Recorded: February 18, 2020
Event: Contextualizing Iranian Religions in the Ancient World - 14th Melammu Symposium
Citation: Ponchia, Simonetta. "Channels and Methods of Diffusion of Administrative Models and Imperial Ideology in the Neo-Assyrian Empire," Contextualizing Iranian Religions in the Ancient World - 14th Melammu Symposium. February 18, 2020.
by Simonetta Ponchia (University of Verona)
Channels and Methods of Diffusion of Administrative Models and Imperial Ideology in the Neo-Assyrian Empire
The Assyrian empire is of great renown as a machine of conquest, but its most innovative feature was the implementation of an efficacious administrative system that transformed subjected kingdoms into provinces, an innovation that was replicated by later empires. Although it is hard to assess the degree of cohesion in this complex structure, it is worthwhile to examine the extant traces of a policy that was responsible for the dissemination, inclusion, and standardization of principles and procedures that shaped the attitudes of both administrators and subjects. Temples and offices in peripheral towns, as well as cults, ceremonies, and legal practices, were the main vehicles in imposing an Assyrian imperial culture. This paper examines a number of case studies that are relevant to our assessment of this administrative system, its development through time, and its impact on later empires.
About the Speaker
Simonetta Ponchia studied classical literature at the University of Padua, where she completed her master’s degree in 1982. In 1990 a study visit to the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore followed. In 1992 he received his doctorate at the University of Naples “L’Orientale” with the thesis “Strumenti retorici nelle iscrizioni reali assire.” From 2001 to 2005 she took part in the Italian excavations in Qatna. And since 2001 she has been professore associato at the University of Verona.