The Intellectual Heritage of the Ancient Near East, pp. 191-206, 2023/04/12
Proceedings of the 64th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale and the 12th Melammu Symposium, University of Innsbruck, July 16‒20, 2018
During the late sixth and early fifth centuries BCE, the Achaemenid kings demanded earth and water from a number of subjects or potential subjects. There is general agreement among scholars that to give earth and water was to offer submission to the king. However, there is no agreement about the precise meaning of these specific symbols, nor on the source of the ritual. In this paper I will argue that the ritual stems from Neo-Assyrian practice, where it represented the violent conquest of a city. Under the Achaemenids, instead of military conquest, it was intended to portray the subjects as voluntary, and to avoid violence altogether.
