An empires names its periphery: the neo-assyrian toponym for Damascus

In this article I study the ideological connotation of a special toponym used for defining the kingdom and the city of Damascus exclusively in the Neo-Assyrian royal inscriptions. The toponym had a perfect Assyrian/Akkadian meaning such as "(that) of its donkey(s)", and was generally explained as referring to the pastoral richness of that country. Studying the historical development of its rendering in cuineiform in the royal inscriptions, however, I suggest that the toponym is a derogatory term referring to the Syrian custom of killing young donkeys when stipulating political and military alliances, developed in IXth century Assyria when Damascus opposed successfully to the Assyrian miltary pressure in Syria.