Displaced People During the Middle Assyrian Period (ca. 1500–1000 BC)

Abstract This study examines the policies and practices of population displacement during the Middle Assyrian period (ca. 1500–1000 BCE), a phase preceding the well-documented Neo-Assyrian deportations. Drawing on royal inscriptions, chronicles, and especially administrative documents, it reconstructs the nature, scale, and management of displaced groups under successive Assyrian kings. The analysis highlights that although less ideologically formalized than in later centuries, deportation during the Middle Assyrian period was already a key instrument of statecraft. Four principal categories of displaced persons are identified: fugitives, prisoners of war, deportees, and hostages. Special attention is given to the reign of Tukultī-Ninurta I, for which the richest administrative records survive. These sources reveal the large-scale and systematic relocation of diverse ethnic groups, their integration into labor systems (notably agriculture and construction), and their provisioning and surveillance by the state. The emergence of practices like godnapping and symbolic titulary underscores the ideological dimension of deportation. Furthermore, the paper demonstrates how deportation contributed to the territorial consolidation of the empire and the functioning of its economy. It concludes that the Middle Assyrian deportation system formed a foundational stage in the evolution of Assyrian imperial policies of population control.