A Sketch of the Life of the Golah in the Countryside of Babylonia

This contribution aims to a deeper understanding of the Babylonian deportation and resettlement policy of the sixth century BCE, sketching the risks and chances for the displaced and resettled people in the countryside, the role of the Babylonian host population and of governmental-sponsored development policy and risk management. The focus of this contribution lies on the intermediaries between the Babylonian (and Persian) royal administration and those of the low-profile captives in the countryside who used their chances to start individual careers. As a new approach, we want to study the extra-biblical textual material from Babylonia with methods of social behavior studies and environmental anthropology, which offer some new theories of forced migration and involuntary resettlement. This new methodological approach on the Babylonian deportees clarifies the terminology and sheds new light on the aim and impact of forced displacement and involuntary resettlement of populations in the neo-Babylonian and Persian empires, on the risks and options which had to be faced and handled.