said by Strabo (Geography 11.14.15) Histories 6.119; cf. Grosso 1958). In the long to have populated his new capital, Tigranocerta inscription commemorating the building of (location uncertain), with people deported from his palace at Susa, Darius I referred to the 12 Greek cities that he had conquered. The nationalities of the many different craftsmen number of deportees involved ranges as high employed on the project (Assyrians, Carians, as 300,000 (Appian, Mithridatica 67). Pliny, , Medes, Egyptians, Lydians, Babyloni- too, mentions residents of Adiabene and Assyria ans; see Lecoq 1997). Although these have been (northern Iraq) and Gordyene (eastern Turkey) interpreted as deportees (Shahbazi et al. 1994), forcibly removed to Tigranocerta (Natural there is no indication that this was the case. History 6.142). Later Armenian accounts of the deportation to Armenia of the Jewish Policies of deportation population of Palestine must be viewed with Attitudes towards deportation in the Parthian considerable skepticism (Shahbazi et al. 1994). period (c.145 bce–224 ce) were somewhat dif- ferent and, for the most part, involved prison- Deportation as means of development ers of war who had been combatants, rather The Sassanians (c.224–640 ce) used deporta- than civilians. Thus, for example, after the tion as a technique of populating and develop- Parthian defeat of the Romans at Carrhae ing areas of strategic interest. After his conquest (modern Harran, in southeastern Turkey) in of in Syria, (r. 240–70 ce) 53 bce, some 10,000 Roman soldiers were cap- deported thousands of “Romans” (most likely tured (Plutarch, Crassus 31.7) and sent to Alex- a mixture of eastern Greeks and Syrians from andria (a city founded by Alexander Antioch and the environs) to Assyria, the Great nearly three hundred years earlier; (northeastern Iran and western Turkmeni- modern in Turkmenistan) where, accord- stan), Persis (modern Fars province, southwest ing to Horace (3.5.5–8), they intermarried with Iran), and Khuzestan (southwesternmost Iran). native women and took up service on behalf of According to later sources (e.g. Tabari 838–923 the Parthians. Again the motivation is not ce), the deportees included not only soldiers stated but such a settlement could have served and the Christian bishop of Antioch (as well as two purposes. On the one hand, it shifted the many ), but military engineers who surviving Roman forces far from their own were put to work building dams, weirs, and frontier, thus eliminating any possibility of other irrigation works to better develop the their easily escaping and returning to fight for agricultural regime of southwestern Iran (the Rome. On the other hand, it may have pro- Band-e Qaysar or “Caesar’s weir” at is vided a bulwark against nomadic incursions thought to have been built by the engineers of from the Eurasian steppe, a constant problem the captured Roman emperor ). The on the Parthians’ eastern frontier. It must also city of is said to have been largely be borne in mind, when considering the pos- built by these deportees (Shahbazi et al. 1994). sibilities of such a change of allegiance on the In time Khuzestan came to have a predomi- part of these captives, that we do not know nantly Christian population, in part the result the ethnicity of the soldiers involved. Although of Shapur I’s deportations. In the 4th century identified as “Roman,” they almost certainly ce Shapur II also deported a sizable number of included non-Roman legions which could Christians (out of 9,000 men and women) have come from many different parts of North from Bezabde in southeastern Turkey to Khuz- Africa, Europe, and/or the Near East. As Plu- estan. Reverse deportations also occurred. tarch recounts that the Parthian general Surena Tabari says that Shapur II shifted 12,000 people mesopotamian and persian migrations 5 from Istakhr (near Shiraz) and to in imperial realpolitik designed to depopulate Nusaybin in southeastern Turkey after the city border areas, shift potential enemies from a was ceded to him by in 363 ce. Later position in which they could ally themselves deportations are also attested in the 5th and with another power, and fortify distant regions 6th centuries, some involving rebellious Arme- against incursions by outside forces. Thus in nians who were moved by Yazdegerd II (r.438– c.1600 Abbas moved thousands of Kurds 57) to in northeastern Iran. In his away from his border with the Ottomans war with Byzantium, Khusraw I conquered and enemy, both to prevent their forming an virtually depopulated Apamea and Daras in alliance with his enemy and to fortify Khorasan Syria in 573, sending enormous numbers – (northeastern Iran) against raids by the 90,000 according to Michael the Syrian; 292,000 Uzbeks. He did the same with many tribesmen according to John of Ephesus – to unstated in the southern Caucasus whom he resettled in destinations. When Khusraw II conquered the east, often destroying crops, buildings, and Jerusalem in 614 he is said by the Armenian infrastructure and pursuing a “scorched earth” historian Sebeos to have captured 57,000 people policy as he depopulated western regions adja- and deported 35,000 of them to , the cent to the Ottoman frontier. As many as 3,000 Sassanian capital in Iraq (near modern Armenian families were transported from the ). In many cases, contemporary and area around Julfa, on the Araxes river, in north- later sources suggest that families and groups western Iran, to Isfahan, both as a consequence from individual towns and cities were allowed of Shah Abbas’ drive to depopulate the region to remain together in their new settlements, and make it unusable for the Ottomans, and in sometimes in wards or neighborhoods created order to stimulate commerce and viticulture in exclusively for them. Accounts of mistreatment and around his new capital further south also occur. Elderly or lame prisoners who could (Perry 1975). not manage these long journeys on foot were Deportations were vigorously pursued by sometimes abandoned, their calf or hamstring Nadir Shah (r.1736–47), often involving thou- muscles cut so that they could not return to sands of Baluchi, Uzbek, Turkmen, and Afghan their homes (Shapur I; Shahbazi et al. 1994). tribesmen. Much of this energy was expended Although deportation was practiced by in a drive to break the power of the tribes and Timur (Tamerlane) (r.1370–1405), it was not involved large numbers: 56,000 assorted tribes- a feature of the earlier Islamic dynasties in men were moved from Azerbaijan (northwest- Iran. Timur carried out a number of deporta- ern Iran), central Iran and Fars (southwestern tions. After his conquest of Tabriz (northwest- Iran) to the northeast in 1730; 60,000 Abdali ern Iran) he deported craftsmen, scholars, and tribesmen were moved from Afghanistan to artisans to Samarkand (in modern Uzbekistan). northeastern Iran in 1738; 13,000 Bakhtiyari Timur’s defeat of the Ottomans in 1403 led tribesmen were moved from Kurdistan in 1732 to a deportation of 30,000–40,000 Qara Tatar and 1736 to northeastern Iran and Turkmeni- nomads from Amasya and Qaysariya in Turkey stan (Perry 1975: 209). Many of these tribes toward , though many of these returned to their former lands after Nadir Shah’s were killed en route following an uprising at death, but deportations continued, involving in northeastern Iran (Shahbazi et al. thousands of tribesmen, under later rulers of 1994). the late 18th and early 19th centuries such as Karim Khan Zand (r.1751–79) and Agha Persian deportations, 16th–18th Muhammad Khan Qajar (r.1784–97). It is notable that the vast bulk of the deportations effected centuries by these later rulers, from Shah Abbas I onward, Deportations became much more common, involved nomadic tribesmen who, as mobile, however, in the 16th–18th centuries ce. Begin- paramilitary forces, presented both a threat ning with Shah Abbas I (r.1587–1629) we see and an opportunity (to defend against other the use of deportation as a defensive measure powers). Deportations of sedentary populations 6 mesopotamian and persian migrations seem to have been of less concern and in this Lecoq, P. (1997) Les inscriptions de la Perse respect the earlier deportations aimed at break- achéménide [The inscriptions of Achaemenid ing local resistance and transplanting econom- Persia]. Paris: Gallimard. ically useful communities differ from those of Limet, H. (1995) L’émigré dans la société the later periods. mésopotamienne [The emigrant in Mesopotamian society]. In Van Lerberghe & SEE ALSO: Diasporas and colonization in Schoors (1995), pp. 165–180. Classical Antiquity; Greek colonization movement, Machinist, P. (1983) Assyria and its image in the 8th–6th centuries bce; Greek migrations and First Isaiah. Journal of the American Oriental colonies, ancient era; Peninsular India and the Bay Society 103(4), 719–737. of Bengal, mobility and travel, 4th century bce to Na’aman, N. & Zadok, R. (1988) Sargon II’s 8th century ce; Traders and , medieval era deportations to Israel and Philistia (716–708 bc). Journal of Cuneiform Studies 40, 36–46. References and further reading Oded, B. (1979) Mass Deportations and Deportees in the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Wiesbaden: Algaze, G. (2005) The Uruk World System: The Harrassowitz. Dynamics of Expansion of Early Mesopotamian Perry, J. R. (1975) Forced migration in Iran during Civilization, 2nd edn. Chicago: University of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Chicago Press. Iranian Studies 8, 199–215. Fales, M. (2007) and Chaldeans: Potts, D. T. (1999) The Archaeology of : environment and society. In G. Leick (ed.) The Formation and Transformation of an Ancient Babylonian World. New York: Routledge, pp. Iranian State. Cambridge: Cambridge University 288–298. Press. Garelli, P. (1995) Les déplacements de personnes Potts, D. T. (2004) The Uruk explosion: More heat dans l’empire assyrien [Displacement of people than light? The Review of Archaeology 25(2), in the Assyrian empire]. In Van Lerberghe & 19–28. Schoors (1995), pp. 79–82. Shahbazi, S., Kettenhofen, E., & Perry, J. R. (1994) Grayson, A. K. (2000) Assyrian and Babylonian Deportations. In Encyclopaedia Iranica. At Chronicles. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns. www.iranica.com/articles/deportations, accessed Grosso, F. (1958) Gli Eretriesi deportati in Persia Nov. 25, 2010. [The deported Eretrians in Persia]. Rivista di Snell, D. (2001) Flight and Freedom in the Ancient Filologia e di Istruzione Classica 36, 350–375. Near East. Leiden: Brill. Heinz, M. (1995) Migration und Assimilation im Stone, E. C. (2002) The III-Old Babylonian 2. Jt. v. Chr.: Die Kassiten [Migration and transition: an archaeological perspective. Iraq assimilation in the 2nd millennium bc: The 64, 79–84. ]. In K. Bartl, R. Bernbeck, & M. Heinz Van Lerberghe, K. & Schoors, A. (eds.) (1995) (eds.), Zwischen Euphrat und Indus: Aktuelle Immigration and Emigration within the Ancient Forschungsprobleme in der vorderasiatischen Near East: Festschrift E. Lipiński. Leuven: Archäologie. [Between the Euphrates and the Peeters. Indus: current research problems in Near Younger, K. L., Jr. (1998) The deportations of the Eastern archaeology]. Hildesheim: Olms Verlag, Israelites. Journal of Biblical Literature 117(2), pp. 165–174. 201–227.