A Companion to Ethnicity in the Ancient Mediterranean

144 Ann E. Killebrew

Mediterranean

Sea

Damascus

Megiddo

Alalakh

0

0

200

300

Miles

Kilometers

100

150

Ugarit

CYPRUS

HITTITE

KINGDOM

iN

el

iR

ve

r

R ed Sea

Zincirli

ASYRIA

M U R R U C

A

N

A

A

N

Gaza

AMMON

EDOM

NILE DELTA

CILICIA

El-Amarna

SINAI

Hattusha

Nineveh

MITTANI

ME

SO

PO

TA

M

IA

Tigr

isR

ive

r

Euphra

tesR

iver

Mari

ASSYRIA

Babylon

BABYLONIA

EGYPT

Map 10.1 The Eastern Mediterranean.

interdependent relationships that typically exist between pastoral and sedentary lifestyles

(Limet 2005). Especially influential were M. Rowton’s landmark studies of a “dimorphic

zone,” an area where both pastoralism and agriculture was practiced, leading to “enclosed

nomadism,” which, in Rowton’s opinion, characterized tribal and state interactions in

third–second millennia Mesopotamia (e.g., Rowton 1976a–b, 1977). Within the past

decade, scholars have proposed an even closer and more complex integration between

nomadic and urban sectors, creating more ambiguity regarding the boundaries between

pastoral nomadic groups and urban populations (e.g., Szuchman 2009). Three groups