Journal of Archaeological Studies

Abstract Hubuškia is a royal city and country in Northern Zagros and one of the significant buffer states between Assyrian and Urartian spheres of influence during the 9th to 7th centuries BC. Our information about Hubuškia comes primarily from Neo-Assyrian cuneiform texts. The localization of this place name and the petty state of the first half of first millennium BC has been a subject of debate and dissension among scholars and Assyriologists through the past century. The authors of the present study, based on the Neo-Assyrian inscriptions dealing with the Zagros polities, geographical analysis of the inscriptions and study of the archaeological founds derived from four seasons of excavation in Tape Rabat, suggests that ancient site of Rabat, could be comparable with that of ancient city of Hubuškia. Rabat Tape is located on the western bank of the Lower Zab River in northwestern Iran near the city of Sardasht. The location of the site and its archaeological characteristics, allows us to propose that Rabat Tape could be the same as the ancient city of Hubuškia.

Abstract The problem of historical geography and extent of Median territory in Neo-Assyrian period, from 9th to 7th centuries B.C. has always made dissensions. Given the extent of Median territory in Achaemenid and Parthian periods, early historians and Assyriologists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries considered Median realm extending from Zagros mountains to central plateau of Iran. From 1970s onwards, however, a new minimalistic approach to the historical geography of Neo-Assyrian Zagros has appeared and proposed a large Median territory than previously assumed and located Media on the western flanks of Alvand Mountain ranges. The advocates of this minimalistic approach have put limits on the extent of Assyrian dominance in Iran and consider the Alvand as the last spot of Assyrian Armies’ penetration to the east. The present study deals with assessing these contradictory assumptions. We also try to determine the Median boarders and also try to locate the main regions and cities of Media based on the Assyrian written sources.