Divine Foundations:

Abstract

beFoRe the FAll oF the neoAssyRiAn empiRe in 612 BCE, Assyria’s royal capital had moved between at least five different cities. The last three of these cities were made capitals within a relatively short time frame that spanned about two hundred years. These massive capital cities were the seats of Assyria’s imperial power as the main residence of the reigning king, as well as the centers of an expanding empire. Unlike Babylonia, whose royal capital was consistently located at Babylon, at least after the second millennium BCE,1 Assyria is unusual for the very fact that the kings moved the imperial center so frequently during a relatively short period of time, particularly during the NeoAssyrian phase: from Assyria’s longstanding center at Assur, the capital moved to KārTukultīNinurta (in the Middle Assyrian period), back to Assur, to Calah, to DūrŠarrukīn, and finally to Nineveh.2 While these cities have been studied individually, little attention has been paid to the ideological implications of moving capital cities