Intensity of Communication

A basic feature which emerges from our letters is a strong link in written communication between the empire and foreign communities. The volume of letters exchanged was obviously very high, judging from the number of references made to them. An extensive set of letters deals with direct relations between the imperial centre and provincial government, on one hand, and foreign rulers and communities on the other. These relations resulted in movements of people and information across the border and between administrative centres, even on the royal level.

Assyria was visited by foreign rulers or foreigners of royal blood bringing tribute (e.g., the Hubuškian king, no. 133 and 192; the crown prince of Andia, no. 171; the brother of Urzana of Muṣaṣir, no. 148), while emissaries and messengers of foreign countries formed an essential relay of communication (emissaries of Šubria, nos. 36 and 52: of Zikirtu, no. 169; o f Labdudu, no. 194: messengers from Hubuškia, nos. 134, 162). Foreign visitors could move freely through the outer provinces towards the Assyrian capital, cf. nos. 138 and 203 (referring to seven rulers from the environs of Kumme, and city lords, probably Mannean, summoned by the king).

In the introduction to SAA 1, it was stated that the letters from the reign of Sargon at our disposal may be regarded as a fairly representative sample of the whole of the original correspondence.[[26]] On this basis, the intensity of contact between foreign countries and Assyria revealed by our letters cannot be taken as accidental. It is clear that in Sargonid Assyria there was extensive political and cultural interchange between the imperial centre and periphery, in which different ideologies and cultural models met on a day to day basis. Assyria and Urarṭu being culturally and militarily by far the superior parties in this daily give-and-take, one may legitimately expect our letters to contain valuable information on the question of how marginal are as were gradually integrated into the imperial system.



26 S. Parpola. SAA I p. xvii.

Giovanni B. Lanfranchi

Giovanni B. Lanfranchi, 'Intensity of Communication', The Correspondence of Sargon II, Part II: Letters from the Northern and Northeastern Provinces, SAA 5. Original publication: Helsinki, Helsinki University Press, 1990; online contents: SAAo/SAA05 Project, a sub-project of MOCCI, 2020 [http://oracc.org/saao/saa05/empireandminorstates/intensityofcommunication/]

 
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