This book consists of 45 papers presented at a major international conference held at the British Museum in 2017 on the occasion of the BP exhibition Scythians: warriors of ancient Siberia, and like that exhibition, this conference was jointly organised with the State Hermitage Museum. There are 58 contributors and co-authors from 16 countries, mostly from Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, but also America, Britain, France, Germany, China and Mongolia. The papers range from new archaeological discoveries, results of scientific research and studies of museum collections to reconstructions of social elites, the phenomenon of monumental tomb construction, and ‘Animal Style’ art. Most results are presented for the first time in the English language, and they throw completely new light on a huge range of aspects of life, horses, rock art and the working of precious metals, textiles and other materials by Scythians and other ancient nomads of Eurasia.
This volume has a publication date of June 2020, but did not seem to have been published at the time we set up this post.
A History of the Achaemenid Empire considers archaeological and written sources to provide an expansive, source-based introduction to the diverse and culturally rich world of ancient Achaemenid Persia. Assuming no prior background, this accessible textbook follows the dynastic line from the establishment and expansion of the empire under the early Achaemenid kings to its collapse in 330 BCE. The text integrates the latest research, key primary sources, and archaeological data to offer readers deep insights into the empire, its kings, and its people.
Chronologically organized chapters contain written, archaeological, and visual sources that highlight key learning points, stimulate discussion, and encourage readers to evaluate specific pieces of evidence. Throughout the text, author Maria Brosius emphasizes the necessity to critically assess Greek sources—highlighting how their narrative of Achaemenid political historyoften depicted stereotypical images of the Persians rather than historical reality. Topics include the establishment of empire under Cyrus the Great, Greek-Persian relations, the creation of a Persian ruling class, the bureaucracy and operation of the empire, Persian diplomacy and foreign policy, and the reign of Darius III. This innovative textbook:
* Offers a unique approach to Achaemenid history, considering both archaeological and literary sources * Places primary Persian and Near Eastern sources in their cultural, political, and historical context * Examines material rarely covered in non-specialist texts, such as royal inscriptions, Aramaic documents, and recent archaeological finds *Features a comprehensive introduction to Achaemenid geography, Greek historiography, and modern scholarship on the Persian War
Part of the acclaimed Blackwell History of the Ancient Worldseries, A History of the Achaemenid Empire is a perfect primary textbook for courses in Ancient History, Near Eastern Studies, and Classical Civilizations, as well as an invaluable resource for general readers with interest in the history of empires, particularly the first Persian empire or Iranian civilization.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 Introduction
2 The Arrival of the Persians on the Iranian Plateau
3 The Establishment of Empire: Cyrus the Great
4 A Worthy Successor: Cambyses II
5 From Bardiya to Darius I
6 The Face of Empire
7 The Organization of Power
8 Taking Up the Baton: Diplomacy and Foreign Policy from Xerxes I to Artaxerxes II
9 A Whole New Ballgame: The Reigns of Artaxerxes III and Artaxerxes IV
10 A Good King in the End: Darius III
11 Epilogue
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 Introduction
2 The Arrival of the Persians on the Iranian Plateau
3 The Establishment of Empire: Cyrus the Great
4 A Worthy Successor: Cambyses II
5 From Bardiya to Darius I
6 The Face of Empire
7 The Organization of Power
8 Taking Up the Baton: Diplomacy and Foreign Policy from Xerxes I to Artaxerxes II
9 A Whole New Ballgame: The Reigns of Artaxerxes III and Artaxerxes IV
According to the currently favoured view among historians of the Persian Empire, the Bīsotūn Inscription is a deceitful piece of propaganda whose purpose was to resolve Darius’s legitimacy problem. To this effect, Darius cobbles a family relation with Cyrus and fabricates the story of a magus who impersonates Smerdis, son of Cyrus, and usurps the throne. This view, however, contradicts not only the Bīsotūn Inscription but also the ancient Greek testimonies. This article examines the arguments historians have given for their position. Since allviews of the two issues in question are necessarily interpretations of the relevant sources that rely on argumentation, reasons and inferences must stand up to critical scrutiny.
Zoroastrianism offers a remarkable presentation of the origin of humankind, its present condition, and its final destiny. Human history is considered to be the result of a cosmological strategy enacted by god himself, Ohrmazd, in order to compel his direct and primordial antagonist, the evil Ahreman, to engage battle in our world. Eventually, the forces of darkness will be completely destroyed at the conclusion of a chiliadic temporal cycle. The most important battle in order to defeat Ahreman is fought by humankind. The importance of history in this teleology accounts for the emphasis put by it on the political dimension. We evoke the Sasanian period, in which the Persian kings assumed the status of a kosmokrátor, i.e. of a universal king, charged with achieving victory over evil. We offer in this article an overview of the intellectual contribution of the Pre-Islamic Iranian world to the idea of history.
The second volume of “Sylloge Nummorum Parthicorum” examines the history and culture of the reign of Mithradates II (c. 122/1¬‒91 BC), who consolidated and expanded the Parthian state. In addition to his coinage, the present volume draws on other primary sources, such as cuneiform tablets from Mesopotamia, in order to illuminate an otherwise poorly known and documented period of ancient Iranian history. This publication by Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis, Alexandra Magub, Elizabeth J. Pendleton and Edward C. D. Hopkins is an essential tool not just for numismatists, but also for historians and art historians, presenting various aspects of Parthian coinage: chronology, mint identification, the iconography within a broader Iranian context, typology and metrology. The catalogue offers a complete record of coin production under Mithradates II, illustrating and describing 1,996 coins from leading international institutions and other sources.
Laws of Ritual Purity: Zand ī Fragard ī Jud-Dēw-Dād (A Commentary on the Chapters of the Widēwdād) describes the various ways in which Zoroastrian authorities in the fifth-sixth centuries CE reinterpreted the purity laws of their community. Its redactor(s), conversant with the notions and practices of purity and impurity as developed by their predecessors, attempt(s) to determine the parameters of the various categories of pollution, the minimum measures of polluted substances, and the effect of the interaction of pollution with other substances that are important to humans. It is therefore in essence a technical legal corpus designed to provide a comprehensive picture of a central aspect of Zoroastrian ritual life: the extent of one’s liability contracting pollution and how atonement/purification can be achieved.
The title of this paper might be one fraught with difficulties. For one thing, there is hardly a field of study in Iran at the present time that can be labelled as Assyriology; instead, there are scattered individual efforts, self-studied research, and erratic workshops run by a small number of genuine specialists. Although Iran is the birthplace of cuneiform decipherment, Iranian universities offer no courses in Assyriology, nor is any local academic institute qualified to run a degree program in cuneiform studies.
The paper discusses the strange repetition of preverbs, well known from Old Avestan (e.g. nī. aēšəmō. nī.diiātąm. Y 48,7a), which seems to go back to the Proto-Indo-European language.
Since the 1920s, the so-called “return to the roots”, has become a hegemonic discourse in Iran. Whereas the Pahlavi regimes (1925–1979) propagated the myth of the lost idyll of pre-Islamic Iran representing themselves as the true inheritors of those monarchies, the Islamists adopted a respective approach in regard to Islam. As a result, a similar fairytale was made about the early Islamic community. Such claims, as it were, are not so much about the past as they are about the present. So is this study. By delving into the past, it questions the widespread nostalgic notions considering the pre-Islamic era as a lost utopia, wherein women were free from the restrictions “imposed by Islam”. In point of fact such past is a fabrication. In the majority of cases, therefore, the revival projects invent traditions to legitimize current political agendas.
Table of Contents:
A Note on Persian and Arabic Transliteration and Translation Preface Introduction Chapter I: Women in the Sasanian Zoroastrianism Chapter II: Zoroastrian Dadestan: From Sasanian Era to Islam Chapter III: Purification Chapter IV: Islam and Menstruation Chapter V: Sexual Relations in Zoroastrianism and Islam Epilogue Bibliography Glossary
Azarnouche, Samra & Olivia Ramble. 2020. La Vision zoroastrienne, les yeux dans les yeux Commentaire sur la Dēn selon Dēnkard III.225. Revue de l’his toire des reli gions 237(3). 331–395.
Sassanian Seal MOT 6.1, Collection M. I. Mochiri, after Gnoli 1993: 80.
In the Zoroastrian tradition, the Dēn (Avestan daēnā “vision”) is a polysemic notion that denotes either an auroral psychopompic deity, or the religious doctrine, or again the sacred word of the Avesta. Passage 225 of the Dēnkard III, commented here for the first time, combines these different concepts, thereby not only bringing direct proof for the continuity of the word’s original meaning—“vision”—between the Avestan textual layer and the Middle Persian (Pahlavi) exegetic layer, but also testifying to the development of metaphysical speculation (with a neo-platonic backdrop) concerning the transcendental vision acquired by the magi. Material sources (iconographic as well as epigraphic) also contribute to highlighting the notion that the Dēn is the divine entity that one looks at straight in the eyes.
