Culture of Defeat: Political, Social-Demographic, Economic, and Cultural Responses to Conquest Events in the Iron Age Southern Levant

Conquests and military conflicts in antiquity have traditionally been examined from the viewpoint of the victor, largely overlooking the defeated party, whose experiences were often significant, traumatic, and enduring. Such a major defeat was experienced by the southern Levant after the expansion of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in the late 8^th century BC. Assyria subdued the northern Kingdom of Israel in 720 BC (famously deporting the ‘Ten Lost Tribes of Israel’) and conquered the southern Kingdom of Judah shortly thereafter. These defeats resonate in the cultural and religious traditions of the region, and beyond, to this day. They are among the best documented in Near Eastern history; written and archaeological data reflect the perspectives of both the victor and the vanquished, which allows to reconstruct the aftermath of the defeat in detail. This project examines these records from the perspective of the vanquished and aims to reconstruct the impact on and responses of the defeated population.