第4章古代オリエントThe Near East

At the dawn of the Iron Age, which began around 1200 BCE in the Near East, highly trained Assyrian armies with bronze and iron weapons expanded out of northern Mesopotamia. Within a few centuries, their conquests had provided the Assyrians with an empire larger than the Near East had ever seen. Relying on archaeological finds like this detailed relief as well as textual documentation from the Bible and other sources, historians have pieced together the history of this once-mighty state (Figure 4.1). The Assyrians conquered the kingdom of Israel in the eighth century BCE, added Egypt to their lands in the seventh century BCE, and held it all together with a combination of ruthless military tactics, efficient state organization, and a wide network of royal roads. They left a powerful regional legacy, yet theirs is just one of many empires that rose and fell in the complicated and dangerous world of the ancient Near East. Though these local power brokers were linked by the shared heritage of a Sumerian past, including influences such as cuneiform and Hammurabi’s law code, their rapid succession speaks to the level of rivalry and conflict experienced by the people of the area. Yet the same chaos led to important innovations in all aspects of society, particularly military technology.

近東で紀元前1200年頃に始まる鉄器時代の幕開けに、青銅と鉄の武器を持つ、よく訓練されたアッシリア軍が、メソポタミア北部から勢力を広げた。数世紀のうちに、その征服は、近東でそれまでに例のない広大な帝国を生んだ。歴史家は、この精緻な浮彫のような考古資料と、聖書などの文字資料を組み合わせ、かつて強大だった国家の歴史を復元してきた（図4.1）。アッシリアは紀元前8世紀にイスラエル王国を征服し、紀元前7世紀にはエジプトを領土に加えた。容赦のない軍事戦術、効率的な国家組織、広い王道網を組み合わせ、全体をまとめた。地域に強い遺産を残したが、複雑で危険な古代近東で興亡した、多くの帝国の一つでもあった。こうした地域勢力は、楔形文字やハンムラビ法典など、シュメール以来の共通の遺産で結ばれていた。それでも支配勢力が次々と交代したことは、地域の人々が経験した競争と紛争の激しさを物語る。同じ混乱は、社会のあらゆる面、とりわけ軍事技術の重要な革新も生んだ。