Countries and Peoples at the North-Eastern Border of Assyria

The paper investigates the area of the upper courses of the Lower Zab and Tanjero rivers, including the plains of Raniya and Shahrizor and neighbouring valleys in the Zagros. In the region, smaller local polities were interposed between Assyria, Urarṭu, Mannea and the Medes, and were clearly at the margins of major states, but certainly not marginal to the communication and control systems. Recent archaeological research has widened our perspective on the empires’ peripheries and allows us to better understand their roles in various phases and relations with the centres. In the case considered here archaeological data can be compared with written sources stemming from the major states to study the reciprocal relations.