The issues 4-5 of volume 28 of Iran and the Caucasus are published and contain several interesting contributions. Below are listed the articles that deal with Iranian studies:
Marco Ferrario: Restricted Access Expanders of the Realm. Sacred Kingship and Empire in Early Achaemenid Central Asia
Matthias Weinreich: Restricted Access Out of the Mouth of Babes … (Ps. 8:2). Children as Mediums in Pahlavi Literature
Mariam Gvelesiani: Georgia and Sasanian Iran. Some Aspects of Royal Imagery in Early Christian Georgian Art and Literary Tradition
Saloumeh Gholami and Mehraban Pouladi: Linguistic Insights from a Bilingual Letter: The Malati Dialect of Zoroastrian Dari in Yazd Part I. Transcription, Translation, and Linguistic Structure
The latest issue of Journal of Ancient History (volume 12, issue 2) is a special issue: Social Biographies of the Ancient World with Jason M. Silverman as guest editor. Below is the list of articles:
Jason M. Silverman, Alex Aissaoui, Rotem Avneri Meir, Jutta Jokiranta, Nina Nikki, Adrianne Spunaugle, Joanna Töyräänvuori, Caroline Wallis, Melanie Wasmuth: Social Biographies of the Ancient World. Studying Ahatabu, Jonathan, and Babatha through a Bourdieusian Approach: Towards a New Historiographical Habitus
Adrianne Spunaugle: Ancient Near Eastern Field Theory: Adapting Bourdieu for Social Biographies of the Ancient World
Jason M. Silverman, Joanna Töyräänvuori, Melanie Wasmuth: Ahatabu and her Stela (ÄM 7707): Funerary Habitus in Achaemenid Egypt
Rotem Avneri Meir, Jutta Jokiranta, Adrianne Spunaugle: Functional Differentiation in 1 Maccabees: Exploring Second Century BCE Judean Society Through the Character of Jonathan Apphus
Caroline Wallis, Alex Aissaoui, Nina Nikki: Falling Out with the In-Laws. Understanding the Babatha Archive with Pierre Bourdieu’s Field Theory and Theory of Practice.
Emanuel Pfoh: Ancient Individuals and Bourdieu in Context: A Historical Anthropological Response
Olga Zeveleva: A Sociological Response: Challenging the Modernity-centrism of Pierre Bourdieu’s Field Approach
Helen Dixon: A Levantine Archaeological Response: Thinking with Bourdieu though Limited Data and Explicit Assumptions
This accessible edition for students presents Herodotus as one of the most fascinating and colourful authors from the ancient world. Book III of Herodotus’ nine-book work is one of the richest in its exploration of themes, such as the practices and customs of different peoples and the nature of political power, issues still much debated today.
This commentary illuminates the geographical and even anthropological scope of Herodotus’ history, and enables students to confidently tackle the text in the original Greek. Bringing together a full introduction, text, commentary and translation, Longley makes Herodotus accessible to students of ancient Greek. This guide shows us why Herodotus is still considered the ‘Father of History’.
Descriptions of Ancient Persian male homoeroticism come mainly from Classical sources, which, however, seem to present divergent testimonies regarding this practice. Some authors apparently provide proof for its widespread acceptance, whereas others, particularly later authors, emphasized its prohibition. Considering the many difficulties involved in the reconstruction of Persian history through the eyes of classical Greeks and Romans, this article aims to provide a brief overview of the subject, with some clues to the question of the origin, form, and tolerance of same-sex love in Achaemenid Persia. We agree that homoerotic practices were attested and likely accepted at some level in Achaemenid Persia. However, we believe that the evidence available to us is not enough to obtain a full understanding of this phenomenon. It is also stressed that not every Greek or Roman reference to Persian male homoeroticism should be taken at face value, as some are distorted and fictitious or lack firsthand knowledge. Finally, we briefly address the image of eunuchs as sexual partners of Achaemenid kings.
The second volume compiles papers presented in three enlightening sessions: Session 3 – Visual and Textual Forms of Communication; Session 7 – The Future of the Past. Archaeologists and Historians in Cultural Heritage Studies; and Session 8 – Produce, Consume, Repeat. History and Archaeology of Ancient Near Eastern Economies. Within this volume, the 20 papers traverse diverse topics spanning multiple periods, from the 5th millennium BCE to the Roman Empire, and encompass a wide array of geographical regions within the Near East.
Among other interesting contributions, the following papers deal with aspects of ancient Iranian history and culture:
Delphine Poinsot: Sexuation of animals’ bodies in the bullae from Qasr-I Abu Nasr
Olivia Ramble: Generations of Writing: The Secondary Inscriptions of Darius’ tacara at Persepolis
Takehiro Miki: Deciphering the Skills of the Prehistoric Painting Technique: Case Study of the Painted Pottery of the 5th Millennium BCE from Tall-e Bakun A (Fars province, Iran)
Yazdan Safaee: Persian Female Weavers in the Persepolis Economy
Brill’s Companion to War in the Ancient Iranian Empires examines military structures and methods from the Elamite period through the Achaemenid, Seleucid, Arsacid, and Sasanian empires. War played a critical role in Iranian state formation and dynastic transitions, imperial ideologies and administration, and relations with neighbouring states and peoples from Central Asia to the Mediterranean. Twenty chapters by leading experts offer fresh approaches to the study of ancient Iranian armies, strategy, diplomacy, and battlefield methods, and contextualise famous conflicts with Greek and Roman opponents.
Die ersten Zivilisationen der Weltgeschichte, Ägypten und Mesopotamien, werden oft getrennt untersucht. Diese Studie verfolgt einen anderen Ansatz und konzentriert sich auf die Beziehungen zwischen diesen beiden Flusskulturen. Sie befasst sich mit der afrikanisch-babylonischen Interaktion im Zeitraum 626–331 v. Chr., als Babylonien (der heutige Südirak) zunächst das Zentrum eines Staates war, der den alten Nahen Osten dominierte, und dann eine wichtige Provinz im achämenidischen Reich. Während dieser 300 Jahre führten Auseinandersetzungen zwischen dem saitischen Ägypten (664–525) und dem chaldäischen Babylonien (626–539) sowie die persische Eroberung Ägyptens zu einem Macht- und Bevölkerungstransfer „von Memphis nach Babylon“. Das übergeordnete Ziel dieser Arbeit ist die Erörterung der Beziehungen zwischen Afrika und Mesopotamien. Die genaueren Ziele dieser Studie bestehen darin, Afrikaner (Ägypter, Kuschiten, Libyer) in babylonischen Texten aus der chaldäischen (626–539) und achämenidischen (539–331) Zeit zu identifizieren und die Anwesenheit von Afrikanern im chaldäischen und achämenidischen Babylonien zu erörtern unter dem Gesichtspunkt individuell-biografischer und kollektiv-demografischer Ebenen und Perspektiven. Die folgenden Forschungsfragen werden gestellt: Wer waren diese Afrikaner (in Bezug auf ethnische Zugehörigkeit, Geschlecht/Gender, Alter und Klasse)? Was haben diese Leute (beruflich) gemacht? Wann lebten sie (im Hinblick auf die Regierungszeit oder den Zeitraum)? Wo lebten sie (in Bezug auf Dorf, Stadt und Region)? Wie wurden sie in das babylonische Reich eingegliedert (zwangsweise/freiwillig, erste/zweite Generation usw.)? – Die Anwesenheit der afrikanischen Beamten im Dienste des chaldäischen und achämenidischen Babyloniens weist auf einen komplexen Prozess hin, in dem sowohl Anpassung als auch Kooptation eine Rolle spielten. Der Wunsch oder das Bedürfnis des Einzelnen, sich anzupassen, um zu überleben, co-existierte zusammen mit einem externen Druck von staatlicher Seite, der darauf abzielte, die afrikanischen Deportierten zu loyalen und profitablen Untertanen zu machen. Der Transfer von Memphis nach Babylon musste eine kontinuierliche Neubewertung dessen mit sich gebracht haben, was es bedeutete, ein Teil der ägyptischen Zivilisation an den Flüssen Babylons zu sein.
This volume is a collection of papers presented at a workshop commemorating the 20th anniversary of Reinhold Bichler’s monograph Herodots Welt.
It convenes a group of international specialists discussing Herodotus’ work from different perspectives. From the backdrop of ongoing scholarly debates, this volume seeks to offer a fresh look on the Histories. The various contributions present a nuanced portrayal of Herodotus as an author and the Histories as a literary cosmos, enhancing our comprehension of one of the most significant surviving texts from the Classical period. The topics cover a wide range of themes, including the structure of Herodotus’ historiographical narrative, his responses to the politics of Athens as well as the Achaemenid Empire, and the reception of his work. Finally, Herodotus’ description of the “world”, his conceptual ideas on regions and human culture and also the ongoing problems of how to deal with the Histories as a historical source are central questions addressed in this volume.
