Cover; Half-title; Title page; Copyright information; Dedication; Table of contents; List of figures; List of tables; List of contributors; One Ancient Empires on the Ground; Comparing Empires; Peripheral and Provincial Perspectives; The Problem of Empire; The Logistics of Empires; Heterogeneous Empires; This Book; Acknowledgements; Note; I The Transformation of Rural Societies and Landscapes; Two Engineering Empire; Introduction; The Mesopotamian Context; Comparing Ancient Near Eastern Empires; A Provincial Perspective on the Middle Assyrian Empire; The Assur Region in Middle Assyrian Times

The Lower Khabur in Middle Assyrian TimesThe Upper Khabur in Middle Assyrian Times; The Balikh in Middle Assyrian Times; Assyrian Repertoires of Rule Reconsidered; Conclusion; Acknowledgements; Notes; References; Three The Creation of the Assyrian Heartland; Introduction; The Making of the 'Land of Ashur'; The Foundation of Large Fortified Capital and Provincial Cities; The Forced Migration of Deportees; The Creation of a Dense Network of Small Rural Settlements; The Construction of Hydraulic Systems of Regional Scale; The Symbolic Appropriation of Dominated Landscapes

The Assyrian Landscape in the 'Land behind Nineveh' and Its TransformationLoNAP Goals and Research Methods; Settlement Patterns in the Land behind Nineveh from the Middle Bronze Age to the Iron Age; The Neo-Assyrian Hydraulic Network in the Land behind Nineveh: Agricultural Intensification...; Reassessing Assyrian Deportation Practices; Conclusions; Acknowledgements; Notes; References; Four Pioneers of the Western Desert; Achaemenid Rule in Rural Perspective; The Kharga Oasis as a Landscape of Preservation; The Ecology and History of the Kharga Oasis; Agricultural Infrastructure

Religious InfrastructureThe Development of the Kharga Oasis; Integrating the Hinterlands; Acknowledgements; Notes; References; Five Power at a Distance; Introduction; Chersonesos and the Socioeconomic Nature of Its Nearer Chora on the Herakleian Peninsula; Rural Development of the Tarkhankut Peninsula; The DSP Survey: Landscape and Methodology; The DSP Survey: Archaeological Remains in the Cultivated Plain and Hillside Steppe; The DSP Survey: The Funerary Landscape; Hypotheses on Settlement and Land Use; Chersonesos and Its Farther Chora; The Sustainability of the Farther Chora of Chersonesos

The Fate of Northwestern Crimea in the Face of EmpireConclusion; Acknowledgements; References; Six Early Roman Colonisation beyond the Romanising Agrotown; Introduction; Roman Imperialism and Colonisation; The Colony as Romanising Town; Recent Critiques of Colonies as Romanising Towns; Colonial Variability: Merits and Limitations; Widening the Scope: Differential Motivations and Patterns of Impact; Alba Fucens: A Case Study of Roman Expansionism in the Apennines; Conclusion; References; II The Transformation of Peripheral Societies and Landscapes; Seven Negotiation, Violence, and Resistance