Assyrians and Greeks: The nature of contacts in the 9th–7th centuries BC

Contacts between Greeks and the ancient Near Eastern states in the 9th–7th centuries BC are followed through the Neo-Assyrian Empire and the Levant. Dezső and Vér relate Greek piracy, military service, settlement and trade to Assyrian expansion westward, and then turn to the kāru system as a way of organising and controlling foreign commerce. The evidence combines Assyrian royal inscriptions and administrative letters with Greek and later literary accounts, archaeological contexts and distributions of pottery and weapons.

The argument

Assyrian campaigns in the west, in their view, were guided by political and economic interests, above all control of Levantine ports and trade routes. Greek activity developed within this changing system, from raids and military service to trade and possible settlement. For the northern Levant they read the spacing of coastal sites as a network of harbours and suggest that Assyrian administration helped shape its use (pp. 333–335, 347–351).

Dezső and Vér present the kāru as an imperial system that confined foreign trade to designated centres, where officials could collect tolls and restrict particular goods. Letters about cedar, iron, valuables, slave sales and harbour traffic illustrate how the rules were enforced. Dezső and Vér conclude that Greek merchants could take part in trade controlled by Assyria, including at coastal stations north of Phoenicia (pp. 351–359).

The evidence

Examples include the reported Ionian attacks on Levantine towns, the lists of Cypriot rulers under Esarhaddon and the material evidence for Greek military equipment in the Near East (pp. 334–347). Among the Cypriot finds, Dezső and Vér identify Tamassos as one of the centres associated with local helmet types influenced by Syro-Assyrian forms.

Pottery patterns serve to tell imports from possible Greek presence or settlement, with comparisons between the southern Levant, the North Syrian coast and Cilicia, including Al Mina, Tarsus and Mersin. The authors associate the growth of Greek pottery in North Syria and Cilicia with commercial activity and consider Greek settlement possible, while noting that its scale and status remain debated (pp. 347–351).

Dating

The period runs from early Assyrian trade networks to the fall of the empire. The account follows the western campaigns of Tiglath-Pileser III, Sargon II, Sennacherib and Esarhaddon, and gives particular attention to the 8th and 7th centuries BC for Greek activity, pottery and military evidence (pp. 331–347).