[mikhmha]

I've thought about this idea a lot. It seems like the idea we have of the centralized empires of the past is mostly based on movies and fiction - and maybe from the actions of the last remaining empires in the 19-20th century. I think we take for granted advancements in communications and transportation that allowed for the governance of large areas of land in more recent history.

Are maps of ancient empires even accurate? What do they even mean. If you went back in time to some backwater village on the edges of some Empire map and asked the villagers who was the emperor could they even tell you? Or would they still name some king from 50 years ago?

[ijidak]

It's true. Control of many fringe regions was tenuous at times.

For example, the Annals of Sennacherib show the Assyrians had to re-conquer areas that drifted after previous subjugation.

But how do you draw those boundaries between subjugations?

In the Bible, it shows that Nebuchadnezzar's armies had to repeatedly return to Israel to re-subjugate it between rebellions.

No doubt similar rebellions could occur in many different areas all at once.

Boundaries were likely never as neat as the boundaries we show today.

Plus, it's not like they were surveying their boundaries and monitoring them via a supranational body like the U.N.

[digging]

Borders are a more modern concept anyway, and even modern borders are anything but a line on a map. (Consider airports. Embassies. Checkpoints. Federal agencies operating inside neighboring countries to deter migration. Etc)

Boundaries are policies, not objects. They always have been.

[prox]

That really depends. I have been reading a lot recently on early Indian civilization, and really most of what we know in terms of historicity, aka writing in the earliest times, is only in the north, the Indus, the Ganges plains and so on. However there were many cultures living in the subcontinent south. Some of those “tribes” were deep in forests and survived relatively intact to the current day, with at least some features unscathed.

Then there is the trade of the early CE time. Trade between India and the Roman Empire over sea was of incredible proportions. Recently a sanskrit brahmi script was uncovered in an old Egyptian harbour port. So there must have been also a large group of people exposed to trade and exchange of ideas.

So I don’t think any broad sweeping statements can be made. To answer your question, it totally depends on the place and time you want to look at.