Multiculturalism and the Neo-Assyrian Empire

 = Paper = 

The Neo-Assyrian empire, often referred to as the first real empire in world history, encompassed large parts of the Ancient Near East at its height in the seventh century BCE. It is reputed as multi-ethnic and multilingual, thus implying the existence of multiculturalism. This article investigates this image of the Neo-Assyrian empire as multicultural by collecting, classifying, and analysing data derived from the prosopography of the Neo-Assyrian empire which focus on gentilics, that is, ethnic-linguistic attributes like “the Egyptian” being used as a personal name or as attributive to personal names. By comparing the frequency of “Assyrian” and “foreign” gentilics, a picture of the multicultural nature of the Neo-Assyrian empire is derived. This article aims at making a contribution in the ongoing discussion on the multi-ethnic and multilingual character of the Neo-Assyrian empire.