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“Be(com)ing Assyrian”: Navigating Imperial Power from the Bottom-Up

Join us as the AIA Societies Committee presents a virtual presentation and Q&A with Petra Creamer. This presentation will also be available in American Sign Language.

At its height, the Assyrian Empire (c. 1350-600 BCE) stretched from modern-day Iran in the east to Egypt in the west, controlling more territory than any entity the world had yet seen. This talk will delve into the profound impact of the Assyrian Empire and its administrative structures on the lives of individuals under its hegemony. Drawing from archaeological and historical evidence, the discussion explores the intricate web of socio-economic, cultural, and political transformations experienced by the non-elite populace under Assyrian rule, focusing on the core area of the empire (the Assyrian “Heartland”) along the Tigris River. Insights from ongoing research illuminate how the empire’s administrative policies influenced Assyria’s subjects – from those residing in urban centers to rural communities. Petra will particularly dive into the implementation of massive infrastructural projects across the landscape, the establishment of centralized governance systems, and the navigation of personal identities that shaped the idea of “be(com)ing Assyrian”.

Petra Creamer is an archaeologist of the Ancient Near Eastern world researching the genesis and growth of empires and the impact of these empires on the non-elite populations under their hegemony. She is director of the excavation and remote sensing project Rural Landscapes of Iron Age Imperial Mesopotamia (RLIIM) in Iraqi Kurdistan, where her ongoing fieldwork addresses long-term settlement patterns and lifeways in the ancient Assyrian imperial core (c. 1350-600 BCE). She is an Assistant Professor of Ancient Near Eastern Studies at Emory University.

The lecture will also be available in American Sign Language and we will also enable auto captioning on Zoom. Due to Zoom limitations on mobile devices and tablets, participants interested in accessing ASL interpretation should log in using the desktop version of Zoom.