Persian Empire Research Articles

In the footsteps of Alexander the Great: searching for the origins of ancient zooplankton on the wild steppe of Central Asia

Rising above the modern town of Nurata, in Navoiy Province, eastern Uzbekistan is the ancient fortress of Alexander the Great, built as part of Alexander's campaigns to subjugate the Persian-speaking Sogdian peoples that lived in this province of the Persian Empire in the 4th Century bc. Alexander passed this way in 327 bc, marching his ancient army through this beautiful but desolate landscape, and conquering all before him. His fortress was built in a strategic place at the boundary between fertile agricultural lands and a dry and uncompromising vastness of steppe that lies to the east. From Nurata, about one hour drive by car along a road that cuts eastwards across the desert, is the sleepy town of Jo'sh. In the mountains beyond Jo'sh sits the hamlet of Kanda, a few mud-brick houses nestling at the head of a small valley where a spring emerges miraculously from a bone-dry landscape. Hereabouts are telltale signs of ancient marine deposits yielding graptolites from rocks of the Silurian system. And in these rocks are the fossils of tiny arthropods that mark a fundamental shift in the marine arthropod zooplankton 425 million years ago. It is these fossils that we have chased halfway across the world to the steppe of Central Asia.

By the spear: Philip II, Alexander the Great, and the rise and fall of the Macedonian empire

Preface Acknowledgements Timeline Quotations from Ancient Works and Special Abbreviations Maps 1. The Architect and the Master Builder 2. Greece and Macedonia 3. Philip II and the Rise of Macedonia 4. The New Player in Greek Politics 5. The Gathering War Clouds 6. The Downfall of Greece 7. Philip's Assassination and Legacy 8. Alexander's Early Kingship - and Persia 9. From Europe to Asia 10. Alexander: Master Strategist and Emerging God 11. The Decline and Fall of the Persian Empire 12. The War in Afghanistan 13. Passage to India 14. Retreat from India 15. Alexander's Final Years 16. Death in Babylon and Alexander's Legacy Appendix: The Sources of Information Bibliography Index

Tautiniai stereotipai klasikinėje ir romėniškojoje Graikijoje: Herodotas ir Diodoras apie graikus ir kitus

Though Diodorus, who lived in politically and economically decayed Greece, dominated by Romans, is separated from Herodotus, the historian of independent and victorious Greece, by the interval of four centuries, the conception of Greekness as reflected in Herodotus’ History is a fulcrum to perceive the selfawareness of Greeks in the I century B.C. nevertheless. It is obvious that Diodorus knew Herodotus’History well. Herodotus, living in times, that were deeply affected by the ta Mēdica, was compelled to think over the idea of national identity and the relation of traditional Greek values to the culture, or cultures, of dominant political power. His approach to explain political history is to perceive the culture of nations, involved in the political process. This way to understand history was not invented by Herodotus, but was inherited and handed down by him to the subsequent historians, yet Herodotus can be put before the others because of his capability to see self in the other; self and other form an indissoluble unity in his History. Other cultures are described in analogy and / or contrast with Greek culture, and Greek is not always the best. Barbarian in his text indicates belonging to a different, but by no means to the inferior civilization. Barbaroi are usually referred to as cultural predecessors of Greece, which is often presented only as a successor of very old barbarian traditions. Opposition inside the Greek culture is sometimes stressed by Herodotus more emphatically than opposition between Greeks and the others. In my opinion, he tries to show that the idea of panhellenism, upon which the Athenian ideology was based in Herodotus’ times, is a political fiction, that was not and could not be true to life. Diodorus sticks to comparative methods describing the history of human civilization, but his objectivity is imaginary: it is rather a matter of the traditional ethics of scientific discourse for him. He is deeply convinced that barbarians are inferior compared to Greeks and Greece is the moral and intellectual leader of the oikoumenē. The glorious history of Greece and the preservation of its traditional values is not only an intrinsic, but universal cultural factor as well. This is his historiosophic idea, which can be applied to explain his attitude to Rome. Romans are not ascribed to barbarians by him, but at the same time they are not Greeks. Rome belongs to the third cultural category. Roman history is a history of an advance of the expansive political power, which can be compared to the history of the Persian empire at the end of the VI century B.C. Therefore Diodorus pays so much attention to the Thermopylean episode in his History. This episode is symbolic in Diodorus’ History, signifying to his contemporaries the opportunities that are lost, but ought to have been taken, and the decline of the aretē, which once undamaged would have saved Greece.

An Investigation of the Geometric Proportions of Bell-Shaped Column Bases and Bull Capitals at Persepolis and in Caucasian Achaemenid Sites

Columnar halls were an important architectural phenomenon during the Achaemenid period. The columns varied in shape, but one of the most frequent kind had bell-shaped bases and back to back bull-shaped capitals. Such columns were not only to be found in Persian capitals but also on Achaemenid sites in Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia that lay within the vast Persian Empire. We know that the Achaemenids in Persia used precise geometric proportions in their architecture and sculpture; here in this paper we consider whether there are any similarities between the architectural proportions of buildings at Persepolis and on Caucasian sites. If so, it would indicate that there was a consistent architectural management throughout lands controlled by the Achaemenids.

The Role of Mathematics and Geometry in Formation of Persian Architecture

Geometry is one of the main features in formation of Persian architecture. Research in Persian architecture geometry is impossible without familiar with geometry. This research tries to demonstrate the relationship between the progress of Persian architecture, geometry and mathematics evolution. In this regard, seeks to address the following questions: What is the relationship between the progress of Persian architecture and geometry evolution? To this end first, a detailed survey is conducted on the Persian Architecture and Mathematicians in the pre-Islamic and Islamic History. The Persian empires and dynasties are analyzed and chronologically organized to determine the evolution of mathematics and geometry impacts on the formation and development of Persian architecture. The research hypothesis is that evolution of mathematics and geometry, have a direct impact on the formation and development of Iranian architecture. This study depicts by development of mathematic geometric, Persian architecture has progressed and With the Fading communication between mathematicians and architects, manufacturing techniques of buildings has deteriorated.

Ancient Greece: fundamental transition from convention-based to observation-based art.

The realistic representation of the human figure is one of the hallmarks of ancient Greek art. It reflects the increasing importance of observation in that culture. In painting and sculpture the transition from pure decoration to naturalist representation began in the Archaic period (600–480 BC), and continued through the Pre-Classical (480–450 BC) and Classical (450–400 BC) periods of Greek history. Artistic creativity was at least in part a result of underlying societal and political change. The independent city-states (poleis) emerged in Greece in the eighth century BC. In the sixth century, the Greek world bordered the Persian Empire, which extended from Thrace on the Greek mainland, through the Eastern shores of the Mediterranean, to Egypt and North Africa and to India in the East. There were many trade routes in the Eastern Mediterranean that linked the Greek cities with the Levant, Egypt, and the Asia Minor. In addition, emigration from the homeland was part of the Greek way of life, and by the sixth century Greek settlements were established in southern France, Italy, Egypt, and North Africa, as well as on the shores of the Black Sea. Although the migrant Greeks retained their language and rituals, they were exposed to local cultures. The major conflict between the …

Quo vadis—“Whither thou goest?”

Reading historical novels frequently raises questions for me regarding the various systems of weights and measures used in past empires. The builders of the Egyptian pyramids used the “royal cubit” of length, which equalled the “length of someone’s forearm” without defining the “someone.” It is thought that one “royal cubit” was approximately equal to 52.4 cm, but how three significant figures are justified is not clear to me. However, there was also the “short cubit” in use, which was defined as the distance from the elbow to the thumb, again without defining whose elbow and thumb serve as the “reference.” When the Persian Empire encompassed Egypt, the “royal Persian cubit” was introduced and it is thought to have equalled 64.2 cm.

Book Review of Empire, Authority, and Autonomy in Achaemenid Anatolia, by Elspeth R.M. Dusinberre

More than 20 years ago, when scholars of the “new Achaemenid history” started to turn their attention to the provinces in order to better understand the mechanisms of the Persian empire, Amélie Kuhrt and Heleen Sancisi-Weerdenburg, editors of the fourth Achaemenid History Workshop proceedings, wrote in their introduction that “the reflection of the political structure [of the empire] in the local evidence was very often virtually invisible” (Centre and Periphery [Leiden 1990] xv).

Trouble in the West: Egypt and the Persian Empire, 525–332 BCE, by Stephen Ruzicka. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. xxvi + 311 pp., 5 figures, 5 maps. Cloth. $74.00.

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsTrouble in the West: Egypt and the Persian Empire, 525–332 BCE, by Stephen Ruzicka. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. xxvi + 311 pp., 5 figures, 5 maps. Cloth. $74.00.David KlotzDavid KlotzYale University, [email protected] Search for more articles by this author Yale University, [email protected] PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Bulletin of the American Society of Overseas Research Volume 371May 2014 A journal of the American Schools of Oriental Research Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.5615/bullamerschoorie.371.0232 Views: 15Total views on this site Journal History This article was published in the Bulletin of the American School of Oriental Research (1921-2021), which is continued by the Bulletin of the American Schools of Overseas Research (2022-present). Copyright 2014 American Schools of Oriental ResearchPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

The Palace of Darius at Susa: the great royal residence of Achaemenid Persia

The palace complex of the Persian King Darius I, the Great (522-486 BCE), provides unique evidence of the sophistication of Achaemenid architecture and construction. This palace, built 2500 years ago in western Iran, lay at the centre of the Persian Empire that stretched from the Nile and the Aegean to the Indus Valley. First rediscovered in 1851, the palace of Darius was partly excavated over the next century. But it was only field research between 1969 and 1979 by the noted French archaeologist Jean Perrot which revealed the site's full dimension and complexity. Its bull-headed capitals, enamel friezes of richly-clad archers holding spears, figures of noble lions and winged monsters, introduced a new iconography into the ancient Persian world. The discovery and excavation of the palace, which this book records, thus casts a new light on the beginnings of the Achaemenid period. Edited by the distinguished scholar of ancient Persia, John Curtis, the lavishly illustrated volume is a work of seminal importance for the understanding of ancient Persia, likely to be radically altered by Perrot's research and findings.

Empire in the Everyday: A Preliminary Report on the 2008–2011 Excavations at Tsaghkahovit, Armenia

Between 2008 and 2011, the joint American-Armenian project for the Archaeology and Geography of Ancient Transcaucasian Societies (Project ArAGATS) conducted archaeological excavations at the Iron Age settlement of Tsaghkahovit in central-western Armenia. This work built on research begun in 2005 to closely examine the materiality of social and political life in a rural settlement of the Achaemenid Persian empire (ca. 550–330 B.C.E.). Intensive investigations at Tsaghkahovit have revealed the remains of a community clearly enmeshed in select sociopolitical institutions of the empire yet one also committed to reproducing and revising the contours of everyday life on the Armenian highlands on its own terms. The site thus invites consideration of the quotidian material and spatial practices of imperial subjects who both sustained and attenuated the viability of Achaemenid sovereignty in the Armenian satrapy. This article reports on recent excavations and offers preliminary interpretations of the findings.

｢契約の書｣における捕囚期以後ユダヤ社会の構造

The dating and the historical background of the Covenant Code (CC) are much debated. CC has long been regarded as the oldest law code in Israelite history. However, in our view, it would be more appropriate to refrain from using labels such as J, E and JE for the characterization of the pre-priestly Tetrateuch and, accordingly, reconsider the dating and historical background of CC. Regarding the final stage of the composition, our contention is that CC derives from Judean society in Persian era Palestine. The main purpose of this article is to indicate several pieces of evidence that support this hypothesis. The biblical law codes each reflect the specific perspectives of the communal networks in Judean society of Persian era Palestine. Since no subgroup in Palestine occupied an overpowering position, the law codes were simply juxtaposed, under the political pressure of the Persian empire, in order to shape a document of consensus.

Pierre Briant. [chap.] 9. Alexander and the Persian Empire, between “Decline” and “Renovation”, History and Historiography

Dans cet ouvrage sur Alexandre, encore – le rythme des bons et moins bons ouvrages sur le grand homme doit etre annuel sinon plus rapide – les deux articles de PB ont chacun un element original : l’un traite du dernier Achemenide, fort maltraite par les auteurs classiques et l’historiographie moderne, le symbole du “colosse aux pied d’argile”. PB lui a redonne sa juste place (Darius a l’ombre d’Alexandre 2003, cf. Abs. Ir. 26, c.r. n° 87). L’autre chapitre traite d’historiographie – le grand ...

SOLDIERS AND SAILORS IN ARISTOPHANES'BABYLONIANS

Only two articles in the past century have attempted reconstructions of this play: Gilbert Norwood in 1930 conjectured a basis in tragic burlesque, specifically a parody of Aeschylus’Edoni, due largely to the presence of Dionysus and a chorus of Babylonians. An entirely different plot was proposed in 1983 by David Welsh, who took as his starting point Herodotus’ account of the fall of Babylon; he thought that the chorus, envisioned as a group of refugees from the Persian empire, reflected the recent arrival in Athens of the grandson of the Persian primarily credited with the capture of Babylon. Though commentators on Aristophanic comedy and politics often affect to be on firm footing about this play, the total dissimilarity of these two reconstructions actually highlights our ignorance.

The First Thousand Years: A Global History of Christianity, by Robert Louis Wilken

The First Thousand Years: A Global History of Christianity, by Robert Louis Wilken. New Haven, Connecticut, Yale University Press, 2012. x, 388 pp. $35.00 US (cloth). In The First Thousand Years. A Global History of Christianity, Robert Louis Wilken tells story of spread of Christian faith from Jerusalem eastward into Persian Empire, into Indian subcontinent, and as far east as China; westward into Iberian Peninsula and Ireland in Atlantic Ocean: northward into Scandinavia; and southward into Egypt and North Africa, as far south as Ethiopia. In other words, Wilken's purpose is not so much to paint a picture of Western Church in great and overwhelming detail, but to give a general impression of explosive spread of Christianity in centuries after life of Christ, and to paint that picture in all its rich diversity. To that end Wilken discusses at length Coptic Church in Egypt, non-Chalcedonian churches in Syria and eastward, Orthodox Church centred in Constantinople, and of course Catholic church centred on Rome. Temporally, author ends his narrative in west with reign of Charlemagne in ninth century and in cast with conversion of Vladimir, King of Rus, in late tenth century. At this point Wilken claims that, the map of early Christian world was largely complete (p. xi). Or, to frame matter more pessimistically, After end of first millennium, great period of Christian growth and expansion was (p. 359). The manuscript is arranged in such a way that chapters are very short and narrowly constructed thematically. This can at times give sense that book is more a series of essays, but it has advantage from a student's perspective of weaving a complex narrative while presenting material in manageable portions. Wilken also does a fine job of presenting material without getting bogged down in minutiae that some works on Christian history do. For example, Wilken successfully manages to convey diversity of thought on nature of Christ that split church so many times over course of first several centuries without delving into every little detail of seven definitive ecumenical councils. This is not an easy task for historians, but author manages it with grace and integrity. If there is one overarching theme to be identified in book, it is probably relationship of secular power structures with church, both in Western and Eastern worlds. Wilken notes throughout that whereas in west temporal rulers were always in a tug of war with Pope at best, in East, situation was opposite. The Emperors at Constantinople were, in essence, leaders of Eastern Church, on several occasions deposing a Patriarch when it suited their agendas. Wilken also notes that when it carne to various rulers converting to Christian faith, it was probably just as much political motivation that drove them as religious ones. …

Introducing Bayani Kermani and the Manuscripts of His Monsha’at

Reviving the works of Persian Empire’s writers and grandees, both in terms of the newly discovered points in books and discourses and also including indications of their era’s social, political and cultural state, is highly essential and valuable; so much so that if no efforts are made on their correction and restoration, a vast part of this extremely rich cultural heritage will be buried among the manuscripts. It is incumbent on the scientific community to take steps, however brief, in order to stimulate such precious works which in turn represent a cultural legacy.One of these works is Bayani Kermani’s Monsha’at, dated back to Iran’s Timurid and early Safavid period. Since he was a Timurid court clerk later becoming the Chancellor and has mentioned many important literary and political figures in his work, the correction of this book greatly contributes to the recognition the individuals and understanding the social culture and customs of the Timurid era.This paper briefly introduces Bayani, his works, and the remaining manuscripts of Monsha’at, hoping for it to be of some benefit.

Fossil pollen reveals the secrets of the Royal Persian Garden at Ramat Rahel, Jerusalem

The ancient tell (mound) of Ramat Rahel sits on the outskirts of Jerusalem. It features an impressive residency and palatial garden that flourished during the seventh to fourth centuries BCE, when biblical Judah was under the hegemony of the Assyrian, Babylonian and Persian empires. Until recently, the garden’s flora has been a mystery, as standard archaeological procedures were unable to retrieve secure archaeobotanical remains. A unique method of extracting fossil pollen from ancient plaster has now enabled researchers to reconstruct the exact vegetation components of this royal Persian garden and for the first time to shed light on the cultural world of the inhabitants of the residence. The plaster layers and garden are dated archaeologically and by Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) methods to the Persian period (fifth to fourth centuries BCE), and produced evidence of importation by the ruling Persian authorities of special and highly valued trees to the garden from remote parts of the empire. The most surprising find, and marking its earliest appearance in the southern Levant, was the citron (Citrus medica), which later acquired a symbolic-religious role in Judaism. Other imported trees found to have been grown in the garden are the cedar, birch and Persian walnut. The pollen evidence of these exotic trees in the Ramat Rahel palatial garden suggests that they were probably brought to flaunt the power of the imperial Persian administration. Native fruit trees and ornamentals that were also grown there include the fig, grape, olive, willow, poplar, myrtle and water lily. The identification of the ancient garden’s plant life opens a course for future research into the symbolic role of flora in palatial gardens. It also offers new opportunities for studying the mechanism by which native flora was adopted in a particular geographical area and proliferated by humans across the world.

Edge of empires: a history of Georgia

Georgia is the most Western-looking state in today's Near or Middle East and, despite having one of the longest, most turbulent histories in the Christian or Near Eastern world, no proper history of the country has been written for decades. Donald Rayfield redresses this balance in Edge of Empires, focusing not merely on the post-Soviet era, like many other books on Georgia, but on the whole of its history, accessing a mass of new material from the country's recently opened archives. The book begins with the first intimations of the existence of Georgians in ancient Anatolia and ends with today's volatile President Saakashvili. It deals not only with the country's internal politics, but with its complex struggles with the empires which have tried to control, fragment or even exterminate the country. All the world's history - Xenophon's Greeks, the Arabs, the invading Turks, the Crusades, Chingiz Khan and Timur Lang, the Persian empire, the Russian empire, Soviet totalitarianism - is reflected in Georgia's history. Donald Rayfield describes Georgia's swings between disintegration and unity, making full use of primary sources, many not available before in an English-language book. He examines the history of a country which, though small, stands at a crossroads between Russia and the Muslim world, between Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and is a dramatic example of state-building and, also, of tragic political mistakes.

Alexander in the City of the Excellent: A Persian Tradition of Utopia

ABSTRACT Persian, one of the most potent languages when it comes to imagery and fiction, offers a utopian tradition in which Alexander of Macedonia is presented as the hero of the story. Identifying Alexander with a Quranic figure and associating him with an Islamic sage, this tradition circumvented the negative conception associated with Alexander as a destroyer of the Persian Empire. This article reviews various accounts of Alexander's discovery of a utopia, describes his redemption from being a usurper, and lodges these accounts within the broader discourse of their time.

‘Empire of the Gaze’: Despotism and Seraglio Fantasies à la grecque in Chariton’s Callirhoe

‘Empire of the Gaze’:Despotism and Seraglio Fantasies à la grecque in Chariton’s Callirhoe Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones (bio) When I said I had actually stayed in a harem, I could see the male portion of my audience, as it were, passing round the wink. ‘You may not put the word “harem” on the title of your lecture,’ said the secretary of a certain society. ‘Many who might come to hear you would stay away for fear of hearing improper revelations, and others would come hoping to hear those revelations and go away disappointed.’ Grace Ellison, An Englishwoman in a Turkish Harem In this article I explore how Greek literature of the postclassical age used the motif of the past glories of a decadent East to fantasize about the erotic pleasures of looking at women. These fantasies take place in an arena usually considered taboo for any male observer: the Persian royal seraglio. My focus will be on Chariton’s novel Callirhoe, the lively story of an exceptionally beautiful Greek woman—the fictional Callirhoe—who is compelled to become a concubine at the Persian royal court.1 Callirhoe’s status as a desired possession is negotiated throughout the novel by increasingly intimate levels of viewing as she progresses on her dual journeys from Greece to Persia and from Greek wife to Persian concubine (and, finally, back again). The climactic and most intimate viewing of Callirhoe takes place within the Persian Empire, at Babylon, inside the royal palace’s seraglio of queens and concubines; here she is seen by the Great King Artaxerxes alone, affording us, the readers of the novel, the vicariously privileged position of viewing the body of a much desired royal paramour. Greek novelists and historians of the Roman Imperial period, working with source materials derived in large from, most probably, the fourth-century BCE Persica of Ctesias, Dinon, and Heraclides of Cumae recognized that bona fide royal Achaemenid women had been part of a tightly regulated court society in which their high rank was emphasized by, partly, the women’s avoidance of the public gaze.2 I will suggest that the Greek authors of the novel (and, indeed, other types of Imperial-period literature) deliberately play with the tensions associated with viewing women in the palaces of the Persian Great Kings. These stories, concocted long after the fall of the Persian Empire, were intended to arouse the passions of (male) readers who saw in these seraglio tales an open licence for exotic voyeurism. [End Page 167] By the first century CE, the seraglio motif had embedded itself so firmly in the popular imagination that biographers and historians like Plutarch and, later, Aelian were using the stereotypical image of the seraglio as factual content in the composition of their Eastern histories. Callirhoe, History, and the Historical Novel Callirhoe, written at some time in the period 25 BCE to 50 CE, is generally regarded as the earliest extant piece of Greek prose fiction.3 Like many of the early novels (the Alexander Romance, the fragmentary Ninus, and Metiochus and Parthenope), Callirhoe is best classified as historical fiction. The story is set at the height of the Persian Empire, and the Persians who populate it have a secure basis in Achaemenid history: King Artaxerxes II (405–359 BCE) is the ruler who figures in Xenophon’s Anabasis, whose brother, Cyrus the Younger, rebelled against him and lost his life at the Battle of Cunaxa in 401 BCE; he was the ruler whose health was cared for by Ctesias of Cindus, who worked as a royal physician at the Persian court.4 And it is Ctesias (writing early in the fourth century BCE), and later followed by Plutarch, who confirms that the name of Artaxerxes’ wife was Stateira and she too appears in Chariton’s novel,5 while the other characters found there are principally drawn from Achaemenid nobility, as first recorded by Ctesias: Rhodogyne, Megabyzus, Zopyrus, and Pharnaces all occur in Book 17 of his Persica, while the King’s eunuch Artaxares, found in Book 19 of Ctesias’s work, becomes the model for Chariton’s eunuch Artaxates.6 Therefore we can say that Chariton intended a precise literary-historical equation...