Archaeologica.org

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 124007.htm


Interesting and evidence for the Assyrian policy of deporting populations from one part of their empire to another.

Isn’t that one of the theories behind the so called “lost tribes?”

I don't put any stock in the lost tribes. The Assyrians themselves recorded that they moved at most 20,000 people from the overrun regions and replaced them with others who were brought in from elsewhere in the Empire. The bulk of the population - peasant farmers - stayed right where they were.

Not so.

Stalin did the same thing. And for the same reason.

The root concept, from memory here (unreliable at times) is what Pythagoras originally formulated under the heading Kosmos - the synergy of ethnicity, ancestral homeland, language, culture, laws, religion and mores, each reinforcing the others. Of these, the biggest single factor was homeland -- patriotism.

Previously, Kings had gone around conquering neighboring peoples and imposing taxes on them. Which, as soon as the occupiers left, they stopped paying. This got to be annoying (to the conquerors), as they weren't even recouping the expenses involved. The expedient the Assyrians came up with was to deport conquered peoples to the far ends of the empire (as Stalin did with the Crimean Tatars, who were particularly troublesome). The Israelites (proper. As distinguished from the Judaheans) were exiled to the outer reaches of the empire, where they served as a buffer state (anybody attacking from the north would encounter them first). Their subsequent history, from there, is sketchy but recoverable. (Around this same time, the Irish accounts note an influx of refugees arriving in ships).

Accomplishing the same goal is the intention behind the enforced immigration of unassimilable minorities in the US, Canada, Britain, Australia and elsewhere, and the ferocious attack on majority culture and values -- in academia in particular. Divide et impera.

There is nothing new under the sun.

uniface:

You are quite right on the reasons for the population re-settling.
It removes the “sense of place”

But your comment about refugees showing up by ship in Ireland caught my eye.

“Their subsequent history, from there, is sketchy but recoverable. (Around this same time, the Irish accounts note an influx of refugees arriving in ships). “

I would guess these people were ones who saw the Assyrians coming and bailed out, taking family and possessions with them?
The Israelites may not have been sailors but they were traders.
Even if the mechanics of sailing and navigation were not their strengths, they would have had knowledge of end of voyage locations and contacts that could be taken advantage of in such a situation.

Do you have anyplace I can follow up on theses stories?
I have long wondered how many and how far such expiates went.

On a perhaps somewhat related vein:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaoQcdsqZz8

The Purgatory River is a feeder to the Arkansas River.
It literally starts at the Continental Divide, just a few miles from the headwaters of the Colorado River. The Colorado, of course, flows southwest.
The Arkansas is the first major river coming from the west if you are going upstream on the Mississippi.
So, if you were a boat oriented explorer or trader and wanted to go west from whatever New Orleans was called at the time, the Arkansas would be the way to go.

Stalin did the same thing.

So did Hitler, he even had a name for the policy, lebensraum.

Roy.

Which, as soon as the occupiers left, they stopped paying. This got to be annoying (to the conquerors), as they weren't even recouping the expenses involved.

Your bible fairy tales have your god's storm troopers exterminating every living thing in Canaan which seems to be a part you have overlooked, uni....which is of course customary.

Meanwhile, the Assyrians themselves recorded how many people they deported "The Assyrian inscriptions also record king Sargon’s boasting, "I besieged and captured Samaria, and carried off 27,290 of its inhabitants as booty" which is far from the total population.

You really do need to stop relying on that silly bible for "history."