A Framework for the Study of Deportations to and from the Southern Levant during the Age of the Mesopotamian Empires

This contribution offers a framework for studying the deportations to and from the southern Levant during the Age of the Mesopotamian empires. It begins with a brief sketch of the importance of deportations as an Assyrian colonial means: the interests of the empire in both the imperial heartland and the southern Levant. The second part is dedicated to an overview of the various available sources, written and material alike, on the lives of the deportees, focusing mainly on their interaction with the hosting society. Concluding this contribution are musings on the fate of the deportees following the collapse of the Assyrian Empire and the destructive Babylonian conquest of the southern Levant.