After the Storm: Assessing Reoccupation in the Assyrian Heartland after 612 BCE
GIACOSA, Gabriele
The sack of Nineveh in 612 BCE, and the subsequent collapse of the Neo-Assyrian empire, are crucial events in the record of pre-Classical southwestern Asia. Indeed, contemporary evidence for destructive actions has been recorded at several sites across northern Mesopotamia, mostly from palatial and residential contexts. Limited understanding is provided for the decades following this event, when Assyria was no longer a political core: however, evidence of reoccupation has been recorded at several urban settlements, offering hints on developments yet to be clearly framed in archaeological terms. This paper tries to assess the timespan encompassing the end of the 7th century and the 6th century BCE based on available information from northern Mesopotamia, integrated by new evidence from the Lower Town of Nineveh, investigated between 2019 and 2023 by a joint Iraqi-Italian archaeological expedition under the direction of N. Marchetti. Featuring both architectural and material evidence, this reconstruction aims at defining the resilience and transformation of urban communities after the dissolution of the imperial superstructure.
Session 3. Urban and Landscape Studies: Finding Interpretative Approaches [info]