Tag: Achaemenid Empire

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The Persian World and Beyond

Garrison, Mark B. & Wouter F.M. Henkelman (eds.). The Persian world and beyond. Achaemenid and Arsacid studies in honor of Bruno Jacobs (Melammu Workshops and Monographs 6). Münster: Zaphon.

The 17 essays gathered in this festschrift celebrate the scholarship of Bruno Jacobs. While the range of topics in these essays is extensive, most relate to the Achaemenid world. They represent the diversity of Achaemenid studies as a discipline that Bruno Jacobs enriched with his many contributions and sparkling ideas. Some papers move beyond the Achaemenid period, notably the contribution on Parthian and Elymaean countermarks (S.R. Hauser), and acknowledge the breadth of Bruno Jacob’s research interests, which extend from Greece to eastern Iran, span the Mediterranean Bronze Age to the Roman period, and concern the disciplines of history, archaeology, art history, religion, and Iranology. Among others, M.C. Root examines “Medes and Iranian identity in the Achaemenid social imaginary” as represented in the Persepolis Apadana, while J. Wiesehöfer focusses on “Greek exiles in the Achaemenid Empire” and Chr. J. Tuplin on “The place of Cyropaedia in Xenophon’s oeuvre”. The “winged symbol in Persepolitan glyptic” is debated by M.B. Garrison and the roles of gold and wine in Herodotus’ depiction of the Persians by R. Bichler and K. Ruffing.

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Innovation in Persian Period Judah

Middlemas, Jill. 2023. Innovation in Persian Period Judah: Royal and Temple Ideology in Its Ancient Near East Setting. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.

This volume provides an overview of the attitude towards the monarchy and the temple in Achaemenid Yehud in a comparative perspective. It provides a thorough overview of a series of discussions about the extent of Persian influence on the ideology of Second Temple Judaism by some of the leading experts in the field.

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Inscriptions from Egypt

Jansen-Winkeln, Karl. 2023. Inschriften der Spätzeit. Teil V: Die 27.–30. Dynastie und die Argeadenzeit. Band 1: Kambyses – Tachos. Band 2: Nektanebos II. – 4. Jahrhundert insgesamt. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

Der fünfte Teil der Inschriften der Spätzeit umfasst in 22 Abschnitten (im Anschluss an die vorhergehenden Bände als Nr. 61–82 nummeriert) die Texte vom Beginn der 27. Dynastie (526 v.Chr.) bis zum Beginn der Ptolemäerzeit (305 v.Chr.), wiederum grundsätzlich eingeteilt nach Regierungszeiten: Die Perserkönige der 27. Dynastie von Kambyses bis Artaxerxes II. (dazu die beiden Gegenkönige Petubastis IV. und Psametik IV., Kapitel 61–68), die Könige der 28. bis 31. Dynastie (Kapitel 70–78) sowie die Argeadenkönige (die Dynastie Alexanders des Großen, Kapitel 79–81). Dazu kommen zwei weitere Abschnitte mit den Texten der 27. Dynastie, die sich keiner Regierungszeit zuordnen lassen (Kapitel 69), und denjenigen Inschriften, die zwar sicher oder sehr wahrscheinlich ins 4. Jahrhundert gehören, aber nicht genauer einzuordnen sind (Kapitel 82). Die Sammlung umfasst alle historisch im weitesten Sinne relevanten hieroglyphischen Inschriften, dagegen werden die (für Datierungen wichtigen) demotischen Texte nur mit Literaturangaben erfasst.

Enthalten sind auch zahlreiche bisher unpublizierte Texte und viele ältere Veröffentlichungen sind kollationiert worden. Ausführliche Indizes erleichtern die Suche nach Denkmälern in Museen, königlichen und nichtköniglichen Personen sowie Regierungsjahren.

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Cyrus the Great: A Biography of Kingship

Mitchell, Lynette. 2023. Cyrus the Great: A biography of kingship. New York: Routledge.

Cyrus the Great was a celebrity of the ancient world, the founder of one of the first world empires in the ancient Near East, whose life and deeds were celebrated through the many stories told about him, then and for millennia.

This book offers an analysis of these stories, locating them within the rich storytelling cultures of the ancient Mediterranean and the Near East. Although there are few fixed points in Cyrus’ career, it is possible to see through these narratives the way his kingship developed so he became not just the instrument of the gods, but also their companion. Mitchell explores what these stories reveal about the different societies and cultures who engaged with the mythology surrounding Cyrus in order to examine their own conceptions of great men, leadership, kingship, and power. Such was his celebrity in antiquity that the stories about his kingship have remained influential over the course of two and a half thousand years into the modern era.

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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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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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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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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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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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Ezra: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary

Eskenazi, Tamara Cohn. 2023. Ezra: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. Yale: Yale University.

The book of Ezra is a remarkable testament to a nation’s ability to survive and develop a distinctive identity under imperial rule. But Ezra is far more than a simple chronicle; it constitutes a new biblical model for political, religious, and social order in the Persian Empire.

In this new volume, Tamara Cohn Eskenazi illustrates how the book of Ezra envisions the radical transformation that followed reconstruction after the fall of Jerusalem and Judah. The extensive introduction highlights the book’s innovations, including its textualization of the tradition, as well as the unprecedented role of the people as chief protagonists. The translation and commentary incorporate evidence from ancient and contemporaneous primary sources from Egypt, Babylonia, Greece, and Persia, along with new archaeological studies of Judah. With great care and detail, Eskenazi demonstrates how the book of Ezra creates a blueprint for survival after destruction, shaping a new kind of society and forging a new communal identity.