Mountain peoples in the ancient Near East
Subtitle: the case of the Zagros in the first millennium BCE
By: Silvia Balatti
Series: Classica et Orientalia -- Band 18; Classica et orientalia -- Bd. 18.
Publisher: Harrassowitz Verlag
Published: 2017
Place of publication: Wiesbaden
Language: eng
Number of pages: 429
ISBN-13: 9783447108003
Copyright date: 2017
Subjects: Mountain people; Social life and customs; History
Description: Since Prehistory, communities principally engaged in herding activities have occupied the intermontane valleys and plains of the Zagros (Western Iran). Relations, tensions and cultural exchange between the inhabitants of the mountains and the Mesopotamian plains already occurred during the Bronze Age. These contacts increased in the course of the 1st millennium BCE, as is suggested by Near Eastern and subsequently by Greek and Latin sources which provide us with numerous new names of peoples living in the Zagros. The present volume investigates the social organisation and life style of the peoples of the Zagros Mountains in the 1st millennium BCE and deals with their relationships with the surrounding environment and with the political authorities on the plains. 0Among these peoples, for example, were the ?fierce? Medes, breeders and purveyors of fine horses, the Manneans, who inhabited a large territory enclosed between the two contending powers of Assyria and Urartu, and the ?warlike? Cosseans, who bravely attempted to resist the attack of Alexander the Great?s army. The Southern Zagros Mountains, inhabited by mixed groups of Elamite and Iranian farmers and pastoralists, were also of key importance as the home of the Persians and the core area of their empire. Starting from Fars, the Persians were able to build up the largest empire in the history of the ancient Near East before Alexander.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 361-403) and indexes.

English; contains texts in Akkadian, Urartian, Elamite, Greek, or Latin with English translations.
Table of contents: title: List of figures -- List of plates -- List of tables -- List of abbreviations -- Acknowledgment -- Preface -- A note of transliteration and translation -- 1.; title: Introduction -- -- 2.; title: Conceptual and theoretical framework -- -- 3.; title: The peoples of the Zagros in the neo-Assyrian sources -- -- 4.; title: The peoples of the Zagros in the Urarțian sources -- -- 5.; title: The peoples of the Zagros in the neo-Elamite, neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid sources -- -- 6.; title: The peoples of the Zagros in the Greco-Roman sources -- -- 7.; title: The social organisation and the way of life of the peoples of the Zagros : historical, archaeological and ethnographic considerations -- -- 8.; title: The environment of the Zagros mountains and its representation in the sources : ecological and palaeoecological considerations -- -- 9.; title: The pastoral societies of the Zagros and the authorities of the plains : the representation of the mountain dwellers and concrete political relations -- -- 10.; title: Conclusions ---- Tables-- Bibliography-- Indices-- Plates.