MSc Joshua Jeffers

I am currently working on my Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Pennsylvania that focuses on elucidating the mechanisms of Tiglath-Pileser I’s kingdom through which he structured royal ideology, governed the country’s territory, and preserved and/or promoted Assyria’s legal and scholarly knowledge. My dissertation aims at emphasizing his role as a transitional figure between the Middle Assyrian and Neo-Assyrian periods, thus allowing me to place Tiglath-Pileser I’s reign into a proper cultural-historical perspective that will provide insight into his innovations and re-interpretations of Assyrian traditions and political organization. With respect to the goals of TOPOI B-II-1, I am examining the extent and governance of Tiglath-Pileser I’s realm from the perspectives of both his royal inscriptions and his economic texts that were discovered at Aššur. Unlike his royal inscriptions that present a propagandized view of the expanse of his kingdom, expressed primarily through military activity, the hundreds of economic texts preserve more “realistic” information concerning the exact extent of Assyria’s territorial borders and the areas over which it had influence.