Workers of Assyria unite! building the walls of Dur-Šarrukēn

Abstract

The creation of new capital cities are watershed moments in the lives of ancient empires. Assyria repeatedly engaged in capital creation. Historical and archaeological research has exhaustively studied these cities from the perspectives of their assumed king-creators, investigating the royal narratives associated with them, as well as the elite spaces of these cities, such as citadels and palaces. Rarely, however, has research been concerned with how these cities were built and who the people were that actually engaged in the building process, the day-to-day workers in these massive construction sites. In this paper I will explore the labour required for the construction of a new Assyrian capital, using the mudbrick wall of Dur-Šarrukēn as a case study, and theorise on the composition and agency of the workers building these cities from the ground up. During my MA studies at the Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, I did an assignment on emerging social inequalities in the Neolithic period of West Asia. This was part of a class I was taking on the Neolithic period taught by Professor Peter Akkermans, a class I was particularly excited about, considering Peter was one of the main reasons I chose to study at Leiden. As part of the course we had to complete a final assignment, for which we could pick one of a set of given topics. I purposefully chose the topic on emerging social inequalities. I wanted to argue in favour of a framework that looks into social equalities in the Neolithic rather than trying to argue for a neo-evolutionist approach that expects societies to follow specific social steps towards social complexity. I must admit that I was afraid Peter wouldn’t appreciate my deviation from the assigned project. I am not sure what Peter saw in my assignment, but he both supported me to pursue this concept for the paper, and further pursue an academic career. His openness and support towards new ideas and young scholars has helped me in every step of my way, and for that I will always be thankful. Although in this paper I will not be talking about the Neolithic, I will be looking at aspects of social equality and aim to propose a bottom-up approach to the study of the creation and construction of large urban centres, particularly those of the Assyrian capital cities.