ABSTRACT
The territory of the Ammonites is not clearly defined in ancient texts, such as the Hebrew Scriptures and Assyrian sources, although the Old Testament affirms that the children of Ammon lived north of the Moabites (Deut 2:17–19, 24) and east of the territory that Israel had conquered from Sihon, king of Heshbon (Num 21:24). Their land is described as mountainous and close to the Jabboq (Wadi az-Zarqa’; Deut 2:37); their neighbours include the Aramaeans (2 Sam 10) and the camel nomads or ‘children of the east’ (bny qdm; Ezek 25:4,5,10). Their principal city is called rbh (‘the great one’; 2 Sam 11:1), or rbt bny ‘mwn (‘the great one of the children of Ammon’; 2 Sam 12:26–30). Tiglath-pileser III names Ammon before Moab in a list of territories that runs roughly north to south (summary inscription No. 7, reverse, line 10), and Ashurbanipal names Ammon in his record of operations against the Arabs throughout southern Syria and Transjordan (Prism A, col. VII, line 110; Dion 2003: 486).
