Author: Yazdan Safaee

Books

The A9 Aramaic Manuscript from Ancient Bactria Revisited

Post author By Yazdan Safaee
Post date 03/09/2022

Lemaire, André. 2022. The A9 Aramaic Manuscript from Ancient Bactria Revisited. In: Christopher Rollston, Susanna Garfein & Neal H. Walls (eds.), Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Honor of P. Kyle McCarter Jr. (Ancient Near East Monographs 27), 357-366. Atlanta: SBL Press.

This contribution revisits the problems regarding the interpretation of one interesting text from Achaemenid Bactria, A9, and proposes a tentative reading and translation which varies from the one offered by the first editors (Joseph Naveh and Shaul Shaked). The said text records a transaction between a certain Bagavant and his wife Vartan (wrtn).

Journal

Journal of Persianate Studies

Post author By Yazdan Safaee
Post date 24/08/2022

The Journal of Persianate Studies is a peer-reviewed publication of the Association for the Study of Persianate Societies.

The vol. 14 of the journal contains a group of contributions from the study of Zoroastrianism together with other articles.

Table of contents:

Front matter
Carlo Giovanni Cereti: Introduction: Religious Diversity in Late Antique and Early Medieval Iran
Carlo Giovanni Cereti, Mehdi Mousavi Nia, and Mohammad Reza Neʿmati: Ray and Pahlaw in the Context of Sasanian Iran
Mojtaba Doroodi and Farrokh Hajiani: A Clarification of the Terms Dakhma and Astodān on the Basis of Literary Records and Archeological Research in Fars Province
Amin Shayeste Doust and Carlo Giovanni Cereti: The Purpose and Practice of Divorce in Sasanian and Post-Sasanian Texts
Antonio Clemente Panaino: Ohrmazd’s Divine Mercy and the End of the World between Apocatastasis and Apocalypse
Domenico Agostini: Some Observations on Ahriman and his Miscreation in the Bundahišn
Massimiliano Vassalli: How to Develop a Fabula: The Case of DēnkardVII
Paolo Ognibene: Restricted Access Linguistic and Religious Continuity in Outer Iran
Gianfilippo Terribili: Restricted Access Visitation and Awakening: Cross-Cultural and Functional Parallelisms between the Zoroastrian Srōš and Christian St. Sergius
Andrea Piras: Apocalyptic Imagery and Royal Propaganda in Khosrow II’s Letter to the Byzantine Emperor Maurice
Saïd Amir Arjomand: Manichæism as a World Religion of Salvation and Its Influence on Islam
Michael Vahidirad and Marjan Borhani: Restricted Access The Agricultural Economics of the Allied Occupation of Iran in the Second World War
Back matter

Tags Zoroastrianism

Articles

They went to Tamukkan

Post author By Yazdan Safaee
Post date 16/08/2022

Potts, Daniel T. 2022. ‘They went to Tamukkan:’ Some Observations on Bushehr, Borazjan and Overland Travel between the Persian Gulf and the Achaemenid Capitals. Motaleat-e Bastanshenasi-e Parseh 19: 14-38.

Fig. 1. Map of principal halts on the route between Bushehr and Shiraz, showing Persepolis and Pasargadae (courtesy Dr. Andrea Squitieri, Munich).

In recent years the Achaemenid sites in the Borazjan area have attracted a great deal of attention and their identification with Elamite Tamukkan/Greek Taocê has been widely accepted. Aside from the architectural interest of these sites, however, their location along what later became an important route linking the Persian Gulf and the Iranian plateau is significant. Whether travelling between the Persian Gulf coast and Shiraz, or the earlier Achaemenid capitals (Pasargadae and Persepolis), Borazjan represents the first stage for travellers moving along this route. This study examines some of the logistical aspects of travel between Borazjan and the highlands, as well as the climatic extremes experienced by travellers during much of the year. The difficulties of traversing the route are illustrated with selections from 19th and early 20th century travellers accounts. The advantages of commencing or ending the journey at Shif, as opposed to Bushehr, are discussed with reference to numerous examples. The importance of mules as pack animals along the route is emphasized. Finally, the implications of the evidence marshaled for the burgeoning field of sensory studies are underscored.

Tags Achaemenid Empire

Articles

Greek Historians, Persika and the Persian Empire

Post author By Yazdan Safaee
Post date 04/08/2022

Thomas, Rosalind. 2022. Greek Historians, Persika and the Persian Empire (late 5th.c. – 4th.c.). In: Efi Papadodima (ed.), Ancient Greek Literature and the Foreign: Athenian Dialogues II, 119-138. Berlin: De Gruyter.

The chapter discusses the ways in which various Greek writers en-gaged with the complexities of the Persian Empire, especially Herodotus, Xenophon, Aristotle, and some fourth-century writers (fragmentary) of Persika. It examines the tension between Greek hostility towards Persia and the conventional stereotypes, and their need to understand more about the Empire in a new form of ethnography. New insights into the Persian Empire (and new evidence) encourage returning to the Greek writers afresh and examining them from different angles: the chapter argues that amidst the clichés, there was also a seriousness and urgency in the fourth century about trying to understand the Persian Empire and its monarchy.

Tags Achaemenid Empire

Articles

God is in the Detail

Post author By Yazdan Safaee
Post date 03/08/2022

Henkelman, Wouter. F.M. 2022. God is in the Detail: The Divine Determinative and the Expression of Animacy in Elamite with an Appendix on the Achaemenid Calendar. In: Eva Cancik-Kirschbaum & Ingo Schrakamp (eds.), Transfer, Adaption und Neukonfiguration von Schrift- und Sprachwissen im Alten Orient (Episteme, 25), 405-477. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

Instead of giving an abstract of the above-cited paper, a detailed table of its contents will follow:

1. Introduction

1.1. Of Aryan dictators and Elamite Tape Recorders

1.2. Iranian Elamite

2. Redefining the Divine?

3. Months as Divine or Numinous Beings

4. Semantic Animacy in Middle and Neo-Elamite

4.1. Semantic Animacy Expressed by Determinatives

4.2. Expression of Semantic Animacy by Primary Nominal Suffixes

4.3. Expression of Semantic Animacy by Animate Concord

4.4. Animacy in Elam: An Interim Summary

5. The Months of Achaemenid Pārsa

5.1. Cultural Preferences from Persepolis to the Fahliyān

5.2. Continuity and Change

5.3. The Importance of the Old Iranian Month Names

6. Appendix: the Achaemenid Calendar

6.1. A Multilingual Calendar

6.2. A Calendar for the Empire

Tags Achaemenid Empire

Books

Making Peace in the Ancient World

Post author By Yazdan Safaee
Post date 29/07/2022

Lanfranchi, Giovanni B., Simonetta Ponchia and Robert Rollinger (eds.). 2022. Making Peace in the Ancient World: Proceedings of the 7th Melammu Workshop, Padova, 5–7 November 2018 (Melammu Workshops and Monographs 5). Münster: Zaphon.

Table of Contents

Giovanni B. Lanfranchi / Simonetta Ponchia / Robert Rollinger: Introduction

Antonio Daniele: Saluto dell’Accademia Galileiana di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti in Padova

I Key Note Lectures

Paolo Matthiae: The Destruction of Cultural Heritage in Syria and Iraq and the Perspective of a Rebirth

Marc Van De Mieroop: Making Peace in the Ancient Near East

Kurt A. Raaflaub: Making and Experiencing Peace in the Ancient World

II Ancient Near East and Egypt

Manfred Bietak: The Antagonism between Animosity and Peace-making in Ancient Egypt: Between Ideology and Practical Foreign Policy: An Extended Synopsis

Seth Richardson: Raiders, Neighbours, and Night-time: “Hybrid Peace” in Babylonia

Stefano de Martino: Making Peace in the Hittite Kingdom

Salvatore Gaspa: Making Peace in the Ancient Near East of the First Millennium BCE: The Case of the Assyrian Empire

Martti Nissinen: Peace and Peacemaking in the Hebrew Bible

Ann C. Gunter: Commemorating the End of Conflict in the Ancient Near East: Material Perspectives

Matthew Waters: Peace in Pieces: Making Peace in Elam

Josef Wiesehöfer: Peace and Views of Peace in Achaemenid Iran

III The Mediterranean Worlds and Beyond

Christoph Schäfer: Making Peace in the Hellenistic World

Wolfgang Spickermann: Problems of Making Peace in the Roman Republic: The Case of Appius Claudius Caecus and King Pyrrhus

Sven Günther: Frames of Making Peace and Treaties in the Roman Empire

Umberto Roberto: Making Peace with the Goths and the Burial of Athanaric in Constantinople (January 381): A Note on Jordanes, Getica 28, 142–145

Johannes Preiser-Kapeller: Many Eyes of the World? Making Peace between Byzantium and Other Empires, 600–1200 CE

Index

Tags Achaemenid Empire, Elam

Journal

Journal of Iran National Museum

Post author By Yazdan Safaee
Post date 27/07/2022

The second volume (2021) of Journal of Iran National Museum is published. Whereas the previous volume was published in Persian, its current issue contains paper in English. This is an open-access journal.

Table of contents:

Sarah Piram: André Godard’s Archives at the Louvre Museum and Their Significance for the Study of the National Museum of Iran
Sepehr Zarei: Quartz Usage as a Raw Material and Its Influences on the Strategy of Lithic Technology: Thibault’s Survey Assemblage at the Northern Littoral of Strait of Hormuz 1977; Collection of Iran National Museum
Laura Manca; Marjan Mashkour; Sanaz Beizaee Doost; Roya Khazaeli: The technical knowledge of Early Neolithic Iranian Societies. The bone industries of Tappeh Sang-e Chakhmaq and Tepe Abdul Hosein, Iran National Museum
Steve Renette; Omolbanin Ghafoori; Sirvan Mohammadi Ghasrian: The Mahidasht Survey Project (1975-78) Revisited: Initial report of new collaborative efforts to catalogue and publish legacy data at the National Museum of Iran
Judith Thomalsky: Foliate lithic points from the Bronze Age of NE Iran, A techno-typological analysis
Omid Oudbashi; Mathias Mehofer; Sepehr Bahadori; Javad Tayyari: Technical Studies on Two Copper-Based Objects from the Bronze Age of Iran
Ali Zalaghi; Sepideh Maziar; Bayram Aghalari; Marjan Mashkour; Mozhgan Jayez: Kohne Tepesi: A Kura-Araxes and Parthian settlement in the Araxes River Basin, Northwest Iran
Sara Khalifeh Soltani: Antemortem Health Indicators And Burial Status: A Summary of Thesis Research of the Tepe Hasanlu Bronze- Seleuco-Parthian Period Burials, Iran.
Yasmina Wicks: Two Elderly Funerary Figurines and Related Models from Susa: A Case Study in Engaging with the Legacy Records of Roland de Mecquenem
Javier Álvarez-Mon: Between Picasso and Piradi On tour with Saltimbanques and Musicians from ancient Iran (c. 600 Bc)
Bruno Genito; Lucia Cerullo: Aspects of “Median” and Neo-Elamite Archaeology. New Considerations on Some Aržan, Jubaji, and Kalmakarra’s Metal Findings
Zahra Alinezhad: A Plated Seleucid-type Coin in National Museum of Iran
Gunvor Lindstroem: The Portrait of a Hellenistic Ruler and Other Bronze Sculptures from Kal-e Chendar/Shami. Results of the 2015 and 2016 studies in the National Museum of Iran
Cyrus Nasrollahzadeh: *Sadārap [Sadāraf/b] of *P/Frēnag”, Ardaxšēr ī Papagān’s brother or his son, Another inscription of *Sadārap [Sadāraf] on Silver Plate in National Museum of Iran.
Ali Aghaei; Michael Josef Marx: Carbon Dating of Seven Parchment Qurʾān Manuscripts and One Syriac Bible of the National Museum of Iran

Tags Archaeology

Books

Women in Western and Eastern Manichaeism

Post author By Yazdan Safaee
Post date 24/07/2022

Scopello, Madeleine. 2022. Women in Western and Eastern Manichaeism (Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies, 101). Leiden: Brill.

The exceptional place women held in Manichaeism, in everyday life or myth, is the object of this book. Relying on firsthand Manichaean texts in several languages and on polemical sources, as well as on iconography, the various papers analyze aspects of women’s social engagement by spreading Mani’s doctrine, working to support the community, or corresponding with other Manichaean groups. Topics such as women’s relation to the body and elect or hearer status are also investigated. The major role played by female entities in the myth is enlightened through occidental and oriental texts and paintings discovered in Central Asia and China.

Tags Gender Studies, Manichaeism

Books

The Idea of Marathon

Post author By Yazdan Safaee
Post date 23/07/2022

Nevin, Sonya. 2022. The Idea of Marathon: Battle and Culture. London: Bloomsbury.

The Battle of Marathon changed the course of history in ancient Greece. To many, the impossible seemed to have been achieved – the mighty Persian Empire halted in its advance. What happened that day, why was the battle fought, and how did people make sense of it? This bold new history of the battle examines how the conflict unfolded and the ideas attached to it in antiquity and beyond. Many thought the battle offered lessons in how people should behave, with heroism to be emulated and faults to be avoided. While the battle itself was fought in one day, the battle for the idea of Marathon has lasted ever since. After immersing you in the battle, this work will help you to explore how the ancient Athenians used the battle in their relations between themselves and others, and how the battle continued to be used to express ideas about gods, empire, and morality in the age of Alexander and his successors, at Rome and in Greece under the Roman Empire, and in the ages after antiquity, even in our own era, in which Marathon plays a remarkable role in sport, film, and children’s literature with each retelling a re-imagining of the battle and its meaning. A clash of weapons, gods, and principles, this is Marathon as you’ve never seen it before!

Table of Contents
Introduction

Athenians at a Turning Point
The Greek World
Persia
Revolt in Ionia
The Plain of Marathon
The Fight
Surviving Marathon
Events after Marathon
Memories of Marathon in Fifth-Century Art and Literature
Marathon beyond the Fifth-Century
Marathon under Rome
Marathon after Antiquity

Afterword

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Tags Achaemenid Empire

Books

The Hunt for Ancient Israel

Post author By Yazdan Safaee
Post date 21/07/2022

Shafer-Elliott, Cynthia, Kristin Joachimsen, Ehud Ben Zvi & Pauline A. Viviano (eds.). 2022. The Hunt for Ancient Israel: Essays in Honour of Diana V. Edelman. Sheffield: Equinox.

The Hunt for Ancient Israel celebrates the contribution of Diana V. Edelman to the field of biblical studies and celebrates her personally as researcher, teacher, mentor, colleague, and mastermind of new research paths and groups. It salutes her unconventional, constant thinking and rethinking outside the box, and her challenging of established consensuses. This volume includes essays addressing biblical themes and texts, archaeological fieldwork, historical method, social memory and reception history.

Front Matter

Abbreviationsvii-x

Cynthia Shafer-Elliott,Kristin Joachimsen,Ehud Ben Zvi,Pauline A. Viviano

Introduction

Introduction [+]1-9

Cynthia Shafer-Elliott,Kristin Joachimsen,Ehud Ben Zvi,Pauline A. Viviano

Chapter 1

The Covenant of Circumcision (Genesis 17) as an Identity Marker of Nascent Judaism [+]10-26

Thomas Römer

Chapter 2

Pain, Gain, or Both? Circumcision, Trauma, and (R)Emasculation in Post-Exlic Israel [+]27-49

Anne-Mareike Schol-Wetter