Bibliographia Iranica

A predominantly bibliographic blog for Iranian Studies

Tag: Achaemenid Empire

  • The Late Babylonian worship scene at Persepolis

    Garrison, Mark B. 2025. The Late Babylonian worship scene at Persepolis. In: Benjamin Sass & Laura Battini (eds.), Mortals, Deities and Divine Symbols: Rethinking Ancient Images from the Levant to Mesopotamia. Studies Offered to Tallay Ornan (Archaeopress Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology 12), 477-536. Bicester: Archaeopress.

    This analysis concerns several types of worship scenes found in the glyptic imagery preserved as impressions on clay administrative tablets from Persepolis. This important body of data is known today as the Persepolis Fortification Archive, dating to the middle-late years of the reign of Darius I (ruled 522/521–486 BCE). The principal scene, a worshipper who stands before divine symbols that rest on pillared pedestals, here called the Late Babylonian worship scene, is well-known, often characterized as the most distinctive of the glyptic landscape in the Late Babylonian period. At Persepolis, the Late Babylonian worship scene occurs on a large number of seals and exhibits a rich iconographic repertoire; indeed, the evidence from Persepolis is as numerous and varied as from any Babylonian archive. The seals from Persepolis raise numerous issues regarding the chronology and iconographic and stylistic development of the scene in the Late Babylonian archives. These Persepolitan seals present a particularly interesting case study in the complexities of cultural interaction between Iran and Babylonia in the middle of the 1st millennium BCE.


  • Persia’s Greek Campaigns: Kingship, War, and Spectacle on the Achaemenid Frontier

    Persia’s Greek Campaigns: Kingship, War, and Spectacle on the Achaemenid Frontier

    Hyland, John O. 2025. Persia’s Greek campaigns: Kingship, war, and spectacle on the Achaemenid frontier. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Persia’s Greek Campaigns offers a bold reassessment of the wars between the Achaemenid Persian kings and the Greek city-states (c. 499–449 bce). These conflicts, and especially Xerxes’s invasion of Greece (480–479 bce), are remembered as foundational events in Greek history, but the “Persian version” remains neglected. The Persians left no campaign narratives to compare with the Greek accounts of Herodotus and Aeschylus—but their documents, artwork, and artifacts offer the foundations for a new interpretive study. Achaemenid royal inscriptions, seals and documents from Persepolis, and texts from earlier Near Eastern empires illuminate Persian worldviews and approaches to frontier warfare. Persia’s Greek campaigns did not emerge from policies of infinite expansion or “East-West” struggle, but drew on a long tradition of Near Eastern royal display through expeditions to distant frontiers. Such campaigns advertised a king’s heroic credentials, possession of divine favor, and achievement of universal power. Xerxes’s journey from Iran to Athens marked the pinnacle of this tradition, combining ideological spectacles with masterful logistical preparation. It achieved its principal goals through the seizure and burning of Athens, but its unexpected and embarrassing defeats at Salamis and Plataea undermined the intended image of royal grandeur. The resulting transition to an era of diplomatic consolidation marked a vital step in the evolution of history’s first “world empire.”

  • The Achaemenid-Zoroastrian Background of the Burning Bush Pericope

    Barena, Gad. 2025. ʾAhyh ʾAšr ʾAhyh: The Achaemenid-Zoroastrian Background of the Burning Bush Pericope. Revista Pistis & Praxis 17(3), 384–402.

    Various types of impact, assimilation, and engagement of certain redactional layers of the Hebrew Bible with Achaemenid-era Zoroastrianism have long been noted by biblical scholars and by researchers of ancient Iranian cultic practices. Both disciplines, however, are facing similar challenges regarding the problem of the transmission history of their sacred texts, which is complex, perplexing, and vigorously debated. Thus, due caution must be taken when considering latent echoes of one tradition within the corpus of the other. The following article focuses on one particular, intricate, and very well-known biblical story often associated to various degrees with the so-called “P(riestly) source”—namely, the “Call of Moses” (CoM) in the initial portions of the famous scene at the “Burning Bush” on Mt. Horeb (here defined as Exod 2:23–3:15)—examined in relation to Achaemenid-era Zoroastrianism. I begin with an assessment of the relevant cultic elements that can be securely dated to that timeframe or to its later evolution—especially those that can be shown to have impacted Yahwists at the time. This preliminary study then serves as a foundation to examine the passage in question in a more systematic manner. The conclusion points to a deep familiarity and assimilation of Zoroastrian fire veneration practices by the Priestly author/redactor.

  • The Unfinished Story of the Babylonian Version of the Bīsotūn (Behistun) Inscription (DB Bab.)

    Hackl, Johannes. 2025. The Unfinished Story of the Babylonian Version of the Bīsotūn (Behistun) Inscription (DB Bab.). Iraq. Published online 2025:1-20. doi:10.1017/irq.2025.10033

    This article revisits the editorial history of the Babylonian (Akkadian) version of the Bīsotūn (Behistun) Inscription (DB) to establish the extent of the surviving text in light of a re-examination of the inscription at Mount Bīsotūn (Behistun). Questions arising about the reliability of the standard edition presented in Von Voigtlander (1978) prompted a critical review of her new readings, which significantly expand the text by approximately two-thirds compared to what previous commentators recorded and what is visible on the rock face today. The article focuses on the results of this scrutiny, supported by information from Von Voigtlander’s correspondence with George G. Cameron and Matthew W. Stolper, highlighting the implications of their discussions.

  • Achaemenid court logistics between royal capitals of Susa and Persepolis

    Achaemenid court logistics between royal capitals of Susa and Persepolis

    Salaris, Davide. 2025. ‘Royal’ road, ‘royal’ needs: a GIS-based approach to Achaemenid court logistics between royal capitals of Susa and Persepolis. Antiquity. Published online 2025:1-8.

    This article redefines the concept of the Achaemenid ‘Royal’ Road using GIS-based route modelling to reconstruct possible roads between Susa and Persepolis. By integrating logistical and environmental parameters, it shows how royal mobility required a specialised infrastructure—distinct from ancillary roads—tailored to the operational scale of the Achaemenid court.

  • The Achaemenid Dynastic Myth and Jewish Scribes in the Late Persian Period

    The Achaemenid Dynastic Myth and Jewish Scribes in the Late Persian Period

    Leuchter, Mark A. 2025. An Empire Far and Wide: The Achaemenid Dynastic Myth and Jewish Scribes in the Late Persian Period. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    This book offers a new approach to evidence to examine Persian imperial ideology and surveys literary products of ancient Jewish scribes to analyze the influence of Persian imperialism on the development of Yehudite scribal ideology and presents an argument for the existence of Judaism in the Persian period.

  • The Assyrian Provincial Seal of Surkh Dom-i Luri, a pattern for Darius I’s Seal

    Alibaigi, Sajjad. 2025. A Clue to a Puzzle: The Assyrian Provincial Seal of Surkh Dom-i Luri, a pattern for Darius I’s Seal. Arta 2025.004.

    This short article examines the iconographic origins of the famous seal of Darius I, for which an Egyptian provenance has been proposed and now in the British Museum (BM 89132). Although the influence of the glyptic art of the first millennium BC on Achaemenid seal-carving is well evident, scholars have paid less attention to this influence on the cylinder seal of Darius I. Among the Assyrian seals and impressions of the second and first millennia BC, there are important examples that are iconographically similar to the seal of Darius, but the provincial seal of Surkh Dom provides the most clues to the connection between the seal of Darius and the Assyrian style seals. This seal, which was found from the excavations of the Surkh Dom shrine, is more similar to Darius’ seal than any other. It seems that the Assyrian provincial style of Surkh Dom-i Luri seal should also be added to the long list of influences of Neo-Assyrian art on Achaemenid and considered as a pattern for the seal of Darius I.

  • East and West (vol. 64)

    East and West (vol. 64)

    The latest volume of East and West contains several interesting articles, some of which deal with aspects of ancient Iran.

    • M. Minardi, A. Bekbauliev: Report on the First Campaign of Excavations of 2023 at Bazar-kala, with Additional Considerations on the Urbanism of Ancient Chorasmia
    • S. Tusa, M. Vidale, I. Caldana, E. Lant, Faizur Rahman, L.M. Olivieri: A “Bactrian Lady” and Other Terracotta Figurines from Aligrama, Swat
    • S. Aliyari Babolghani: A Short Note on the So-called Conjugation IIm in Achaemenid Elamite
    • M.C. Benvenuto: Notes on the Bactrian Personal Name Σανδο
    • E. Filippone: Paratactic and Hypotactic Strategies in the Discourse Organization of the Multilingual Achaemenid Texts
    • F. Pompeo: Who are They Rebelling against? The Constructions of hamiçiya- bav- in the Achaemenid Royal Texts
    • A.V. Rossi: Rüdiger Schmitt and Achaemenid Iran
  • Deciphering Arachosian Tribute at Persepolis

    Deciphering Arachosian Tribute at Persepolis

    Barnea, Gad. 2025. Deciphering Arachosian tribute at Persepolis: Orthopraxy and regulated gifts in the Achaemenid Empire. Religions 16(8): 965.

    Inscribed trays, plates, mortars, and pestles made of beautiful green chert bearing formulaic administrative textual formulae were found during excavations at the Persepolis Treasury in the 1930s. These implements and the enigmatic formulae inscribed upon them present scholars with a complex and unique challenge whose correct interpretation holds important implications for the study of Achaemenid history, imperial administration, and relations between ancient Arachosia (roughly modern-day Afghanistan) and the centers of power, as well as—as I argue in this article—for the symbiosis between administration and cult in antiquity. They continue to be hotly debated ever since their inauspicious initial publication by Bowman in 1970, yet they have thus far remained obscure. By comparing these finds with material and textual data from across the Achaemenid empire and early Parthian sources, this article offers a new comprehensive study of these objects. My analysis suggests that these objects are to be considered as a more systematized and tightly controlled Arachosian form of “informal taxation”—namely, regulated gifts—which are comparable to similar imperial donations found in the Treasury at Persepolis. Specifically, they take part in an “economy of fealty” demonstrating loyalty to king and empire through the adherence to the era’s Mazdean ritual orthopraxy.

  • Women in Cultic Functions in Late Achaemenid and Hellenistic Babylon

    Debourse, Céline. 2025. Women in Cultic Functions in Late Achaemenid and Hellenistic Babylon. In: Shawna Dolansky & Sarah Shectman (eds.), The Bloomsbury Handbook of Religion, Gender, and Sexuality in the Ancient Near East, 147-157. London: Bloomsbury.

    This chapter explores the roles of women in cultic functions in Late Achaemenid and Hellenistic Babylon, focusing on cuneiform evidence from temple contexts. These sources reveal their increasing involvement in sacred rituals and temple administration. Through analysis of titles, the study highlights both continuity and innovation in female religious roles.