The Intellectual Background of Assyrian Deportees, Colonists, and Officials in the Levant

It is widely acknowledged that the Assyrian subjugation of the Levant during the period between 880 and 640 BCE, and the two-way deportations of hundreds of thousands of people accompanying it, prompted major political, economic, and ethnolinguistic changes in the region. Far less clear is to what extent, and in which ways, it reshaped the Levant's intellectual culture. Based on a careful study of the texts related to Assyrian representatives in the West, this article explores the possible impact Assyro-Babylonian cuneiform culture had there, especially during the age of Assyrian »high-imperialism« that began in the second half of the eighth century. The article concludes that Assyria's imperial agents influenced the religions and cultures of the Levant mostly in indirect ways and not through the active dissemination of cuneiform lore.