Bibliographia Iranica

A predominantly bibliographic blog for Iranian Studies

Category: Books

  • Linear Elamite Texts from Susa

    Linear Elamite Texts from Susa

    François Desset, Kambiz Tabibzadeh, Gian Pietro Basello and Gianni Marchesi with the collaboration of Laurent Colonna d’Istria. 2026. Linear Elamite Inscriptions and Related Cuneiform Texts I: Linear Elamite Texts from Susa (OrientLab Series Maior 10). Bologna: Ante Quem.

    The present volume is the first of a three-volume series devoted to the publication of the Linear Elamite corpus and related cuneiform texts. It constitutes the natural continuation of our work on the decipherment of Linear Elamite, published in 2022. Two further volumes will follow, containing the remaining Linear Elamite texts (Vol. II) and the corpus of Old Elamite royal inscriptions in cuneiform (Vol. III).

    The book is available for download here.

  • David Stronach and British Archaeology in the Middle East

    David Stronach and British Archaeology in the Middle East

    Maras, Sabrina. 2026. David Stronach and British Archaeology in the Middle East. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

    Drawn from interviews conducted between 2007 and 2020, this account of the life of renowned archaeologist and former director of the British Institute of Persian Studies, David Brian Stronach, reveals a lost period in international archaeology within Iran, when BIPS was founded and acted as a unique intellectual hub for archaeologists, expats, scholars and foreigners

    It describes the challenges he faced establishing the Institute and his experiences working with some of the 20th century’s most fascinating personalities in archaeology, such as James Mellaart, Max Mallowan, Seton Lloyd and Agatha Christie. It also provides a new account of the effects of the Iranian revolution of 1979 on Stronach’s own life’s work, on the Institute he built, and on the international world of Iranian archaeology.

  • Proto-Elamite

    Proto-Elamite

    Kelley, Kathryn. 2026. Proto-Elamite. Writing and society in early Iran. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Proto-Elamite is one of the world’s earliest scripts and it remains only very partly deciphered. Excavations have uncovered c. 1,700 clay tablets from Iran, dating c. 3300–2900 BCE. The tablets use a complex system involving hundreds of symbols to count commodities, people, and institutions. Despite holding a privileged place in the history of writing, the study of proto-Elamite falls outside modern disciplinary boundaries and has received very limited scholarly attention since its discovery over a century ago. Nonetheless, a handful of scholars have shown that there is much we can learn about proto-Elamite and the people who used it, especially by taking interdisciplinary approaches. The ongoing decipherment project combines mathematics, a range of comparative studies, and a sustained effort to digitize the corpus and apply new tools from computer science.

  • Mobility and Archaeogenetics in Central Asia

    Mobility and Archaeogenetics in Central Asia

    Baumer, Christoph, Mirko Novák & Susanne Rutishauser (eds.). 2026. Mobility and archaeogenetics in Central Asia. People – goods – ideas. 3rd International conference on Central Asian archaeology in Bern, 11th–13th January 2024 (Schriften zur vorderasiatischen Archäologie 24). Wiesbaden: Harrossowitz.

    Central Asia is a huge region characterized by a rich variety of ecologies, climates, geographical environments, social systems, languages and cultures. Within this region multiple cultural exchanges took place. At the same time, it engaged in bi-directional exchange with neighboring regions such as the Pontic Steppe, the Near East, the Indian subcontinent and East Asia. Mobility was a key precondition for these multifaceted contacts and exchanges, and it concerned people, goods and products as well as ideas, concepts and innovations. The papers presented at the 3rd International Conference on Central Asian Archaeology focus on how cultural transmission processes developed and what role mobility played in these processes. The time frame is from the Early Bronze Age to the end of the 14th century CE. Special attention will be paid to the added value that archaeogenetics brings to research. Archaeogenetics is an outstanding tool to detect and verify migrations and is rapidly growing in importance. Several papers demonstrate how archaeogenetic and isotopic studies contribute to the detection and understanding of mobility-induced cultural exchange.

  • Pepper, Peach, Paradise

    Pepper, Peach, Paradise

    Paul, Ludwig. Pfeffer, Pfirsich, Paradies: Kleines Lexikon deutscher Wörter persischer Herkunft. München: C.H.Beck.

    Wie ist der Algorithmus aus dem Persischen ins Deutsche gelangt? Warum bezeichnet Diwan sowohl ein Sofa als auch eine Gedichtsammlung? Und was hat unser Schal mit einem indischen Sari zu tun oder die Tulpe mit dem Turban? Ludwig Paul erklärt in rund 140 kurzweiligen Artikeln, wie Wörter aus dem Persischen ins Deutsche gewandert sind. Sein glänzend geschriebenes Buch lädt zum Nachschlagen und Schmökern ein und lässt uns eine erstaunliche Dimension der deutschen Sprache neu entdecken.
    Die persische Sprache war einst von der Türkei bis Indien die Sprache der Gelehrten, Dichter und kultivierten Höfe. Sie hat Einflüsse aus indischen Sprachen und dem Arabischen aufgenommen und ihrerseits andere Sprachen bereichert. Das Lexikon beschreibt, auf welchen oft verschlungenen Wegen zahlreiche Wörter und Namen ins Deutsche gelangt sind. Doch es bietet viel mehr als reine Sprachgeschichte: Ludwig Paul versteht es meisterhaft, immer wieder aufschlussreiche Schlaglichter auf die Geschichte der Kulturen zwischen Indien und Europa zu werfen und zu zeigen, wie eng die Wanderung von Wörtern mit dem Transfer von Dingen – Gewürzen, Früchten, Artefakten – und Ideen zusammenhängt.

  • Lowland Susiana in the Fourth Millennium BCE

    Lowland Susiana in the Fourth Millennium BCE

    Abbas Alizadeh, with contributions by Hossein Davoudi, Kevin Lidour, Marjan Mashkour, Valentin Radu, Mohammad Reza Rokni, Noshad Rokni, and Shiva Sheikhi. 2026. Lowland Susiana in the Fourth Millennium BCE: Excavations at KS-04, KS-59, and KS-108 (ISACP 2). Chicago: Chicago University Press.

    During two seasons in 2004–2006, the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures excavated three major prehistoric population centers in northern Susiana, in the modern-day province of Khuzestan, Iran: KS-04 (Chogha Do Sar), KS-59 (Abu Fanduweh), and KS-108 (Beladieh). The three sites were chosen because of their large size and the prominent role they have played in analyses of the pottery typology, chronology, and politics of fourth-millennium BCE Susiana.

    Most researchers consider the fourth millennium to be a pivotal period in the development of state-level organization in southwestern Iran. During this time, KS-04, KS-59, and KS-108, along with Chogha Mish and Susa, constituted the region’s major polities. Whereas much of the theoretical framework concerning the local origins of sociopolitical complexity has been based on excavated materials from Susa and Chogha Mish, interpretations of KS-04, KS-59, and KS-108 have largely been derived from surface surveys. ISAC’s stratified excavations at these three population centers have now provided important contextual evidence for the processes underlying sociopolitical and economic complexity in prehistoric lowland Susiana.

  • The Sasanians in Context: Art, History, and Archaeology

    The Sasanians in Context: Art, History, and Archaeology

    Catanzariti, Antonietta & Touraj Daryaee (eds.). 2026. The Sasanians in Context: Art, History, and Archaeology. Washington, D.C.: SmithsonianScholarly Press.

    Between the third and seventh centuries CE, the Sasanian Empire became one of the most dominant powers in the ancient world—extending geographically from West to Central Asia—and was the last major power in the region before the Arab conquest in the seventh century. In November 2022, in Washington, D.C., the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Asian Art convened “The Sasanians in Context: Art, History, and Archaeology,” a symposium of scholars discussing the latest research on the Sasanian Empire and its rich material culture—from impressive rock reliefs to elaborately designed metal vessels and finely carved seals—and exploring the empire’s legacy beyond its core regions. The symposium underscored how the field has evolved and revealed new areas for future research.

  • The Letters of Mani

    The Letters of Mani

    Gardner, Iain. 2026. The Letters of Mani. A Lost Scripture of the Late Antique World. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    • Includes new English translations of all the available texts concerning Mani’s Letters
    • Utilizes the latest research to recover all that can be known about one of the scriptures of Manichaeism
    • A holistic and interdisciplinary approach
    • Features much new or little-known material
  • Sovereignty in Iran

    Sovereignty in Iran

    Holliday, Shabnam J. (ed.). 2026. Sovereignty in Iran: Challenges to Eurocentrism from Ancient Iran to the Islamic Republic. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

    This book is a multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary collaborative project examining sovereignties as a plural concept through the case of Iran. In so doing it challenges Eurocentric assumptions in the Humanities and Social Sciences and covers sovereignty from ancient Iran to the Islamic Republic including the Woman, Life, Freedom protests.

    Part One explores sovereignty in ancient Iran by looking at the Elamites through a theoretical lens, the Achaemenids, and the Parthians and Sasanians. Part Two explores how territory relates to sovereignty alongside other dynamics in the Safavid, Second World War, Pahlavi and Islamic Republic periods. Part Three then focuses on competing and co-existing sovereignties in the southern Persian Gulf at the beginning of the twentieth century in Kurdistan and its relationships with Iranian governments during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, as well as in the Woman, Life, Freedom protests. A non-Eurocentric framework requires the reader to think about co-existing and competing sovereignties with an ‘Area Studies’ lens. This approach moves beyond periodised understandings of history and not only contributes to better understanding Eurocentrism but also enables a greater appreciation of contexts, complexities and agencies.

    (more…)
  • Text and translation of the Yasna Haptaŋhāiti

    Text and translation of the Yasna Haptaŋhāiti

    Heindio Uesugi has done it again. Under the supervisory editorship of Adam Alvah Catt, Uesugi has now published an addendum to the second part of his Old Avestan dictionary: a translation and glossed version of the Yasna Haptaŋhāiti.

    Uesugi, Heindio (ed.). 2026. Old Avestan dictionary. Addendum to Part II: Text and translation: Yasna Haptaŋhāiti. Tokyo: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa.

    For more context on these publications, I recommend the blogs in Language Hat and Language Log.

    This is the draft version of the annotated new translation of the Yasna Haptaŋhāiti (YH) along with that of Yasna 42. We have prepared this translation as an addendum to Part II. We hope to further improve it (along with the corrigenda) when time permits, taking into consideration any feedback we may receive.
    Although arguably less contentious than the Gāthās, the YH is of course not without its share of difficulties. Even where there is general consensus on the basic meaning, the view on the intended nuance, implications, and significance can vary, at times considerably.

    From the ‘Short Introduction’