Aloiz, Emily, Janet G. Douglas & Alexander Nagel. 2016. Painted plaster and glazed brick fragments from Achaemenid Pasargadae and Persepolis, Iran. Heritage Science (4) 3.
A PDF file of the paper is available online.
Category: Articles
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Syriac Historiography
Wood, Philip. Forthcoming. Syriac historiography VI: Historiography in the Syriac-speaking world, 300–1000. In D. King (ed.), Routledge Companion to the Syriac World. Routledge.
Survey of historical writing by and about Syriac-speaking peoples. It aims to lay equal stress on West Syrian and East Syrian contributions. And it emphasises the fact that both groups wrote as subjects of larger imperial systems (Roman, Persian, Arab), of which they were just a part.
This is a draft article posted with the author's permission.
Djamali, Morteza, Matthew D. Jones, Jérémy Migliore, Silvia Balatti, Marianela Fader, Daniel Contreras, Sébastien Gondet, Zahra Hosseini, Hamid Lahijani, Abdolmajid Naderi, Lyudmila S. Shumilovskikh, Margareta Tengberg & Lloyd Weeks. 2015. Olive cultivation in the heart of the Persian Achaemenid Empire: New insights into agricultural practices and environmental changes reflected in a late Holocene pollen record from Lake Parishan, SW Iran. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany (August 2015), 1–15.
This is an Online First Article and has not been assigned to an issue of the journal.
Ancient Persia witnessed one of its most prosperous cultural and socio-economic periods between 550 bc and ad 651, with the successive domination of the Achaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian and Sassanian Empires. During this period agricultural activities increased on the Iranian plateau, as demonstrated by a remarkable arboricultural expansion. However, available data are not very informative about the spatial organization of agricultural practices. The possible links between climate conditions and agricultural activities during this millennium of continuous imperial domination are also unclear, due to the lack of parallel human-independent palaeoclimatic proxies. This study presents a new late Holocene pollen-based vegetation record from Lake Parishan, SW Iran. This record provides invaluable information regarding anthropogenic activities before, during and after the empires and sheds light on (i) spatial patterning in agricultural activities and (ii) possible climate impacts on agro-sylvo-pastoral practices during this period. Results of this study indicate that arboriculture was the most prominent form of agricultural activity in SW Iran especially during the Achaemenid, Seleucid and Parthian periods. Contrary to the information provided by some Greco-Roman written sources, the record from Lake Parishan shows that olive cultivation was practiced during Achaemenid and Seleucid times, when olive cultivation was significant, at least in this basin located close to the capital area of the Achaemenid Empire. In addition, pollen from aquatic vegetation suggests that the period of the latter centuries of the first millennium bc was characterized by a higher lake level, which might have favoured cultural and socio-economic prosperity.
A PDF of the paper is available here.
Maksymiuk, Katarzyna. 2015. The Parthian nobility in Xusrō I Anōšīrvān court. In Piotr Briks (ed.), Elites in the Ancient World (Szczecińskie Studia nad Starożytnością II), 189–198. Wydawnictwo Naukowe.
Sources rewritten by order of Persian rulers (Pārsīg) in 6th century diminish the role of the Parthians (Pahlav) in the official history of Iran. In Xwadāy Nāmag a method of the Parthian reign recalculation to half of its actual duration was applied. Propaganda forgery of Xusrō I (531–579) so called Nāma-ye Tansar, shows Iran before power takeover by the Sasanian dynasty as a decentralized and corrupted state but even as “heretical” one. Contrast to the weak power of the Arsacid royal house had to be kingship of Šāhānšāh Ardašīr (224–242) who centralized administration relying on the Mazdean.
This paper is aimed at showing dominant role of the Parthian nobility in Persian government system. This is also attempt to answer the question whether administrative reforms initiated by Kawād I (488–496,498–531) and continued by his son Xusrō I Anōšīrvān were directed against status of the Parthian noblemen in Iran.
Maksymiuk, Katarzyna. 2015. The Pahlav-Mehrān family faithful allies of Xusrō I Anōšīrvān. Метаморфозы истории 6, 163-179.
The article describes the role of the members of the Parthian Mehrān played from the second half of the 5th century on Sasanian courts. It must be assumed that the Sasanian kings ruled their coun-try with the help of Parthian aristocracy. The reforms of the 6th cen-tury could not be directed against the status of the Parthian noblemen in Iran, because neither Kawād nor Xusrō could carry them without the assistance of Parthian wuzurgān.
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Persian gods and Avestan gods
Pirart, Éric. 2015. Dieux perses et dieux avestiques. Journal Asiatique 303 (1), 47–58.
If we pick up the significant differences they show, the detailed examination of the Old Persian and Avestan theonyms enables us to say that the Zoroastrian Mazdeism of the ancient Persians did not fit into the same tradition as the Avesta.
Haudry, Jean. 2014. Vérité, fausseté et mensonge dans le monde indo-iranien. Journal Asiatique 302 (2), 349–364.
Aside from the inherited designation of truth and its contrary by means of the root of the verb ‘to be’, *sánt-, *satyá-: *ásant-, *asatyá-, Indo-Iranian has an antonymic couple of notions whose expression is asymmetrical: one, *árta-/*ṛtá-, is purely nominal; the other expressed by the root*dhr(a)ugh- furnishes both nominal and verbal forms. Since this root is generally considered to mean ‘to deceive’, *árta-/*ṛtá-, whose meaning is much debated must, one way or another, be linked with the idea of ‘truth’. The original operative field of those notions may be found. In a non dogmatic conception of religion, it cannot be the doctrine. The frequent meaning of ‘to do harm, to prejudice’ of the representatives of the root *dhr(a)ugh- points to the notions of ‘truthfulness’, ‘loyalty’ with their opposites, in a state of the society in which those values and the behaviours which are connected to them are essential.
Kellens, Jean. 2014. La Gâthâ Ahunauuaitī dans l’attente de l’aube. Journal Asiatique 302 (2), 259–302.
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Scythian messages for Darius the Great
Delpech, François. 2015. Objets sacrées et armes parlantes: Le message des Scythes à Darius entre le mythe d’origine et l’historiographie. Journal Asiatique 303 (1), 25–46.
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Mehrgān at Persepolis
Bahadori, Ali. 2015. Persepolitan ceremonies: The case of Mehrgān. Ancient West & East 14. 51–71.
The celebration of the Mehrgān at Persepolis is a hypothesis that has never been discussed in detail. The present paper explores evidence for the presence of the Mithra cult at the Achaemenid court and, consequently, for celebration of the Mehrgān at Persepolis.