Bibliographia Iranica

A predominantly bibliographic blog for Iranian Studies

Tag: Achaemenid Empire

  • District Twelve

    District Twelve

    Ferrario, Marco. 2025. District Twelve. Northeastern Central Asia From Cyrus to Antiochos: Local Histories of a World Empire (Ancient Iran Series, 19). Leiden: Brill.

    This book offers, at the same time, an imperial history of a region (Northeastern Central Asia under the Achaemenids) and the regional history of an Empire (how the Persians adapted their strategies of governmentality to a geographically challenging, ethnically diverse, and politically impervious space). Bringing together evidence from literary texts, archaeology, and ethnohistory, it crafts a new narrative of Central Asian history in which local actors in and outside the imperial territory are given as much, if not (at times) more agency than the King of Kings and his satraps in heralding Central Asia’s first Age of Empires.

  • Hunara

    Hunara: Journal of Ancient Iranian Arts and History, published by Casa Editrice Persiani in Bologna, Italy, is a peer-reviewed, Open Access journal, publishing scholarly articles under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

    Here is the ToC of the latest issue (3/1):

    • Patryk Skupniewicz: The Scene of Bear Hunt on the Sasanian Silver Plate from the Wyvern Collection. On Segmented Image-Building in Sasanian Art
    • Hovhannes Khorikyan: Cyrus the Great in Armenian Sources and Armenia
    • Maia Kapanadze: Characteristics of Georgian-Iranian Relations during the Achaemenid Period
    • Iulon Gagoshidze; David Gagoshidze: Persian-Achaemenid Bell-Shaped Column Bases from the South Caucasus: New Evidence
    • Jeremy Goldberg: A Kurigalzu II Reading of VS 24.91 and Early Middle Elamite History

  • Miscellanea Epigraphica Susiana II

    Fattori, Marco. 2025. Miscellanea Epigraphica Susiana II: Addenda et corrigenda. Arta 2025.002.

    In this article I propose some corrections and additions to my previous contribution Miscellanea Epigraphica Susiana, made possible by the recent publication of a book dealing, among other things, with the same inscriptions (DSe, DSi, A2Se). In particular, I provide: a complete restoration of the final portion of the Elamite version of DSe highlighting some textual parallels found in the Meso-Elamite, Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian epigraphic tradition; an etymological discussion on the newly discovered OP word kabnu– “ruined, dilapidated”; and some improvements in the reading and interpretation of a new fragment of the Elamite version of A2Se.

  • Myth and History in Ancient Persia

    Myth and History in Ancient Persia

    Shaghaghi Zarghamee, Reza. 2025. Myth and History in Ancient Persia: The Achaemenids in the Iranian Tradition. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

    This book fills an important gap in Achaemenid studies by using traditional Iranian narratives, such as those found in the famous Shahnameh, or ‘Book of Kings’, of Ferdowsi, to analyse the Greco-Roman accounts of Median and Persian royalty. The study shows that the classical authors derived their accounts from Iranian traditions, grounded in age-old myths and legends. This analysis serves many purposes. It refines the extent to which the classical sources may be used in historical reconstructions and sheds new light on the literary methods of authors, such as Herodotus, Ctesias, and Xenophon. Finally, the book offers insights into one of the thorniest enigmas in Iranian historiography, the apparent disappearance of Illustrious rulers like Cyrus II, Darius I, and Xerxes I from native historical traditions. Standing at the crossroads of Iranian studies and Classics, this book is an indispensable source for scholars of ancient Iran, Greek historiography, and the Shahnameh.

    (more…)
  • The House of the Satrap

    The House of the Satrap

    King, Rhyne. 2025. The House of the Satrap: The Making of the Ancient Persian Empire. Oakland: University of California Press.

    Starting in the sixth century BCE, the conquests of the Persian kings Cyrus, Cambyses, and Darius transformed the lives of humans on a continental scale, as their empire reached from the Iranian plateau to eastern Europe, Central Asia, and North Africa. Beyond the imperial center, the kings’ vast territory was ruled by royal representatives known as satraps, who managed the practicalities of running the empire. In this book, Rhyne King explores how the empire was governed by investigating how the satraps and the structures supporting them—their “houses”—operated across great distances. Examining satrapal houses in Egypt, Anatolia, Mesopotamia, and Central Asia, King demonstrates how these systems encouraged local self-interest and advancement even as they benefited the imperial whole. Ultimately, he argues, it was these Persian forms of transregional governance that were key in enabling the vast polity to endure for more than two centuries.

  • Das achaimenidisch-persische Imperium

    Das achaimenidisch-persische Imperium

    Degen, Julian (ed.). 2025. Das achaimenidisch-persische Imperium. Wiesbaden: Springer.

    Diese Einführung bietet einen systematischen Überblick über die Geschichte des achaimenidisch-persischen Imperiums, das weithin auch als „Perserreich“ bekannt ist. Dabei handelt es sich um die erste imperiale Formation der Antike, der es durch umfangreiche Eroberungen gelang, einen beeindruckenden Herrschaftsapparat zu errichten, der sich von Indien bis in nach Griechenland und von Äthiopien bis nach Zentralasien erstreckte. Dieses Imperium stellte die Bühne für zahlreiche schillernde Persönlichkeiten der Alten Welt dar, zu denen Kyros, Dareios, Xerxes, aber auch Alexander III. (der Große) zählen. Darüber hinaus setzte das Großreich Entwicklungen in Gang, die großen Einfluss auf die Welt Afro-Eurasiens ausübten und deren Dynamiken selbst in der Zeit nach seinem Niedergang bedeutsam waren. Insbesondere die Konflikte des Imperiums mit den Griechen fanden großen Nachhall in der antiken Geschichtsschreibung und ihre Präsentation stellt nach wie vor einen Orientierungspunkt des kollektiven Gedächtnisses moderner europäischer Gesellschaften dar. Aufgrund der enormen räumlichen Ausdehnung dieses Großreichs, das Herrschaft über eine Vielzahl an Kulturen ausübte, ist die Erforschung seiner Geschichte Gegenstand interdisziplinärer Forschungen. So sammelt diese Einführung Beiträge aus der Feder internationaler Spezialistinnen und Spezialisten aus unterschiedlichen Fachbereichen, die tiefgehende Einblicke in zahlreiche Aspekte der Geschichte des achaimenidisch-persischen Imperiums aus verschiedenen Perspektiven bieten.

  • Journal of Iran National Museum

    Journal of Iran National Museum

    The new issue (vol. 3, issues 1/2) of Journal of Iran National Museum is out. It is open access.

    Table of contents:

    • Sepehr Zarei: Giant Cores and Large Flake Production at Dehtal: An Acheulean Site in the Northern Hinterland of Persian Gulf, Iran
    • Hossein Davoudi; Marjan Mashkour; Fereidoun Biglari: Animal Biodiversity during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene in the Zagros Mountains: Evidence from the Wezmeh Cave
    • Arkadiusz Sołtysiak: Human remains from Zard-e Sahel, Kashan, Iran
    • Ali Khayani; Sahar Abdolahi: A Door Sealing from Tape Jameh Shuran Sofla, the Mahidasht Plain, Western Central Zagros
    • Saman Hamzavi Zarghani; Cyrus Barfi; Samira Jafari; Mohsen Zeidi: Tol-e Khaki: Tracing the Footsteps of a Chalcolithic Community in the highlands of Fars Province, Southern Zagros Mountains, Iran
    • Rouhollah Yousefi Zoshk; Hassan Afshari Salaki; Donya Etemadifar: Agricultural Practices in Proto-Elamite Susa: An Analysis of Proto-Elamite Tablets at Iran National Museum (MDP 26)
    • Parsa Daneshmand: An Inscription of Hammurapi in the National Museum of Iran
    • Kiumars Alizadeh: From Hanni to Kidin-Hutran the son of Kurluš: a new look into the Arjān bowl
    • Wouter Henkelman: Tacara- and *tacarana-: Palatial terminology in a new exemplar of A2Sde and in the Persepolis Fortification archive
    • Fahimeh Homayoun; Siroos Zare; Younes Zare; Hamid Fadaei: The Newfound Footprints of a Discrete Decoration Type on the Column Capitals at Persepolis: An Outline
    • Zahra Alinezhad: A Review of Coin Finds From Ernst Herzfeld’s Excavations at Persepolis in the National Museum of Iran
    • Sepideh Qaheri: Aegyptiaca of Achaemenid Persia: re-examination of the documentation from Iran
    • Lena Ohrstrom; Natascha Bagherpour Kashani; Roger Seilera; Beata Bode; Abolfazl Aali; Sara Khalifeh Soltani; Shapour Shirani; Gabriela Ruß-Popa; Thomas Stöllner; Frank Rühli: Paleopathological assessment of the ancient Iranian salt mummies #1, #7 and #X, Chehrābād salt mine of Douzlākh, Iran
    • Ali Aarab; Leila Khamooshi; Bahareh Salimian Rizi; Ali Shojaee Esfahani; Yimin Yang: The Origin of Cobalt: A Review of Blue Glazed Ceramics in Iran and China from the 12th to the 17th Centuries CE
    • Manouchehr Moshtagh Khorasani; Andrej Vladimirovich Gromov: An Analysis of the Arms and Armor of the Battle Scene titled “the battle of Yerevan” (National Museum of Iran)
    • Ali Tarmigh: Seismic Risk Mitigation of Art Objects in Museums
    • Naghmeh Hosein Qazvini: Museum and the sublime (Based on Kantian sublime)

  • Authority, Assimilation and Afterlife of the Epilogue of Bīsotūn (DB 4:36–92)

    Authority, Assimilation and Afterlife of the Epilogue of Bīsotūn (DB 4:36–92)

    Barnea, Gad. 2025. Imitatio Dei, Imitatio Darii: Authority, Assimilation and Afterlife of the Epilogue of Bīsotūn (DB 4:36–92). Religions 16(5), 597.

    The Bīsotūn inscription of Darius I (DB) is a masterpiece of ancient literature containing descriptions of historical events, imperial propaganda, cultic statements, ethical instructions, wisdom insights, blessings and curses, and engagements with posterity. It was disseminated far and wide within the empire and left a lasting impression on the cultures with which it came into contact. However, a specific section of this royal inscription (DB 4:36–92), carefully crafted to address future audiences in the second person, stands out sharply from the rest of the text. This passage has made a striking, profound, and durable impression on future generations—which extended over the longue durée in both time and space. This article focuses on the decisive cultic theme undergirding DB in general and its fourth column in particular namely, the king’s profound sense of imitatio dei in the cosmic battle against “the Lie,” complemented by his appeal to an imitatio Darii by all future audiences of his words. The impact of this call can be traced in later literature: in a DB variant found at Elephantine and, most notably, a hitherto unknown exegetical legend found in Qumran, which seeks to explain this portion of DB through an Achaemenid court tale.

  • The Achaemenid Persian Empire and its Non-Western Borderlands: A Change of Paradigm

    The Achaemenid Persian Empire and its Non-Western Borderlands: A Change of Paradigm

    The conference will once again centre on the Achaemenid Empire and those borderlands that research has only sporadically looked at so far: the Central Asian east, India and the Indian Ocean in the south-east, as well as the steppe regions in the north and north-east. The focus here is on interactions not only in spatial but also in temporal dimensions and thus on the systematic recording of innovations, breaks and continuities.

    Organized by Robert Rollinger

    Fri 21 November – Sat 22 November, 2025

    Innsbruck, Austria

    Ágnes-Heller-Haus (Innrain 52a)

    Program:

    Opening
    10:00-10:30 Welcome Address
    Brigitte Truschnegg (Innsbruck) | Dean of Studies, Faculty of Philosophy
    and History
    Robert Rollinger (Innsbruck) | Organizer

    Section 1
    Chair: Melanie Malzahn (Vienna)
    10:30-11:15 Formation of Frontier: New archaeological perspectives on nomadic-sedentary interaction between Lake Aral and Sogdiana (800-500 BCE)
    Sören Stark (New York)

    11:15-12:00 The Imperial State/Political Formation of the Achaemenids. Nomads, Frontiers and Empires, between Central Asia and the Steppes
    Bruno Genito (Naples)

    12:00-13:00 Lunch Break

    Section 2
    Chair: M. Rahim Shayegan (Los Angeles)
    13:00-13:45 Local Evolutions of Central Asian Polities during the Achaemenid Period
    Johanna Lhuillier (Lyon)

    13:45-14:30 The Northern Frontiers in History and Myth
    Anca Dan (Paris)

    14:30-15:00 Coffee Break

    Section 3
    Chair: Bernhard Palme (Vienna) & Suchandra Ghosh (Hyderabad)
    15:45-16:30 Persians in Northern Gandhara: An Achaemenid Mirage?
    Elisa Iori (Venice), co-authors Omar Coloru (Bari) & Luca Maria Olivieri (Venice)


    15:00-15:45 The Vine of the King: Monarchic Ideology between the Iranian and Indian Worlds
    Claudia Antonetti (Venice)


    16:30-17:00 Coffee Break

    Section 4
    Chair: Florian Schwarz (Vienna) & Josef Wiesehöfer (Kiel)
    17:00-17:45 Cultural Heritage as Political Negotiation on the Boundaries of the Achaemenid Empire
    Jenn Finn (Chicago)


    17:45-18:30 Alexander, India and Western Asia Minor: Imperial Borderlands in Comparison
    Julian Degen (Innsbruck)

    18:30 Buffet

    Saturday, Nov 22
    Section 5
    Chair: Nina Mirnig (Vienna) & Robin Coningham (Durham)
    09:30-10:15 The Mauryas and Achaemenids: Looking afresh at old Theories
    Upinder Singh (Sonipat)

    10:15-11:00 The Impact of Achaemenid Writing in India and the Linguistic Background to the Aramaic Ashoka Inscriptions
    Holger Gzella (Munich)


    11:00-11:30 Coffee Break

    Section 6
    Chair: Wu Xin (Bryn Mawr)
    11:30-12:15 A Kingdom of Clay (and Parchment): Tracing the Indus Province through Parsa Administration
    Gian Pietro Basello (Naples)


    12:15-13:00 How Persian was Chorasmia? Reassessing the Achaemenid Imprint in Northeastern Central Asia through Fieldwork
    Michele Minardi (Naples)


    13:00-14:00 Lunch Break


    Section 7
    Chair: Touraj Daryaee (Irvine)
    14:00-14:45 Connecting Centres and Borderlands: The Upper Satrapies as Hubs of Routes
    Hilmar Klinkott (Kiel)

    14:45-15:30 Revolt and Sedition in the Eastern Satrapies of the Achaemenid Empire: An Unsolvable Mystery?
    Orestis Belogiannis (Strasbourg)

    15:30-16:00 Coffee Break

    Section 8
    Chair: Kai Ruffing (Kassel)
    16:00-16:45 Persian Elites and the Achaemenid Northeast: Negotiating Power in the Borderlands
    Yazdan Safaee (Innsbruck)

    16:45-17:30 Interaction between Central Asia and the Achaemenid Empire
    Jan Tavernier (Louvain)

    17:30-18:00 Concluding Remarks | Robert Rollinger (Innsbruck)

    19:00 Conference Dinner

  • The Great King’s Word under AhuraMazdā’s Protection

    The Great King’s Word under AhuraMazdā’s Protection

    Aliyari Babolghani, Salman. 2024. The Great King’s word under AhuraMazdā’s protection: Trilingual Achaemenid royal inscriptions of Susa I (Dariosh Studies III/1) (Ancient Iranian Series 17). Leiden: Brill.
    This volume presents part of the author’s research on the Achaemenid Royal Inscriptions recovered in the ruins of the Achaemenid palaces in Susa, conducted within the framework of the DARIOSH-Louvre Project. It offers a new study of several fragmentary inscriptions in Old Persian, Achaemenid Elamite, and Achaemenid Babylonian, currently designated as DSe, DSt, DSb, DSl, DSa, DSk, DSi, DSp, D²Sb, DSj, A²Se, DSs, ‘Inc. Sb’, and others. The book provides a new edition of each inscription based on both published and unpublished fragments. Additionally, it introduces some new lexicons and cuneiform signs in the Old Persian language and script.

    Table of Contents (PDF)

    Part 1: Some Fragments of a Foundation Stone Table Inscription

    1 AhuraMazdā Protected the Great King’s “Written Word” 

    Fresh Old Persian Lexicon in Newly Discovered Fragments of DSe 

    Part 2: Terracotta Brick Inscriptions

    2 “AhuraMazdā Belongs to Me” 

    Inscriptions DSa, DSb, DSk, DSl, and DSae 

    Part 3: Some Threshold Inscriptions

    3 “I Did All Superior” 

    4 A Marvelous Palace Built by a Righteous King 

    DSj Inscription 

    Appendix 1: Persian Translations of the Inscriptions

    Appendix 2: Revised List of Old Persian Logograms