We have discussed the fact that the Assyrian Empire consisted on the one hand of the provinces that made up the kingdom of Assyria, and on the other hand of the client-states whose governments accepted the sovereignty of the Assyrian King. But while the people in all these regions were subject of the Assyrian empire, only the inhabitants of the provinces, only the people under the authority of a provincial governor appointed by the Assyrian King, were considered to be Assyrians. So what does it mean to be Assyrian? From the perspective of the god Aššur and his temple at the city of Assur, the answer to that question was straightforward. An Assyrian was a person who accepted the authority of the god Aššur. An Assyrian was a servant of the god Aššur and the servant of Aššur participated in the feast of Aššur. There were two aspect to this. Firstly, it was duty and the privilege of the servants of Aššur to provide their god with regular sacrifices. Some of these were presented to him in the form of a daily feast. It was prepared and presented by the staff of his temple in Assur. You will remember that the only shrine for the god was situated in the city that shared his name. The core ingredients of Aššur’s feast were beef, mutton, and poultry, cereals like barley and wheat, sesame oil, honey, and seasonal fruits such as apples and figs. These ingredients were not especially rare, and had originally been procured locally at Assur. But as the city-state of Assur turned into the kingdom of Assyria, the ingredients were no longer sourced merely in the city of Assur. Instead, they had to be delivered from all across the realm in relatively small quantities, but regularly, and as Assyria expanded, over ever increasing distances. The provincial governors who were in charge of organising taxation and conscription also had the duty to provide ingredients for the feast of Aššur on behalf of their subjects. Every province had to participate in filling Aššur’s table. The message was clear, all servants of Aššur, all Assyrians had to join in the care for the god. In this way, the Assyrian state can be defined as the community of Aššur’s worshippers. At Assur, the temple's butchers, bakers, confectioners, brewers, and oil pressers, all of them men, processed the materials and prepared the dishes. In a cultural context where the ritual preparation and celebration of a daily feast in honour of the god was at the core of temple worship these culinary specialists were naturally among the priestly personnel. Once prepared, the dishes were brought into the presence of the statue of the god. Awakened by the so-called mouth opening ritual, the statue was thought to be sentient and appreciative of the music and the prayers, the incense and the flowers that accompanied the serving of the food. Gods were thought to consume their meal by absorbing its essence by smell. So to the modern observer, the leftovers of Aššur’s feast would have appeared as the untouched dishes, intact, but cooled down. Participation in Aššur’s feast was more than providing ingredients. The second equally important aspect was the consumption of these leftovers. As once the dishes had been removed from the offering tables, they were distributed back into the community. A strict protocol governed who receive which parts of the leftovers. The least of recipients included the staff of Aššur’s temple, but also the king, and his court, and the “great ones” of Assyria, the state officials placed across the realm. In order to reach the provincial governors, the dishes had to be transported over considerable distances just like before the ingredients from which they had been prepared. After the move of the royal court away from Assur in 879 BC, also the shares for the king and his courtiers had to be sent to that distant destination. The food was of course no longer fresh when it reached the recipients. But to eat from the divine feast was not meant to be a culinary experience, but a blessing. “Whoever eats the leftovers will live” as a royal official put it in the seventh century BC. Partaking in Aššur’s meal in this manner was a huge privilege and bound the Assyrian officials together, and to the god, no matter how far away from his temple they were based. In addition, when the governors ate the leftovers, they consumed them on behalf of the inhabitants of their provinces. By contributing ingredients to the daily feast of Aššur, and by consuming directly or indirectly its leftovers, all subjects of the Assyrian state, the land of the god Aššur, were envisaged as the congregation of Aššur, whose contribution to his worship was their privilege and duty. In essence, this is what it meant to be an Assyrian. However, from the viewpoint of the crown, contributing to the feast of Aššur was merely one component of the participation required of the people of the land of Aššur. In the imperial period, the offerings to the feast of Aššur were seen as part of the much larger tax burden levied on all inhabitants of his realm by the king. This is made explicit, for example, in this passage of an inscription of King Tiglath-pileser III describing what happened after he conquered the parts of northern Babylonia in 745 BC. “I annexed these regions to the land of Assur, and placed one of my eunuchs as governor over them. From their taxes, which I take annually, I apportioned 240 sheep to the god Aššur, my lord, as his share. Of those whom I deported, I settled a certain number in location A, another number in location B”, and so forth. Tiglath-pileser's inscription prominently mentions that after the conquered regions were turned into provinces, parts of their population were settled elsewhere in his realm. In this context, people are seen every much as commodities, albeit very precious ones. We'll discuss the extensive program of deportations that was implemented during the imperial period separately. Tiglath-pileser then goes on to say, “I united these people, I counted them as people of the land of Aššur. And as Assyrians, I impose the yoke of the god Aššur, my lord, upon them.” From the perspective of the Assyrian state administration, to be an Assyrian meant to pay taxes to the Assyrian crown. And to make someone an Assyrian meant imposing debt obligation. Most importantly, these were taxes on landed property and animal stock, which were paid in kind. And the poll tax, which was originally due in the form of a certain number of days of labor per year for public works or military service. At least by the late eighth century BC, this obligation could also be paid off. Taxes were due by the head of a family on behalf of the entire household. It is essential to stress that in the imperial period, the requirements to contribute to the worship of Aššur were seen as a small part of the overall tax obligation. The governors, whose main responsibility was to oversee the collection of taxes in their provinces, were held responsible to supply what was due to Aššur. Although the contribution to Aššur’s worship is at the root of the Assyrian state taxation, by the imperial period this obligation was disconnected from the dues of the individual tax payer. While membership of Aššur’s congregation was a very real thing for all those running the empire, who not only contributed to the offerings, but also consumed the leftovers of the meal, the cult of Aššur was otherwise a step removed from the inhabitants of Assyria. The exceptions are of course the residents of the city of Assur, who were intimately concerned with the deity. They'd choose names that offered praise or prayer to the gods, such as Aššur-remanni or “Aššur, have mercy on me”, or Aššur-duri, “Aššur is my fortress”. And the other cities of the realm, the personal relationships expressed in such names were reserved for local deities, but not Aššur. The religious dimension in justifying Assyrian taxation never amounted to a movement to proselytise the cult of Aššur. To be Assyrian, it was sufficient to accept the uncontested authority of the Assyrian King. By the imperial period, we need not to trace one's lineage to the ancient families of the city of Assur to be Assyrian. We need not to speak the Assyrian language. In essence to be Assyrian was to pay taxes to the king, Aššur’s representative on Earth. And when the king turned conquered people into Assyrians, he imposed that obligation onto them. Adding people to the realm created Assyrians, and these can be described as the most important product of the imperial project. They were participants, commodities, and consumers of all the empire could offer.
