Jobs in Ancient Assyria: From Farmers to Empire Builders

The Neo-Assyrian Empire (c. 911–609 BCE) sustained a complex, stratified society. Major occupational groups included:

Primary Production

• Farmers (majority): Barley, wheat, millet, sesame; irrigation management.
• Herders: Sheep, goats, cattle, donkeys—wool, meat, transport.

Craft & Industry

• Artisans: Potters, metalworkers (bronze, iron), weavers, leatherworkers, jewelers, glassmakers.
• Construction: Masons, brickmakers, carpenters for palaces, temples, walls, aqueducts.

Trade & Administration

• Merchants (tamkaru): Long-distance trade (Anatolia, Iran, Levant, Egypt)—textiles, metals, timber, luxury goods.
• Scribes & Scholars: Cuneiform administration, astronomy, omens, medicine, literature (library of Ashurbanipal).
• Officials: Governors, tax collectors, magistrates, royal delegates.

Military & Coercive

• Professional Soldiers: Charioteers, cavalry, infantry, engineers, siege specialists—core of imperial expansion.
• Conscripts/Levies: Seasonal call-ups from subject populations.

Religious & Domestic

• Priests & Temple Staff: Rituals, divination, temple economies.
• Domestic Slaves: Captives/debt-slaves in households, workshops, agriculture.

The state directed labor through corvée, taxation, and deportation—repopulating cities with skilled deportees to boost production.