292. Ancient Gaza: From The Assyrians to The Romans (Part 2)
🎯 Summary
[{“key_takeaways”=>[“The destruction of the Philistine city of Gath around 830 BCE, attributed to King Hazael of Aram Damascus, is marked by a clear archaeological ‘black line’ of charcoal.”, “The Assyrians, a highly militarized empire, introduced mass deportation as a strategy to neutralize opposition and relocate skilled labor, though they generally spared major port cities like Gaza if they remained functional tribute-payers.”, “The Babylonians were significantly more destructive than the Assyrians, sacking cities like Ashkelon and Ekron completely and conducting massive deportations, including from Gaza.”, “Under Persian rule, Gaza minted its own coins (modeled on Athens) and maintained a degree of autonomy, serving as a crucial port for trade routes, including those used by inland Arab groups.”, “Arabs (likely Kedarites) were present in the region centuries before Islam, trading frankincense and perfumes through coastal ports like Gaza, challenging the misconception of a sudden 7th-century arrival.”, “Gaza famously resisted Alexander the Great’s siege, displaying exceptional bravery, which led to a brutal conquest where the city was besieged for months and its commander, Batis, was brutally executed.”, “Archaeological evidence from contemporary sites like Ashkelon shows that even under imperial pressure, Philistine cities remained economically active, exporting wine and olive oil.”], “overview”=>”This episode continues the history of ancient Gaza, focusing on the violent imperial occupations that followed the sophisticated Philistine civilization, starting with the destruction of Gath by Aram Damascus around 830 BCE. The discussion traces Gaza’s subjugation under a succession of aggressive empires—Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, and finally Greek under Alexander the Great. Despite periods of severe destruction and mass deportation, the coastal cities, including Gaza, often retained enough economic function or strategic importance to survive, albeit under new foreign control.”, “themes”=>[“Imperial Conquest and Violence in the Levant”, “Archaeological Evidence of Destruction Layers”, “The Shifting Identities of Gaza and the Coastal Plain (Philistines, Phoenicians, Arabs)”, “Assyrian and Babylonian Imperial Strategies (Deportation vs. Sacking)”, “The Strategic Importance of Coastal Ports”, “The Heroic Resistance of Ancient Gaza”]}]
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💬 Key Insights
"The seventh-century invasions at the time of the rise of Islam, you don't get a massive change of population. It isn't that the Arabs ride in. It's that the language Arabic takes over in this region."
"There is this misconception abroad that the Arabs arrive in this part of the world on camels in the seventh century with Islam, that they come out of Mecca and Saudi Arabia and take over this area. Let's just dwell a second before we go to the break on the fact that there are Arabs in this region already, many centuries before Islam, that these guys are inland as well as on the coast, that they're trading with frankincense and with perfumes through the desert routes."
"And if the Assyrians introduced the strategy of mass deportation, that gets them skills, agricultural labor to the center of their empire, all this way inland, and it also neutralizes opposition on the margins if you just remove some of the people there."
"They also kind of laid a whole new road network, the first real road network across Western Asia. They invented a mule service to actually deliver these communications. So a mule to the Assyrians was worth more than a human slave."
"The Assyrians invented the postal service, for instance, not for, you know, you and I sending letters, but for the military estate purposes."
"When they break inside, what they find is they're amazed by the riches of Gaza. Because in Greece, they are very aware of the price of frankincense. It's a distant and exotic product."