Author: Yazdan Safaee

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Books

Sangtarashan, the Iron Age at the Pish Kuh of Luristan

Hashemi, Zahra, Mehrdad Malekzadeh & Ata Hasanpour. 2023. Sangtarashan, l’Âge du Fer au Pish Kuh du Luristan. Avec une étude “L’assemblage lithique de Sangtarashan” par Francesca Manclossi (Acta Iranica 62). Leuven: Peeters.

Le site archéologique de Sangtarashan est situé à l’ouest de l’Iran, dans la province du Luristan, au cœur de la chaîne montagneuse du Zagros. Découvert en 2002, il a fait l’objet de six campagnes de fouilles entre 2005 et 2011.

Dès les premières recherches, il est apparu que le site présentait des caractéristiques exceptionnelles. Au sein d’une structure circulaire en pierre, chevauchée par plusieurs autres constructions, les fouilles ont mis au jour plus de deux mille objets. Parmi eux, des centaines d’objets métalliques connus sous le nom de Bronzes du Luristan. Ces bronzes étaient enterrés par lot, insérés dans les murs ou éparpillés sur toute la surface du site.

L’étude architecturale et l’examen de la nature et de la distribution des objets conduisent à penser que le site de Sangtarashan serait un sanctuaire ayant connu deux phases d’occupation. Les dépôts de la première phase sont constitués d’armes et de vases enfouis dans le sol. Ceux de la seconde phase sont constitués d’objets isolés, de taille plus petite et de nature plus variée, déposés dans la maçonnerie des bâtiments. La première occupation daterait de l’Âge du Fer I-II, la seconde de l’Âge du Fer II-III (et peut-être même IV). L’hypothèse d’une fonction non cultuelle pendant la seconde phase n’est pas totalement écartée au regard de la prolongation des structures architecturales vers l’ouest et de la position des objets éparpillés sur toute la surface du site.

Avec Sorkhdom-i Lori, Sangtarashan est le deuxième sanctuaire de l’Âge du Fer de la région du Zagros central où les fidèles déposaient des objets dans le sol ou dans la maçonnerie des bâtiments. La richesse des objets métalliques découverts fait de Sangtarashan un site de référence pour l’étude des Bronzes du Luristan. L’analyse du matériel archéologique permet désormais de proposer une datation pour des objets jusqu’alors connus uniquement par des exemplaires issus de fouilles clandestines.

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Books

Color and Meaning in the Art of Achaemenid Persia

Nagel, Alexander. 2023. Color and meaning in the art of Achaemenid Persia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

In this volume, Alexander Nagel investigates the use of polychromy in the art and architecture of ancient Iran. Focusing on Persepolis, he explores the topic within the context of the modern historiography of Achaemenid art and the scientific investigation of a range of works and monuments in Iran and in museums around the world. Nagel’s study contextualizes scholarly efforts to retrieve aspects of ancient polychromies in Western Asia and interrogates current debates about the contemporary use of color in the architecture and sculpture in the ancient Mediterranean world, especially in North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean. Bringing a multi-disciplinary perspective to the topic, Nagel also highlights the important role of theory, methodology, and conservation studies in the process of reconstructing polychromy in ancient monuments. A celebration of the work of painters, artisans, craftsmen and -women of Iran’s past, his volume suggests frameworks through which historical and contemporary research play a dynamic role in the reconstruction of ancient technological knowledge.

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Books

The imprint of empires in the ancient Near East

Clancier, Philippe & Julien Monerie (eds.). 2023. L’empreinte des empires au Proche-Orient ancien: Volume d’hommage offert à Francis Joannès (Études Mésopotamiennes 3). Oxford: ArchaeoPress.

Colleagues, students and friends of Francis Joannès pay tribute in articles exploring the Achaemenid and Greco-Macedonian empires through cuneiform sources, as well as other topics reflecting his extensive and varied career.

Certain papers interest scholars and students of ancient Iranian history:

  • Yoko Watai: Repenser les qualificatifs de l’argent sous le règne de Darius
  • Matthew W. Stolper: From the Persepolis Fortification Archive: Treasury Staff Rations from Baratkama
  • Pierre Briant: D’un empire l’autre – de Darius à Alexandre(Quelques réflexions sur la transition)
  • Julien Monerie: « Ils consommèrent de la nourriture à l’intérieur ». Activités religieuses des représentants de l’autorité royale en Babylonie hellénistique et parthe

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Journal

NeHeT  7 

The issue 7 of the NeHeT journal is now available. The latest issue of this Egyptological journal is dedicated to reports of current research about Tell el-Herr and North Sinai under the direction of Catherine Defernz.

The following papers contribute to our understanding of the Achaemenid Egypt:

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Books

Iran and the Transformation of Ancient Near Eastern History

Daryaee, Touraj, Robert Rollinger & Matthew P. Canepa (eds.). Iran and the transformation of ancient Near Eastern history: The Seleucids (ca. 312–150 BCE) (Classica et Orientalia 31). Wiesbaden: Harrasowitz Verlag.

The Seleucid Empire presided over one of the most pivotal and creative periods of Iranian history, a fact that has often been elided or misunderstood in both ancient and modern historiography. Iran and the Transformation of Ancient Near Eastern History examines the Seleucid Empire within the context of ancient Iranian history from an interdisciplinary standpoint and seeks to integrate it more fully into the history of Iranian empires. It brings together a wide variety of perspectives, including landscape archaeology, art history, cuneiform studies, as well as political, economic, maritime and religious history. This volume presents the contributions of the conference on the same topic organized by the editors of this volume, which took place on February 24th–25th 2020 at the University of California Irvine (Dr. Samuel M. Jordan Center for Iranian Studies), the third in the series of the “Payravi Conferences on Ancient Iranian History”.

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Books

Textbook of Aramaic Ostraca from Idumea, volume 5

Porten, Bezalel & Ada Yardeni. 2023. Textbook of Aramaic ostraca from Idumea, volume 5. Dossiers H–K: 485 ostraca. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press.

Since the early 1990s, about two thousand Idumean Aramaic ostraca have found their way onto the antiquities market and are now scattered across a number of museums, libraries, and private collections. This fifth and final volume of the Textbook of Aramaic Ostraca from Idumea completes the work of bringing these ostraca together in a single publication.

Volumes 1–4 published some 1,600 ostraca that gave us insight into agriculture, economics, politics, onomastics, and scribal practices from fourth/third-century BCE Idumea and Judah. The ostraca in volume 5 come from the same milieu, but the information they provide is entirely new and different. This volume presents 485 ostraca, including 99 land descriptions, 168 uncertain texts, and 218 assorted remains, scribal exercises, and forgeries, along with useful indexes and tables and a comparative list of entries. The land descriptions—which record local landmarks, ownership boundaries, and land registration—provide rich complementary material to the rest of the Idumean ostraca. The “uncertain texts” are fragmentary, in poor condition, or contain other abnormalities. As the TAO corpus becomes better understood and as imaging techniques improve, these texts will help to fill gaps in knowledge. The final section includes the remains of scribal practices and forgeries, important because they help to show the authenticity of the other two thousand pieces.

A unique collection of documentary sources for fourth/third-century BCE Idumea—and, by extension, Judah—this multivolume work will be a powerful resource for those interested in onomastics and social and economic history.

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Articles

Neo-Elamite Grain Procurement

Gorris, Elynn. 2023. “Don’t Let the Boats Pass!” Neo-Elamite Grain Procurement in Times of Famine and Drought. Iranian Studies 56(3), 439-456.

This article is concerned with interregional trade dynamics between Elam and Mesopotamia in the early to mid-first millennium BC. During the seventh century BC, two great famines in the Neo-Elamite kingdom, of which climatological changes were a major cause, were documented in the textual records. An era of megadrought made grain procurement from the neighboring regions essential to feed the Neo-Elamite lowland population. This article further explores the impact of the two Neo-Elamite famines and “drought of the century” on the commercial and political mechanisms in the Upper Persian Gulf region.

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Articles

Fulayj: A Sasanian to Early Islamic Fort in the Sohar Hinterland

Priestman, Seth, Nasser Al-Jahwari, Eve MacDonald, Derek Kennet, Kawther Alzeidi, Mark Andrews, Vladimir Dabrowski, Vladimer Kenkadze, Rosalind MacDonald, Tatia Mamalashvili, Ibrahim Al-Maqbali, Davit Naskidashvili & Domiziana Rossi. 2023. Fulayj: A Sasanian to Early Islamic Fort in the Sohar Hinterland. Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 52 (2023): 291–304.

Fulayj fort: an oblique aerial view looking across the structure to the north‑east (photograph by Davit Naskidashvili)

Fulayj fort is located on the fertile al-Bāṭinah plain of Oman, 12 km inland from Ṣaḥam and 32 km south-east of the key urban centre and major medieval port of Sohar (Ṣuḥār). The chance discovery of the site by Nasser Al-Jahwari in 2012 provided an important breakthrough in our potential understanding of the late pre-Islamic and initial Islamic period occupation in Oman. Finds collected during the first survey of the site were inspected by Derek Kennet and identified as likely to be of late Sasanian or very early Islamic date. Following further recording in 2014, a broad, multidisciplinary archaeological investigation was launched in 2015. Two seasons were completed by a joint British-Omani team in 2015 and 2016. Following a break in operations, a third season of fieldwork was completed in 2022.1 These investigations have confirmed the initial dating of the fort and substantially enhanced our understanding of all aspects of its planning, construction, history of occupation, internal organization, nature of use, etc. It is possible that Fulayj formed part of a wider defensive military cordon protecting the commercial and agricultural potential of the fertile coastal strip and urban centre of the Sohar hinterland. These wider aspects will be returned to again for further consideration below.

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Journal

Historia i Świat (12)

Issue twelve of Historia i Świat (2023) has been published. Contributions to this issue relate to Iranian archaeology.

  • Zohreh OVEISI-KEIKHA, Hosseinali KAVOSH: The Investigation of residential architecture in the Bronze Age. Tape Yal, Sistan and Baluchestan province, Iran
  • Sepideh JAMSHIDI YEGANEH: Cremation in Elamite period (Sukkalmah): Hirbodan site
  • Alireza ASKARI CHAVERDI: Achaemenid Settlement in Shiraz Plain: Tol-e Sefid Sadra
  • Morteza KHANIPOUR, Hamed MOLAEI KORDSHOULI: Cairn Burial of the historical period around Khansaar dam, Toujerdi district of Fars province, Iran
  • Ehsan KHONSARINEJAD, Reza RIAHIYAN GOHORTI, Sahar TAVAKOLI: Arrowheads in the cultural-historical property repository of the Administration of Cultural Heritage of Kerman. An Introduction
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Books

The Image of the Iranian World in the Roman Poetry of the Republican and Augustan Ages

Babnis, Tomasz. 2022. The Image of the Iranian World in the Roman Poetry of the Republican and Augustan Ages. Cracow: Księgarnia Akademicka.

The present book is dedicated to the image of the Iranian world emerging from the extant Roman poetry written in the Republican and Augustan Ages. The scope of the source material stretches thus from the comedies of Plautus to the Ovidian exile poetry, covering over 200 years of the great development of Latin literature. My aim is to investigate which motifs were referred to by Roman poets, which patterns could be noticed in those texts, which elements were mentioned most often, what relations can be observed between these references and historical, geographical, social or religious realities, and finally, what the function of these references is within the scope of entire poems or parts of texts extracted from the works of a greater size. I am also interested in the “genealogy” of these motifs: their origin and way of exploitation by the poets of subsequent periods. I aim at examining how consistent the overall image created from references scattered throughout the works of various authors was and how it changed in the course of time.