Bibliographia Iranica

A predominantly bibliographic blog for Iranian Studies

Author: Yazdan Safaee

  • On Achaemenid-era metalworkers based on the Persepolis tablets

    Zehbari, Zohreh. 2025. The men who wrought the metals: On Achaemenid-era metalworkers based on the Persepolis tablets. Iran, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/05786967.2025.2551493

    While varied attempts have been made to study Achaemenid metal artefacts, we still know little about the craftsmen who wrought the metals. Metalworkers manufactured various products for different social classes and for different contexts, and must have played a notable role in the society of the Achaemenid period. The present paper aims to address the various textual and archaeological evidence attesting metallurgical specialisations, and to collect information regarding goldsmiths, silversmiths, blacksmiths, and bronze/coppersmiths who worked and travelled within the Persian empire, tracing different aspects of their activities and lives such as their status, wage, gender, and ethnicity. In addition, some previously unknown facts about the smiths’ condition will be presented according to the available documents and relevant comparisons with the neighbouring regions.

  • Another clay tag with Achaemenid Seal Impressions

    Treuk, Matheus. Another clay tag with Achaemenid seal impressions in the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology of the University of São Paulo, Brazil (MAE/USP). Arta 2026.001.

    Presented here is a clay tag bearing Achaemenid seal impressions, preserved at the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology of the University of São Paulo, Brazil, and identified by registration number 0816 4-00235. The tag originally formed part of the so-called ‘Banco Santos’ or ‘CidCollection’. It clearly belongs to the dossier of 42 items previously published by Henkelman, Jones, and Stolper (ARTA 2004.001), as well as two additional items more recently published by Ignacio Márquez Rowe (ARTA 2025.001). The MAE clay tag was first published by the Brazilian Assyriologist Katia Maria Paim Pozzer in a 2004 catalogue accompanying a Brazilian exhibition of the CidCollection.

  • Diodoros of Sicily: Bibliotheke Historike

    Diodoros of Sicily: Bibliotheke Historike

    Harding, Phillip (ed.). 2026. Diodoros of Sicily: Bibliotheke Historike: Translation, with introduction and notes. Vol. 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Diodoros of Sicily (c.90–c.30 BC) spent thirty years producing an encyclopedic compendium of world history from its mythical beginnings to his own day. His is the only surviving, connected account of Greek affairs from 480/79 to 302/1. The books translated in this volume offer the best account of the career of Philip II of Macedon, his conquest of Greece and his assassination, as well as the earliest extant history of the career of Alexander the Great. Book 16 is also the main source for the Persian re-conquest of Egypt by Artaxerxes III (Okhos), the seizure of Delphi by the Phokians in the Third Sacred War, and Athens’ defeat by a coalition of her allies in the Social War. The translation is supported by extensive notes, and the Introduction examines Diodoros’ moral and educational purpose in writing, the plan of his work, his sources, and his qualities as a historian.

  • Coinages in the Achaemenid Empire

    Coinages in the Achaemenid Empire

    Rutter, Keith. 2026. Coinages in the Achaemenid Empire. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

    Brings together the evidence for coin production and use over the whole Achaemenid Empire

    • Demonstrates how the actual production of coins was a phenomenon mostly confined to the western satrapies of the empire
    • Unlike other studies of ancient coinage which focus on its spread westward into Greek lands after its invention in Asia Minor, this book looks east, to communities and kingdoms where the dominant culture was often not Greek
    • Treats coins as part of the wider context of exchange and resource allocation in the empire

    The Achaemenid Empire was huge and the material available for studying it is disparate. The coinages produced in the empire offer distinctive perspectives and provide insights into crucial questions about how the empire was organised and administered. The numismatic evidence is particularly important due to its first hand, contemporary nature: it speaks to us directly, not through the prism of later accounts.

    Keith Rutter, an international specialist in numismatics, provides us with the first comprehensive account of the great variety of coinages produced in the Achaemenid Empire. He shows us how the iconography found on coins poses new questions on artistic influences, details of administration and religious beliefs. This highly illustrated book is the starting point for anyone who wants to understand the topic.

  • Land tenure and fiscal practices in the Aramaic corpus of Idumea

    Shahryari, Mitchka L.M.J. 2026. Land tenure and fiscal practices in the Aramaic corpus of Idumea: Bow-Fields and horse estates. BASOR 395: 179-194.

    The Idumean corpus of Aramaic ostraca sheds light on the structured administrative and fiscal system in the region. This publication raised the possibility of the presence of the terms qaštu (“bow-fields”) and, albeit conjecturally, “horse-estates,” which would offer the first concrete evidence of these land-management practices within the fiscal framework of the Idumean region. These findings resonate with other key terms already mentioned by scholars, such as iškaru and references to tax collectors, which underscore the Persian institutional system of taxation, labor organization, workforce allocation, and resource management. The fiscal vocabulary and classifications of landholding revealed in these texts display parallels with Babylonian, Persepolitan, and Egyptian models, while simultaneously reflecting local adaptations. The ostraca thus demonstrate that Idumea was an integrated part of a hybrid imperial structure that linked local agricultural communities to the broader Persian administration.

  • The Parthians at War

    The Parthians at War

    Overtoom, Nikolaus Leo. 2025. The Parthians at war: Combat, logistics, reputation, and the first war with Rome. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

    Nikolaus Leo Overtoom provides a comprehensive study to evaluate and understand the military capabilities and accomplishments of the greatest enemy of the Seleucids and Romans, the Parthians.

    Overtoom draws on a wide variety of sources to reassess the militarism of the Parthians and origins and events of their first war with Rome. This book emphasizes source criticism of Greco-Roman writers to challenge traditional Rome-centric understandings of the Parthians and their military success by considering, as much as possible, the Parthians and their agency on their own terms. Through his study, the author characterizes the Parthians as capable, aggressive, and successful actors on the world stage and the role of the Romans (particularly that of the villainized Crassus) in the early stages of Parthia and Rome’s rivalry is reconsidered drastically. The Parthians at War assesses broader issues of militarism and logistics, state decision-making, royal identity and ideology, imperial rivalry, propaganda, and state security concerns. Overtoom concludes that the innovations of the Parthian military were exceptional and that the realities of the origins and legacy of the first war between Parthia and Rome are significantly different from the traditional narrative.


  • Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia (vol. 31)

    The volume 31 of the journal Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia contains several contributions that engage directly with an Iranian context.

  • Ancient Jewish Memories of Achaemenid Persia

    Joachimsen, Kristin & Jason S. Mokhtarian (eds.). 2025. Ancient Jewish Memories of Achaemenid Persia (The Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 25).

    Several contributions in the special issue of The Journal of Hebrew Scriptures, titled Ancient Jewish Memories of Achaemenid Persia, engage directly with the Persian context. The volume is available in open access.

  • Semographische Aspekte in der altpersischen Keilschrift

    Wiechmann, Yannick A. 2025. Semographische Aspekte in der altpersischen Keilschrift: Lokale Schreibtraditionen und sakrale Sinnstiftung? Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes 116: 217-241.

    This paper deals with aspects of semography in the Old Persian script. The so-called ideograms or logograms were quite neglected in former studies on Old Persian. From a graphematic perspective, this study opts to call these signs semograms for a broader view beyond mere logography. Further, it is asked whether we can observe dia-chronic or diatopic developments in the usage of these signs. While most semograms were probably developed in the time of Darius I, most of them went out of use after his reign, but were reactivated beginning with Darius II with a peak in the time of Artaxerxes II. Although semograms are totally absent in Old Persian inscriptions in some places)Bīsutūn, Elvend and Naqš-i Rostam), the sign for “King” was used in many places. The other signs, though, are rather limited to Susa and Hagmatāna. Finally, it is asked why semograms do exist at all. While it seems not convincing to explain their existence with the economy of writing, they fit quite well in the royal ideology and may provide sacrality. In the context of the old, traditional and sacral writing systems of the Achaemenid Empire)especially Mesopotamian cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphs), they provided an important feature to the Old Persian script which it originally lacked and which could become quite obvious when trilingual and quadrilingual inscriptions were designed.

  • WAY metaphors as CONDUCT OF LIFE in Selected Iranian Languages

    Neda Mohtashami, Yusef Saadat & Kianoosh Rezania. 2025. Eschatologia Iranica III: WAY metaphors as CONDUCT OF LIFE in Selected Iranian Languages: A CMT-based Case Study. Metaphor Papers 19.

    This article explores the metaphorical usage of way-nouns in selected Iranian languages, emphasizing their role in conceptualizing conduct of life and shaping normative ideals through the lens of Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT). By examining linguistic and cultural elements across Avestan, Old and Middle Persian sources, the study traces the evolution of terms denoting physical routes, which have been abstracted to symbolize moral and spiritual guidance. Central to this analysis is the conceptual metaphor conduct of life is motion on/to a way, which frames ethical and ritual life as a journey along a purposeful route. This metaphor underscores the normative dimensions of human conduct, portraying adherence to divine directives and alignment with Order/Truth (Aṣ̌a) as fundamental components of an ideal moral and/or ritual trajectory.