In the News: A New Assyrian Tablet from Ziyaret Tepe in Turkey

Ziyaret Tepe appears to have been an important Assyrian outpost in Turkey from about 800 to 600 B.C.E. It has been identified as Tushan, a provincial Assyrian capital. In the news recently has been the find of an Akkadian tablet listing the names of 144 women who appear to have been agricultural workers employed by the palace. The names on the tablet are not Assyrian, and if the individuals are not from the non-Assyrian indigenous population they may represent workers brought in from different conquered areas. If this is the case, the tablet would then attest to the Assyrian practice of scattering and intermixing the populations of conquered areas as a strategy to subdue and pacify their empire.