Voyages et voyageurs a l' epoque neo-assyrienne.

• Author: Melville, Sarah C.
• Position: State Archives of Assyria Studies, vol. 18 - Book review

Voyages et voyageurs a l' epoque neo-assyrienne. By SABRINA FAVARO. State Archives of Assyria Studies, vol. 18. Helsinki: THE NEO-ASSYRIAN TEXT CORPUS PROJECT, 2007. Pp. xviii + 169, plates. $59 (paper).

Sabrina Favaro's Voyages et voyageurs a l'epoque neo-assyrienne is an ambitious and timely study of travel and communication in the Neo-Assyrian empire. Using satellite imagery, archaeological surveys, and the full corpus of published Neo-Assyrian tablets, the author offers both a practical survey of her subject and a theoretical interpretation of it. Favaro's stated goal is "n'a pas ete seulement d' approfondire la connaissance que on a des pratiques de voyage mais de considere le voyage comme un phenomene en soi, comme un theme fondamental et un point de vue possible a travers lequel interpreter et comprendre la civilisation neo-assyrienne ..."

In spite of such high aims, Favaro is sensibly aware of the limits of her sources and she does not exceed them. On the contrary, this book is a fine example of painstaking scholarship; the author collects every shred of evidence and proceeds to squeeze whatever she can out of it. She is careful to point out that since the written documentation of travel is restricted to official correspondence on the one hand, and royal inscriptions on the other, we get only tidbits of information about conditions of travel and the personal experiences of travelers, many of whom are among the elites of the society. Favaro also readily acknowledges the persistent problem of generalizing from scattered and fragmentary evidence. For example, while correspondence undeniably shows that Sargon II's masennu traveled a great deal, we cannot simply assume that other office holders, of whom there is very little evidence, traveled just as frequently.

Brief introductory and concluding remarks frame the main portion of the work, which is divided into three parts, each with numerous subheadings. The first section, "Voyages et Voyageurs," concentrates on personnel who traveled in an official capacity, the reasons for travel, the exigencies of travel, and the meaning of travel in royal campaign narratives. Favaro discusses the king's chief officials, including the masennu, nagir ekalli, sartennu, sukkallu, governors and other functionaries, all types of messengers (the mar sipri of the civilian sector plus military messengers of various types), and finally, the king and his army. This chapter unavoidably covers a lot of...