More of the Oriental Institite's Iranian Expedition Publications are now Online

Bowman, Raymond A. Aramaic Ritual Texts from Persepolis
Cameron, George G. Persepolis Treasury Tablets
Herzfeld, Ernst E. A New Inscription of Xerxes from Persepolis
Langsdorff, Alexander and Donald E. McCown. Tall-i-Bakun A: Season of 1932
Schmidt, Erich F. Flights Over Ancient Cities of Iran
Schmidt, Erich F. The Treasury of Persepolis and Other Discoveries in the Homeland of the Achaemenians
Schmidt, Erich F., with a contribution by F. R. Matson. Persepolis I: Structures, Reliefs, Inscriptions
Schmidt, Erich F., with contributions by Sydney P. Noe et al., Frederick R. Matson, Lawrence J. Howell, and Louisa Bellinger. Persepolis II: Contents of the Treasury and Other Discoveries
Schmidt, Erich F., with contributions by Sydney P. Noe et al., Frederick R. Matson, Lawrence J. Howell, and Louisa Bellinger. Persepolis III: The Royal Tombs and Other Monuments

Die Keilinschriften der Achämeniden

A facsimile of Franz Heinrich Weissbach's classic Die Keilinschriften der Achämeniden is now available online free of charge as a part of the ETANA Core Text project. The scan was made available as part of a USAID grant to assist Iraqi universities rebuild their archaeology programs and collections. Prof. Elizabeth Stone was the Principal Investigator for this grant, administered at Stony Brook University in New York State. See also the SBL Forum entry "ETANA Expands its Core Texts"

Findspot of the Persepolis Fortification Archive

[Updated July 24, 2007]
Click on each image for higher sesolution photographs

Google Earth images continue to improve. The first is of Persepolis in its immediate environmental context:



The second is the most detailed image currently available on Google Earth:



It is interesting to compare it with the Schmidt photograph taken while the project was underway:



The Fortification Archive was discovered in a room in the Northern Fortifications, the structure visible in the upper left corner of the Terrace as seen in this photograph from Erich Schmidt's Aerial Survey. The area was being prepared for the construction of a road to allow vehicles to enter the Terrace when the archive was discovered at the beginning of March, 1933. Garrison and Root publish Herzfeld's sketch plan of the building in the context of their discussion of the findspot, on page 25 of the Introduction to their Seals on the Persepolis Fortification Tablets, Volume 1.

THE RISE OF ARAMEAN SCRIPT IN MESOPOTAMIA AND ITS ENVIRONS (IRAQ)

One of the very few publications to exploit the Persepolis Fortification Tablets in Aramaic is David Nasgowitz's 1966 University of Chicago A. M. Thesis: THE RISE OF ARAMEAN SCRIPT IN MESOPOTAMIA AND ITS ENVIRONS (IRAQ). Nasgowitz was a student of Raymond Bowman's and had access to Bowman and his notes. To the best of my knowlege this thesis is available only in the University of Chicago Library (Regenstein), and in the Oriental Institute's Research Archives.

It is in fact available for sale from UMI/ProQuest.

[Between the time I originally posted this on November 28, 2006 and today, this title became available at ProQuest in a downloadable pdf form. Those of you whose institutions subscribe to ProQuest can now acquire this book free of charge]

Mapping Persepolis in wikis

One of the benefits as well as problems with wikis is the potential complexity and obscurity of their cross-references. A new tool, WikiMindMap allows you to visually unfold the network.

Choose your wiki (Wikipedia - sadly we can't yet try it out on the CDLI wiki), and then type in your topic (case matters!). For example, I started with Persepolis, which was reasonably complex, but with links in odd and possibly unexpected directions. Elamite and Achaemenid are very simple, Old Persian is more complex, Cuneiform is simple, but Mesopotamia is not. Curiously Phrygian is more complex than Aramaic. It is perhaps telling that Bible displays about the same level of complexity as Paris Hilton.

Comments?

SEALS IN ARCHIVES: PERSEPOLITAN ADMINISTRATORS AND THEIR IMAGES

[This article appeared in The Oriental Institute News & Notes, No. 194 (Summer 2007), and is reproduced here with the kind permission of the Oriental Institute. News & Notes is a quarterly publication, printed for members as one of the privileges of membership in the Oriental Institute]


SEALS IN ARCHIVES: PERSEPOLITAN ADMINISTRATORS AND THEIR IMAGES

by Mark B. Garrison

Presented at the Oriental Institute, in honor of the retirement of Raymond D. Tindel (March 26, 2007)

Archives of clay tablets have been found at a wide variety of sites across the great sweep of what we today call the ancient Near East, or ancient Western Asia. Archives are highly prized owing to the rich textual evidence that they provide on various matters social,political, economic, religious, etc. What is perhaps less well known about archives of clay tablets is that they are often conveyers of visual imagery. In many instances part of the protocols involved in administrative activity was the application of one or more seals across various surfaces of the tablets. These seal impressions functioned administratively on a variety of levels, acting as markers of witnesses to the transactions,identifiers of personnel/offices involved,tokens of authority and security, etc. Some “archives” consist in fact solely of uninscribed clay artifacts that carry seal impressions.


Persepolis Fortification tablets in situ

Seals in ancient Western Asia consisted of two types, cylinders and stamps. Since their invention in the late fourth millennium B.C., cylinder seals were by far the preferred medium in ancient Iran and Iraq. In the first millennium B.C., stamp seals re-appeared and were used contemporaneously with cylinder seals. When cylinder and stamps were applied to the still-moist tablets, the imagery, carved on the reverse in the actual seal matrix, would appear in the positive on the surfaces of those tablets. One of the interesting aspects about seals is that the seal user created imagery through the application of his/her carved glyptic artifact. While some seal users may have understood that imagery in a very practical manner, i.e., a signature, it is clear that many seal users prized the often virtuosic carving and must have delighted in the potential imagery that lay literally at their fingertips.

The importance of glyptic imagery has long been recognized. Indeed, seals are the most commonly occurring artifact that carries visual imagery in the archaeological record of the ancient Near East, surviving by the tens of thousands. As such, seal images have been studied since the beginnings of modern archaeological expeditions in the nineteenth century.

It is a curious aspect of glyptic imagery that it survives in two distinct forms: as an actual seal artifact (usually of stone,but sometimes of clay, bone, metal, shell, etc.), and as an impression in clay. It is exceptionally rare to have both an ancient seal and an ancient impression of it. This may be simply the result of archaeological serendipity, or it may reflect real patterns of human behavior. That is, seals that were used as administrative markers may have been different from those that were used as items of personal adornment and/or amulets; thus, the two types of seals may survive in the archaeological record differently owing to different patterns of use and deposition.


Cylinder seal with modern impression. OIM A25308

Cylinder seals can be manipulated in various ways to provide oftentimes strikingly beautiful modern impressions. Indeed, these seals have to be impressed in some type of modern sealing medium in order for us to study their visual imagery since the carved surface of the cylindrical piece of stone is often difficult, if not impossible, to read. By contrast, seal impressions almost never preserve the full scene and are often difficult to see. In many archives a seal will be applied to more than one clay artifact, meaning that all impressions of that seal must be surveyed and then a collated composite image generated. For these reasons, even today, surveys of the glyptic arts focus almost exclusively on modern impressions of ancient seals, rather than impressions of seals from archives.

It is a sad fact that the great bulk of these seals do not have an excavated provenance. Because of their small size and often beautiful carving, seals have long been highly prized by collectors. The resulting loss of contextual information is a devastating blow to our research endeavors. While the images on these unprovenanced seals may be beautiful, they float in time and space; serious questions of authenticity are often part of the calculus, especially with a seal image that does not fit the canon as traditionally defined. A traditional venue of the publication of glyptic imagery in fact is the catalogue of seals now found in museum and private collections. The scale of the problem of provenance may be seen in the recently published volume six of the British Museum series (Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals in the British Museum: Cylinder Seals 6: Pre-Achaemenid and Achaemenid Periods, by Parvine H. Merrillees). Of the ninety-two seals in volume six, only three seals have an excavated provenance.


Aerial photograph of the Persepolis terrace; the Fortification archive was discovered in chambers of the fortification wall visible at upper left in the photograph, where the wall abuts the mountain

By contrast, seals preserved as impressions on clay artifacts within the context of archives have less often attracted the attention of collectors (there are, nevertheless, thousands of clay tablets of unknown archaeological provenance in museum and private collections around the world). We are especially fortunate to have many large archives of sealed tablets discovered through controlled archaeological excavations. When we have a seal preserved as an impression on a tablet, we are seeing the imagery in its functional context. That functional context (i.e., the surface of a tablet) is enhanced by the fact that the tablet is related to other tablets via the archival context. The seal impression is thus related via function to other seal impressions in that archive. That archive, moreover, can almost always be specifically located in time and space. Seal images preserved as impressions in archives thus constitute one of the more remarkable contexts for the study of the visual imagery of the ancient world.

The richness of this evidence and its potential for providing unique insights into the lived human experience/interac-tion with images may be glimpsed in a large archive of administrative documents currently at the Oriental Institute on loan from the Iranian government. This archive is known as the Persepolis Fortification archive. The Persepolis Fortification archive was found in chambers of the northern fortification at Persepolis (whence the name of the archive) in 1933 by a team from the Oriental Institute. The particulars of the archive and its importance were well articulated by M. W. Stolper in the Winter 2007 edition of News & Notes. In brief, the archive represents the administration of a food rationing system that covered an amorphous area consisting of the environs of Persepolis (Parsha), Pasargadae (Batrakatsh), and Shiraz (Tirazzish) and a broad(?) expanse to the northwest along the royal road to Susa. Date formulae preserved in many texts date the archive to years 13–28 (509–493 B.C.), in the reign of Darius I. There are three major components of the archive: tablets that carry Achaemenid Elamite inscriptions in cuneiform and, very often but not always,impressions of seals; tablets that carry Aramaic inscriptions in ink (and/or incised) and, very often but not always, seal impressions; and tablets that carry only seal impressions (what are designated as the uninscribed tablets). The exact number of tablets and fragments is not known, but recent work by Stolper places the tablet count at approximately 15,000–18,000 distinct documents in toto. That is a huge number of artifacts, constituting one of the largest archives to have survived from ancient Western Asia.

The seal images are the only aspect of this administrative system that can be documented across all three components of the archive: Elamite tablets, Aramaic tablets, and uninscribed tablets. The seals applied to the tablets represent the officials and offices delivering and receiving commodities,and the officials and offices responsible for overarching administrative accounting and oversight. Just as there are many tablets, so, too, there are many seals preserved in the archive. On the 2,087 Elamite tablets published by R. T. Hallock in 1969, approximately1,148 different seals can be recognized (we distinguish seals preserved on the Elamite tablets with the siglum PFS). The first volume of the publication of the seal s preserved on the PF tablets has now been published: M. B. Garrison and M. C. Root, Seals on the Persepolis Fortification Tablets, Volume 1: Images of Heroic Encounter (Oriental Institute Publications 117; Chicago: The Oriental Institute, 2001). From preliminary research by E. Dusinberre on the seals applied to the Aramaic documents and by the author on the unpublished Elamite tablets and the uninscribed tablets, there are probably at a minimum another 1,000–1,500 seals.

We have thus preserved in the Fortification archive one of the most densely concentrated collections of visual imagery from the whole of ancient Western Asia and the Mediterranean worlds. Thinking for a moment about the multi-layered contexts, this imagery is closely circumscribed in place (the environs of Persepolis and an area extending to the north and west), time (509–493 B.C.) and function (all the images are being used by officials/offices to seal tablets in the archive). Each of these some 2,000 images is thus linked to all other images in a most intimate and direct way. These images are also objects actively in use by administrators, thus linked to a specific type of activity by specific people. Those individuals, moreover, run the social gamut from lowly workers to the imperial family. The social position and administrative rank of many of these individuals are, furthermore, fairly well known. These images are also linked in time and place with the massive construction activities associated with the building and ornamenting of Persepolis and rock-cut tomb of Darius at Naqsh-e Rustam. Finally, this particular time and place happen to be exceptionally critical, marking the initiation of administrative, political, social, and ideological programs associated with Darius’ consolidation of an empire the scale of which the world had never seen.


Photo of PFS 9*. Drawing and photo by Mark Garrison

By examining, for example, how individuals select and use imagery, we may pursue in these seal images a social history of art that in most other times and places would be an impossibility. One way that we may explore the richness of the multilayered contexts of the Persepolitan seal images is via a phenomenon that I have called “replacement seals.” In numerous instances we are able to track an individual’s replacement of one seal by another. Tracking this type of phenomenon in and of itself would of course be next to impossible with any glyptic artifact found outside of an archival context. Most of the time at Persepolis the adoption of a new seal goes unmentioned in the textual record. In one now-famous case involving the chief administrator of the archive, Parnaka, probably the uncle of Darius, two Elamite texts (PF 2067 and PF 2068) specifically note the replacement of the earlier seal, PFS 9* (Cat.No. 288) with the new seal, PFS 16* (Cat.No. 22): “also, the seal that formerly (was) mine has been replaced — now this seal (is) mine that has been applied to this tablet” (PF 2067).

Parnaka’s right-hand man, the second in command of the archive, Zishshawish, also replaced his earlier seal, PFS 83*, with a new seal, PFS 11*. Zishshawish is the Elamite form of the Old Persian name *Ciça-vahu- “of good lineage.” His two seals provide an especially interesting case of the replacement of seals concerning an individual at the very highest levels of the Persepolitan administration. As indicative of his high administrative rank, Zishshawish receives very high food rations, issues letter orders, employs scribes, and never needs a counterseal on his transactions.

Based on the preserved texts, Zishshawish can be documented using his first seal, PFS 83*, between May/June 507 B.C. and November/December 504 B.C. The seal is a unique and intriguing design. Two figural compositions constitute the major elements of the design field; a winged bovine with suckling calf, and a four-winged human headed-bull supporting a winged disc. An Aramaic inscription along with the lower three prongs of a star remain in the upper field.

If preserved as an unprovenanced artifact in a museum, this seal would probably be classified as an Assyrian product. Certainly, in comparison to the conventional understanding of how Achaemenid glyptic ought to appear, an understanding built almost exclusively upon unprovenanced artifacts, the imagery, iconography and style of carving of PFS 83* certainly do not seem “Achaemenid.” Several features of its design are traditionally associated with Assyrian art. For example, the cow and calf motif was especially popular in Assyrian and Syrian glyptic, ivory carving and metalwork of the early first millennium B.C. So, too, the bull-man in the form of an atlantid, often associated with a winged ring/disk or the half-figure in the winged ring/disk, was very popular in Assyrian glyptic. PFS 83* is not, however,an unprovenanced object. Embedded in a pool of imagery owing to its archival context, we can see that its carving style is completely at home within the seals from the Fortification archive.


PFS 16*. Drawing and photo by Mark Garrison

Lastly, the Aramaic inscription on PFS 83* is quite at home within a Persepolitan context. Only the first word in what appears to have been a one line inscription, enclosed in a panel, is preserved: HTM…, “Seal (of ) …”. The preservation of the vertical edge for a panel at left would seem to indicate that there may have been as many as four or five more letters in the line. One assumes that the missing section of the inscription contained a personal name. Inscribed seals are fairly rare in the archive, less than 10% of the seals carry inscriptions, and the majority of those inscriptions are in Elamite. There is, however, a substantial corpus of seals inscribed in Aramaic, and the formula “Seal of PN” is a common one among those seals. Indeed, it is interesting to note that Parnaka also uses Aramaic for the inscriptions on both of his seals.

PFS 83* thus may be related in style,imagery and inscription to other seals in the archive. In general, the seal takes its place as one example among hundreds of Persepolitan seals that exhibit archaizing imagery and style that are deeply indebted to Assyrian models. Nevertheless, it is clear that this seal is a very special one. The scene of the cow and calf is unique among the seals studied to date in the archive. The Aramaic inscription also marks the seal as special; the combination of the placement of the inscription in the upper field and its enclosure within a panel cannot be paralleled in any other seal studied to date in the archive. Several characteristics thus point to this seal being a commissioned piece. This ought not to surprise us, given the exceptionally high administrative rank of Zishshawish.



Photo of PFS 83*. Drawing and photo by Mark Garrison

On a tablet dated to December 503 B.c./January 502 B.C., Zishshawish for the first time uses his new seal, PFS 11*. He continued to use this seal until Febru-ary/March 496 B.C. Whether the approximately one year hiatus between his last use of PFS 83* and his first use of PFS 11* is real, or simply due to accident of record survival, cannot be determined.

PFS 11* is a magnificent seal, one of the great masterpieces of glyptic carving from the Fortification archive. The scene consists of a central “altar” above which floats a half-figure in a winged disk; to either side of the altar is disposed a crowned figure in Persian court dress. This central scene is then flanked by date palms followed by a paneled, trilingual (Old Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian) royal-name inscription in the terminal field.

Unlike PFS 83*, PFS 11* conforms to our conventional understanding of how Achaemenid glyptic ought to appear, in style, iconography, and composition. The figures wear the Persian court robe and the dentate crown that are so often associated with aspects of Achaemenid imperial imagery. The scene is relatively rare, but,nonetheless, one well known from unprovenanced glyptic examples.

Like PFS 83*, PFS 11* is also a very special glyptic product. The seal is one of four seals from the archive that carry the standard royal-name inscription of Darius. None of these seals belonged to Darius; all were used by high-ranking officials/offices. Of course, without its archival context, we would have no idea that the seal in fact belongs to Zishshawish, and, I suspect, there would be speculation that this was in fact the personal seal of the king. The scene of two figures flanking an “altar” is rare in the archive; I know of only four other examples in the seals studied to date. So, too, the carving style, what I have called the “Court Style,” is rare in the Fortification archive. The scene, and aspects of its iconography, recall the famous tomb relief of Darius at Naqsh-e Rustam, but the relationship is not as close as one may think at first glance. In fact, in its mirror doubling of the royal figure and its static, idealized composition, PFS 11* provides in many ways a very different statement about the nature of Achaemenid kingship.

Owing to the rich archival context, we may offer some speculation on the nature of the relationships of the two seals of Zi‰‰awi‰ to each other, and what those relationships may say about Zishshawish himself. The two seals provide an in-depth view of patron taste/needs at the very highest levels of the imperial administration at the heart of the empire. The precise social/ad-ministrative/political dynamics that lead to Zishshawish’ initial selection of the imagery on PFS 83*, and then the replacement of that imagery with PFS 11*, are, of course, lost to us. Nevertheless, we may be able to infer some aspects to these processes owing to the rich archival contexts of both Zishshawish the administrator and the seals that he uses.

Both seals, as we have seen, are special artifacts, possessing iconographic, stylistic, and compositional traits that are either rare or unique. Both must be commissioned objects, as one may have expected for an individual of Zishshawish’s administrative rank, and, thus, we may infer that Zishshawish played some role in the selection of their style and imagery. PFS 83*, despite its unique features, takes its place first and foremost as one of many hundreds of examples of strongly Assyrianizing imagery in the seals from the Fortification archive. Rather than trying to decode the individual elements (and/or their combination) of the figural imagery, I suggest that the primary signification of the imagery lay in this Assyrianizing “flavor.” It is striking that many of these now very well-known administrators who have direct ties to the royal family seem to prefer seals executed in this archaizing manner. Zishshawish’s immediate superior, Parnaka exhibited the same predilection for Assyrianizing style and imagery in both of his seals, PFS 9* and PFS 16*. The royal woman Irtashduna, the daughter of Cyrus and favored wife of Darius (Herodotus 7.69.2), uses a seal, PFS 38, with such exceptionally strong Assyrianizing elements that several commentators have actually dated its carving to the Assyrian period. As far as we know,Zishshawish had no direct ties (by marriage or blood) to the royal family. Perhaps the imagery of his seal PFS 83* is an attempt to emulate the taste of his immediate superior and the royal family as a whole.


Photo of PFS 11*. Drawing and photo by Mark Garrison

The sudden appearance of PFS 11*,a seal bearing a royal-name inscription no less, must mark a critical point in the biography of Zishshawish the administrator and courtier. The seal appears, along with a handful of other beautifully executed Court Style seals, three of them also bearing royal-name inscriptions of Darius, in the last decade of the sixth century B.C. None of these seals belongs to members of the royal family. The very specific and consistent style and iconography of these seals articulate very clearly the new imperial message. The seals also would seem to act as foci of a dialogue between the king and his administrative elite. They communicate both the king’s recognition of these individuals as closely linked by loyalty (in lieu of blood and/or marriage) to the king/ royal family, and those individuals’ affirmation of membership/loyalty to the newly(re)constituted royal order. As such, the imagery and style of these seals convey a dialogue between king and administrative elite having more to do with personal relationships than abstracted concepts of imperial ideology. Images and image making,while dominant features of the physical and intellectual landscape of the Persepolis region in the late sixth century B.C., thus may have also played a critical role in the social and political lives of individuals.



[Following are the pages of this articles in the format in which it originally published in The Oriental Institute News and Notes]

Richard T. Hallock: Articles online

The following articles by Richard T. Hallock relating to the Perspolis Tablets are available online. Most are available at JSTOR, and are limited to those who have access to JSTOR.

Selected Fortification Texts
Richard T. Hallock
Cahiers de la DAFI Vol. 8 (1978), pp. 109-136 [Added July 5, 2007]

The Pronominal Suffixes in Achaemenid Elamite
Richard T. Hallock
Journal of Near Eastern Studies Vol. 21, No. 1 (Jan., 1962), pp. 53-56

Darius I, the King of the Persepolis Tablets
Richard T. Hallock
Journal of Near Eastern Studies Vol. 1, No. 2 (Apr., 1942), pp. 230-232

The Verb Šara- in Achaemenid Elamite
Richard T. Hallock
Journal of Near Eastern Studies Vol. 24, No. 3, Erich F. Schmidt Memorial Issue. Part One (Jul., 1965), pp. 271-273

The "One Year" of Darius I
Richard T. Hallock
Journal of Near Eastern Studies Vol. 19, No. 1 (Jan., 1960), pp. 36-39

On the Old Persian Signs
Richard T. Hallock
Journal of Near Eastern Studies Vol. 29, No. 1 (Jan., 1970), pp. 52-55

On the Middle Elamite Verb
Richard T. Hallock
Journal of Near Eastern Studies Vol. 32, No. 1/2 (Jan., 1973), pp. 148-151

Notes on Achaemenid Elamite
Richard T. Hallock
Journal of Near Eastern Studies Vol. 17, No. 4 (Oct., 1958), pp. 256-262

A New Look at the Persepolis Treasury Tablets
Richard T. Hallock
Journal of Near Eastern Studies Vol. 19, No. 2 (Apr., 1960), pp. 90-100

New Light from Persepolis
Richard T. Hallock
Journal of Near Eastern Studies Vol. 9, No. 4 (Oct., 1950), pp. 237-252

The Finite Verb in Achaemenid Elamite
Richard T. Hallock
Journal of Near Eastern Studies Vol. 18, No. 1 (Jan., 1959), pp. 1-19

Review of: The Phonology and Morphology of Royal Achaemenid Elamite by Herbert H. Paper
Richard T. Hallock
Journal of the American Oriental Society Vol. 76, No. 1 (Jan., 1956), pp. 43-46

Biographical Sketch of Erich F. Schmidt

This brief biography of Erich F. Schmidt, Field Director of the Persepolis Expedition of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, from 1935 to 1939, was written by John Larson, Oriental Institute Museum Archivist.

An Old Persian text in the Persepolis Fortification Archive

Everyday text shows that Old Persian was probably more commonly used than previously thought




For the first time, a text has been found in Old Persian language that shows the written language in use for practical recording and not only for royal display. The text is inscribed on a damaged clay tablet from the Persepolis Fortification Archive, now at the Oriental Institute at The University of Chicago. The tablet is an administrative record of the payout of at least 600 quarts of an as-yet unidentified commodity at five villages near Persepolis in about 500 B.C.

“Now we can see that Persians living in Persia at the high point of the Persian Empire wrote down ordinary day-to-day matters in Persian language and Persian script,” said Gil Stein, Director of the Oriental Institute. “Odd as it seems, that comes as a surprise—a very big surprise.”

Old Persian writing was the first of the cuneiform scripts to be deciphered, between about 1800 and 1845. When the script was cracked, scholars saw that the Old Persian language was an ancestor of modern Persian and a relative of Sanskrit. Knowing that, they could understand the inscriptions of Darius, Xerxes and their successors, the kings of the Persian Empire founded by Cyrus the Great in the mid-sixth century B.C. and destroyed by Alexander the Great and his successors after 330 BC.

Until now, most scholars of Old Persian thought that Old Persian script and language were used only for the inscriptions of kings on cliff faces or palaces, or else to identify vessels of precious metals or other luxury goods that were connected with the kings and their palaces. To write records of administration or business, the Persians relied on languages and scripts—Aramaic, Babylonian, Elamite, and others—already in use at the advent of the Empire.

The Persepolis Fortification Archive, excavated in 1933 at the imperial palace complex of Persepolis, in southwestern Iran, and under study at the Oriental Institute since 1937, is a prime example. The Archive includes tens of thousands of clay tablets and fragments with texts in Elamite, an indigenous language already written in Iran for almost two thousand years before the Persian Empire was founded. It also includes hundreds of clay tablets and fragments with texts in Aramaic, a Semitic language already used for practical recording over much of the Near East since the days of the Assyrian and Babylonian Empires (ninth to sixth centuries BC). It also includes thousands of tablets with no texts at all, but with impressions of seals.

But over the years of study, a few extraordinary items have also been discovered among the Persepolis tablets: a text in Phrygian (a language of western Anatolia, in modern Turkey), a text in Greek, and now a text in Persian, the language of the Empire’s rulers.

“Most of the scribes around Persepolis could speak and write more than one language, and this text might be just a quirky experiment done by one of them,” said Matthew W. Stolper, head of the Oriental Institute’s Persepolis Fortification Archive Project. “But it might also be the tip of an iceberg.” He explained that in 500 B.C., just as now, administrative records did not work as isolates, only as items in much larger files. Before 1933, there was only one known example of an Achaemenid administrative tablet written inin Elamite, but since the discovery of the Persepolis Fortification Archive there are thousands. Like that first Achaemenid Elamite tablet, this Old Persian tablet “could also be the first forerunner of something much bigger.”

Because there are no other such documents in Old Persian, interpreting this one depends on comparisons with the Elamite and Aramaic documents with which it was found. “The Old Persian tablet departs so much from expectations that its authenticity would have been questioned if it had not been found in the Fortification Archive,” Stolper said.

“This shows how important it is to keep the Persepolis Fortification texts together, to keep the Archive intact,” Stein said. “Unexpected discoveries are still being made, and the meaning and reliability of every piece depend on its connections with the whole information system of the entire Fortification Archive.”

Members of the Oriental Institute’s Persepolis Fortification Archive Project first announced the discovery of the Old Persian tablet in November, 2006, at a colloquium at the Collège de France and the University of Chicago’s Paris Center. They described the document in greater detail at a meeting of the American Oriental Society in March, 2007.

An article by Stolper and Jan Tavernier, of the University of Leuven (Belgium), with images and discussion of the tablet and the text is now published in the on-line journal ARTA:

Matthew W. Stolper & Jan Tavernier, From the Persepolis Fortification Archive Project, 1: An Old Persian Administrative Tablet from the Persepolis Fortification

Rejecting Renvoi for Movable Cultural Property: The Islamic Republic of Iran V. Denyse Berend

Derek Fincham of Illicit Cultural Property, has just published a case note in the International Journal of Cultural Property "Rejecting Renvoi for Movable Cultural Property: The Islamic Republic of Iran V. Denyse Berend" 14 Int'l J. Cultural Prop. Issue 01, pp 111-120.

His Abstract:

"In Iran v. Berend, the High Court in London had occasion to revisit one of the most enduring problems of private international law and cultural property. Effective regulation of the illicit market in cultural property is extremely difficult, because many measures aimed at stemming the illicit trade actually contribute to the black market. Courts in both England and the United States have shown that they are prepared to use criminal laws to convict persons involved in the illegal trade in antiquities exported in violation of foreign patrimony laws. As a result, much cultural property policy debate in recent years has focused on the extent to which the criminal law can impact the illicit trade. The extent to which national ownership declarations can be used in civil disputes remains less clear."

Job Announcement: Persepolis Fortification Archives - Research Project Professionals

Job Announcement

Persepolis Fortification Archives
Research Project Professionals

The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago seeks to appoint two new staff members to make digital images of Aramaic texts and of seal impressions on tablets from the Persepolis Fortification archive.

Knowledge of Aramaic epigraphy and/or Achaemenid glyptic and/or the Persepolis Fortification archive is highly desirable. Comfort with digital technology, familiarity with computers and a variety of computer programs is essential. Graduate work in some area of ancient Near Eastern studies is required. Applicants with these qualifications who have completed PhDs in areas pertinent to research on Achaemenid texts and art, as well as applicants admitted to PhD candidacy in these areas, are encouraged to apply.

The successful applicants will receive training in large-format very high-resolution digital scanning and Polynomial Texture Mapping and in making, processing, and uploading images. They will then capture images of Aramaic texts and of seal impressions on clay tablets from Persepolis, under the supervision of the Persepolis Fortification Archives project team, and process the scans for uploading and editing.

The work is to begin on July 1, 2007 and continue through December 31, 2008. Salary for each post is $22,000 (July-December 2007) + $44,000 (January-December 2008), with benefits.

Funding for these positions is assured from July, 2007 through December, 2008. There is a possibility that additional funding will be obtained and that the positions can be extended.

To apply for this position, please apply online at the University of Chicago’s job posting website at (requisition # 075728 or 075622 - Research Project Professional)

Applications must be received by May 15th, 2007.

For additional information, please contact:
Matthew Stolper
Oriental Institute
University of Chicago
1155 East 58th Street
Chicago, Il., 690093
m-stolper@uchicago.edu

The University of Chicago is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer.

Iranian Persepolis Tablets & Controversy With Israel "What They Are & What They're Worth"

Iranian Persepolis Tablets & Controversy With Israel "What They Are & What They're Worth"

The University of Chicago along with the Governments of both Iran & the U.S. agree: current laws do not permit the sale of these tablets. So why then is US Courts and the Israeli Government/Interest Groups insistent on auctioning off these priceless artifacts?

Professor Matthew Stolper, from the OI, will be holding a talk on the significance of the Achaemenid Elamite tablets and the legal predicament they have been subject to by US courts, which are intent on seizing and auctioning them--for they deem them as integral part of Iranian assets--with the proceeds to be distributed among the victims of acts of terror perpetrated in the land of Israel.


The Program of Iranian Studies and the Musa Sabi Chair in Iranian Studies at UCLA announce:

The Persepolis Fortification Tablets:

What They Are, What They're Good For, What They're Worth.

A Lecture by Matthew W. Stolper, Professor of Assyriology and the John A. Wilson Professor of Oriental Studies at the Oriental Institute-University of Chicago

Friday, April 13, 2007
at 4:00 PM
Royce Hall 314

Hallock's Persepolis Fortification Tablets is now available online

The Persepolis Fortification Archive Project, in conjunction with the Oriental Instistute Publications Office is pleased to announce the availability online free-of-charge, of:


Persepolis Fortification Tablets [n.b. This is a large file - more than 56MB, so plan on using a reasonably fast connection and be prepared to wait]

R. T. Hallock

Oriental Institute Publications 92

With over 2100 texts published, the Persepolis Fortification Texts in Elamite, transcribed, interpreted, and edited by the late Richard Hallock, already form the largest coherent body of material on Persian administration available to us; a comparable, but less legible, body of material remains unpublished, as does the smaller group of Aramaic texts from the same archive. Essentially, they deal with the movement and expenditure of food commodities in the region of Persepolis in the fifteen years down to 493. Firstly, they make it absolutely clear that everyone in the state sphere of the Persian economy was on a fixed ration-scale, or rather, since some of the rations are on a scale impossible for an individual to consume, a fixed salary expressed in terms of commodities. The payment of rations is very highly organized. Travelers along the road carried sealed documents issued by the king or officials of satrapal level stating the scale on which they were entitled to be fed. Tablets sealed by supplier and recipient went back to Persepolis as a record of the transaction. Apart from a few places in Babylonia for short periods, Persepolis is now the best-documented area in the Achaemenid empire. What generalizations or other insights this provides for other areas is perhaps likely to remain one of the main methodological problems for Achaemenid scholarship. [From an article by D. M. Lewis, "The Persepolis Fortification Texts," in Achaemenid History IV: Centre and Periphery, Proceedings of the Groningen 1986 Achaemenid History Workshop, edited by Heleen Sancisi-Weerdenburg and Amélie Kuhrt (Leiden: Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, 1990), pp. 2-6].

ISBN 0-226-62195-2 (cloth)
Published: 1969
9 x 11.75 in / 23 x 30 cm
Pp. x + 776
No Illustrations

OIP 92. Persepolis Fortification Tablets. is also available for purchase from David Brown Books / Oxbow Books, the diistributor of all publications of the Oriental Institute.

New journal: Bastanshenasi

A new Iranian archaeology journal has appeared: Bastanshenasi [image of cover and title page courtest of Achemenet]. There appear to be two issues available at this time. This dealer (sales at irantitle.com) can supply it. Presumably others can as well.

PFT at the AOS

Matthew W. Stolper, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, will present a paper:

"An Old Persian Administrative Tablet from the Persepolis Fortification Archive"

at the the 217th meeting of the American Oriental Society, Sheraton Gunter Hotel, 205 E. Houston Street, San Antonio, TX 78205, on Monday, March 19th [Session A. Ancient Near East, VII: Economy & Society. Maynard P. Maidman, York University, Chair (9:00 a.m.-12:00 noon)]
No abstract is available in the abstract book.

Excavations at Liduma?

Update, March 7, 2007:

The University of Sydney has an interesting illustrated press release on these excavations at Jinjun: Rich finds on royal road


Update, March 1, 2007:

More news (but not much more) on the Iranian/Australian expedition in Nurabad Mamasani, Fars province. The article includes these interesting photographs





An Iranian/Australian team are excavation a site which they claim, in a news story, to be the place Liduma, mentioned in the Persepolis Fortification tablets

MAVI reviewed

Update: March 7, 2007: Achemenet et M.A.V.I. (Musée Achéménide Virtuel Interactif) have also been reviewed in the following:

Le Site à la loupe: Le monde achéménide en ligne - 2 mars 2007, par Corinne Welger-Barboza, in OBSERVATOIRE CRITIQUE des ressources numériques en histoire de l'art et archéologie, 2 mars 2007.



MAVI has been listed in Intute

Intute is a free online service providing access to the very best Web resources for education and research, selected and evaluated by a network of subject specialists. The service is brought to us by a consortium of UK universities and partners.

Following is the text of Intute's description of MAVI:

"The virtual Achaemenid museum is a multimedia-rich interactive website focusing on the Achaemenid Empire (ca. 560 to 330 BC), also known as Persian Empire. The website publishes a database of artefacts from several museums representing a broad selection of categories and archaeological sites of provenance. It is possible to browse the artefacts in the "consultation" section by museum; archaeological site; category; or iconographic theme. A large sub-section publishes drawings by early travellers to the region. Any object can be saved as link in a special section, "my archive". Section "discovery" publishes a few audio and video presentations of key topics such as the "The Middle-East 550 B.C."; "Cyrus' conquests"; and "Pasargades". The help section is also a brief multimedia presentation and it is very useful to familiarise with the interface. At the bottom left there is a menu which allows to perform keyword searches, to add and access the records saved in "my archive" and to jump to any previously accessed record. For each record there are a few textual details and generally at least one picture, often more than one. Captions and texts change according to the picture displayed, and therefore multiple records may be available for a single object, one for each available photograph or drawing. At the top of each picture there is a menu labelled "tools", which allows zooming; reversing colours; transforming to greyscale; pan; copy; and paste pictures. Among the categories are buildings (architectures); coins; paintings; statues; vessels (both ceramic and metal vessels); and others"

Persepolis from Above

At some point in the past few weeks, Google has improved their coverage of Persepolis. Features of the site are now clearly visible from an altitude of ca. 2 kilometers. You can use Google Earth, or Google maps to view the sites:
Persepolis
Pasargadae
Naqsh-i-Rustam

It is interesting to compare these images with those taken by Erich Schmidt in his Aerial Survey

Wouter F. M. Henkelman: Articles online

Henkelman, Wouter F. M. Parnakka's Feast: šip in Parsa and Elam, to be published in J. Alvarez-Mon (ed.), Elam and Persia, Eisenbrauns, 2007. Prepublication .pfd version served at Achemenet
[Added February 16, 2007]

Henkelman, Wouter F. M. Exit der Posaunenbläser. On lance-guards and lance-bearers in the Persepolis Fortification archive, ARTA: Achaemenid Research on Texts and Archaeology

Henkelman, Wouter F. M.; Jones, Charles E.; Stolper, Matthew W. Achaemenid Elamite Administrative Tablets, 2: The Qasr-i Abu Nasr Tablet, ARTA: Achaemenid Research on Texts and Archaeology

Henkelman, Wouter F. M.; Jones, Charles E.; Stolper, Matthew W. Clay Tags with Achaemenid Seal Impressions in the Dutch Institute of the Near East (NINO) and Elsewhere, ARTA: Achaemenid Research on Texts and Archaeology Article

Oriental Institute Website Redesign

On Wednesday, February 7, 2007, the Oriental Institute launched its new website redesign. Most links to that site still work, though, significantly, links to individual photographs do not. I am working to rebuild any such broken links here on the Persepolis Fortification Archive Project blog. If you see any, send me a message, or leave a comment. Thanks.