Borders and States

Abstract

This chapter presents a brief, introductory overview of only a few of the many examples of evidence for the boundaries of territories throughout the history of the Ancient Near East with descriptions from the Bible and from Herodotus’ History. Two observations confirm the analytical approach offered on the relation of borders to the character of a state and society. The first returns readers to an observation made earlier about the fiscal sociology of the period of the neo-Assyrian empire. The second observation involves the bearing of borders on the self-understanding, and hence sociological ordering, of the population of the land of Assyria. The area of the frontier, peripheral to the organizing center of the state's historic homeland, was often viewed as a culturally chaotic space.

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