“Assyria” in the Third Millennium bce

Abstract

During the third millennium BCE, Northern Mesopotamia witnessed a period of social experimentation, when political power shifted from city to city across the region, and social and economic strategies were in flux. Beginning sometime after 2400 BCE, the earliest tablets from Mari, Ebla, and Nagar provide insight into the political and cultural geography of Northern Mesopotamia. About 5000 tablets from Ebla come from an administrative archive that was preserved by the fiery destruction and abandonment of Palace G. The tablets depict a dynamic world, where nearly constant warfare meant unstable frontiers and shifting alliances. At the beginning of the Early Bronze Age, a process of regionalization and ruralization began, as the shared traditions of the Chalcolithic gave way to diverse new cultures. Although Northern Mesopotamia in the third millennium was not yet 'Assyria', several elements were already in place that would contribute to later Assyrian political culture.

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