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Relations with Assyria dominated from the tenth to the late seventh century. Marduk’s reputation was tarnished as Babylon lost power. Tribes of Chaldeans and Arameans moved into the Sealand, where some settled, becoming literate and powerful. Iron gradually replaced bronze. Fine stone carving continued. Warlike Assyrian kings venerated Babylon, incorporated its gods into their pantheon, and treated the city separately from the rest of Babylonia; but Assyria and Babylon clashed east of the Tigris at Der. Chaldeans intermittently took the throne. Tiglath-pileser III, the first Assyrian king to become king of Babylon, took part in the New Year festival; Sargon II, the second, deposed a Chaldean and deported many disloyal groups, but invested in the city. When Sennacherib ruled Assyria, various rulers of Babylon and interference from Elam ended when he sacked Babylon, which remained kingless for seven years. His patricidal son Esarhaddon made some restitution. At his early death, Esarhaddon’s elder son took the throne, dominated by his younger son, Ashurbanipal, whose library at Nineveh included many Babylonian texts. Betrayed by his brother under Elamite influence, Ashurbanipal sacked Babylon. Royal records end, and three subsequent kings are poorly attested. Nabopolassar, a Babylonian general working in the Assyrian army, defected and took the throne of Babylon.
The Assyrian Empire was the first state to achieve durable domination of the Ancient Near East, enduring some seven centuries and, eventually, controlling most of the region. Yet, we know little about how this empire emerged from a relatively minor polity in the Tigris region and how it managed to consolidate its power over conquered territories. Textual sources, often biased, provide a relatively limited source of information. In this study, Bleda S. Düring examines the rich archaeological data of the early Assyrian Empire that have been obtained over the past decades, together with the textual evidence. The archaeological data enable us to reconstruct the remarkably heterogeneous and dynamic impact of the Assyrian Empire on dominated territories. They also facilitate the reconstruction of the various ways in which people participated in this empire, and what might have motivated them to do so. Finally, Düring's study shows how imperial repertoires first developed in the Middle Assyrian period were central to the success of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.
In the year 1300 BC, the great clash took place at Qadesh in Syria between the young Ramesses II and Muwatallish, the Great King of the Hittites. It is now accepted that Mukshush, the companion of Madduwattash, is identical in name with Mopsus, a strange figure of Greek legend, a seer and prince of Colophon. The razzia of Mopsus may be reasonably regarded as part of the downward thrust of the horde of assailants whom the Egyptians called collectively the Peoples of the Sea. There are some archaeological reasons to think that some settlement by Philistines or other closely related Sea Peoples in Palestine may start in this period before 1200 BC. In 1194 BC, Ramesses III clashed with the Libyans. The clash took the form of two battles: the first in Syria against the Land Raiders; the second real fight, against the Sea Raiders, taking place in the Delta at the entrance to Egypt itself.
Since the inscriptions of Ramesses III repeatedly speak of using captives as troops in his own army and since some of the Sea Peoples (especially the Sherden) had been used as mercenaries or as slave troops during the reign of Ramesses II, many scholars now agree that the Philistines were first settled in Palestine as garrison troops. Between the late thirteenth and the end of the twelfth century BC, the territory occupied by the Canaanites was vastly reduced due to occupation by Israelites, the sea peoples, and the Aramaeans. However, there were compensations for these losses. The coast of Phoenicia proper was ideally prepared by nature to become the home of a maritime people. The Hittites had established several vassal states in northern Syria during the initial period of their occupation in the fourteenth century BC. At least two of them, Carchemish and Aleppo, were ruled by princes of the imperial Hittite dynasty.
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