Assyria in the Center of the World: The transformation of imperial ideology under Sennacherib (705-681 BCE)

• Grant number: 25/02081-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: July 01, 2025
• End date: June 30, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Ancient and Medieval History
• Principal Investigator: Marcelo Aparecido Rede
• Grantee: Theo Caram de Moraes Miguez
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research aims to analyze the changes and reforms to Assyrian royal ideology during the reign of Sennacherib (705-681 BCE), mainly focusing on the complex political and cultural relationship established with Babylonia. During the analyzed period Babylonia was simultaneously one of Assyrias greatest rivals for domain of Mesopotamia, and the model for civilization and high culture in which the Assyrian elite was inspired, creating a dichotomy that manifested in many aspects of Neo-Assyrian royal ideology. Through the reading and comparative lexical analysis of Assyrian and Babylonian royal inscriptions, as well as mythological documents, we aim to identify in which way the representation of Assyrian power would have been influenced by Babylonian tradition, and how their rivalry would have been expressed in the ideological efforts of the Assyrian court. They central hypothesis is that there was, in Sennacheribs reign, a move to appropriate Babylonian ideological elements simultaneous to their assyrianization and the erasure of their original cultural context. That would be part of a project to usurp Babylonia as the cultural and symbolic capital of the Mesopotamian world, something manifested, among other events, by the partial destruction of the city in 689 BCE. (AU)