The phonology and morphology of royal Achaemenid Elamite
Paper, Herbert H. (Herbert Harry), 1925-.
| 1955 | |
| Book | |
| Hathi Trust Digital Library | |
| University of Michigan | |
| Ann Arbor |
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
The phonology and morphology of royal Achaemenid Elamite
This classic is now online courtesy of scanning by Google Books and availability via HathiTrust.
Monday, May 04, 2009
Ancient Persian Archive Digitized with Support of Mellon Foundation
Since January, 2007, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has supported a collaboration between the West Semitic Research Project (WSRP), at the University of Southern California and the Persepolis Fortification Archive Project, making two kinds of very high-quality images of Persepolis Fortification tablets and distributing the images on line. Bruce Zuckerman and his WSRP team brought to the collaboration more than thirty years of experience with high-quality imaging of West Semitic documents and inscriptions, using conventional and digital techniques. WSRP has been distributing images since 2001 via the robust, easy-to-use application InscriptiFact. More than 8,700 images of more than 300 Fortification tablets will soon be available through InscriptiFact, and more will be displayed at frequent intervals. The following announcement and video clip describe some of the work under way at the Oriental Institute. The PFA Project expects to issue another announcement soon, focusing on the work WSRP-PFA/OI collaboration.
The Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago is using modern technology to digitally record thousands of tablets that, as they are being pieced together, tell an unusually detailed story of the Persian Empire.
These ancient tablets from the palaces of Persepolis include pieces of language and art from the center of the Persian Empire, all made when it extended from India and Central Asia to Egypt and the Mediterranean. Most have texts in impressed cuneiform characters, many them have inked texts in Aramaic writing and almost all of the tablets have seal impressions. They are now being recorded and distributed with digital processes that will allow scholars and viewers across the world to examine them as if they had picked them up and rotated under a light.
With a substantial grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, a team of researchers began work in 2007. Now, with a second Mellon grant, the team will continue this work through 2010. By that time researchers hope to have about 10,000 tablets and fragments recorded.
Gil Stein, Director of the Oriental Institute, where the tablets are kept, is principal investigator along with Matthew Stolper, John A. Wilson Professor in the Oriental Institute. Other team members and co-principal investigators are Annalisa Azzoni at Vanderbilt University, Elspeth Dusinberre at the University of Colorado, Mark Garrison at Trinity University, Wouter Henkelman at the Free University of Amsterdam, and Bruce Zuckerman and members of the West Semitic Research Project at the University of Southern California. The team collaborates in person, but also electronically.
The tablets being digitized come from the Persepolis Fortification Archive, some 30,000 administrative tablets and fragments that Oriental Institute archaeologists recovered in 1933 at Persepolis, the ruined palaces where the kings of the ancient Persian Empire held court. Since 1936 they have been on loan from Iran to the Oriental Institute for analysis and recording.
“They were written, sealed and filed in a short span of time, between 509 and 493 B.C., in the middle of the reign of the Achaemenid Persian king Darius I,” Stein said. “The oldest Greek tragedy of Aeschylus, and the first Greek history of Herodotus tell us about the reign of Darius, but they don’t tell us anything like this. The administration that these documents record touched every level of society, from lowly workers through bureaucrats and governors to the royal family itself,” he said.
Part of the collection has been recorded, and many of the tablets have been returned to Iran, but the tablets have challenged scholars since their discovery. Only one other document of its kind had been found before the discovery of the archive, making the comparison, reading and understanding of the archive’s tens of thousands of pieces difficult.
Matthew Stolper, Professor at the Oriental Institute, examines a tablet on loan from the government of Iran that has been digitized.
Oriental Institute professor Richard Hallock devoted his career to the tablets. His work, culminating in the groundbreaking publication of 2,087 texts in 1969, fundamentally changed how scholars look at the Persian Empire.
“It is no exaggeration to say that this knowledge has transformed every aspect of modern study of the languages, history and society, institutions and art of the Achaemenid Persian Empire,” Stolper said. “No serious treatment of the Achaemenid Empire can any longer omit the perspectives provided by the Fortification Archive.”
As the project continues, scholars will be able to better analyze the information available in the archive. Online presentation of images of the tablets, images of the seal impressions and editions of the texts will allow researchers to be able to look at each piece, compare and connect it with other pieces, and to assemble and work with the archive as a whole system.
How the recording works
The phase of the project supported by the Mellon grants is a close collaboration between the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago and the West Semitic Research Project at the University of Southern California. This phase captures and distributes two kinds of high-quality images of Persepolis Fortification tablets.
One set of images is made with a high-resolution, large-format scanning camera with polarized and filtered lighting. The lighting compensates for some of the staining, glare and fading that problematic in seeing inked texts.
The second set of images is captured with Polynomial Texture Mapping (PTM) apparatuses, using a technology developed by Hewlett Packard Labs and Cultural Heritage Imaging. Only a dozen or so of these apparatuses exist, and two of them are recording Persepolis tablets in the basement of the Oriental Institute. A computer controls the camera in each device, making a set of 32 distinctly lighted views of each document. Each image set is combined by a software application in such a way that viewers can control the apparent direction, angle and intensity of the light falling on the object, using a computer mouse just as if they were handling the original object under a desk lamp.
Clinton Moyer, senior imaging technician, photographs a tablet for digitization at the Oriental Institute.
High-resolution images of about 200 Persepolis Fortification texts are available on InscriptiFact, on the Web site of the West Semitic Research Project. Several hundred more will be available soon. Images of about 150 more Persepolis tablets, along with editions, and analytical tools, will soon be released on the On-Line Cultural Research Environment (OCHRE), the archaeological and textual database and presentation application developed at the Oriental Institute and maintained by the University of Chicago Library.
West Semitic Research Project
On-Line Cultural Research Environment (OCHRE)
Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative at UCLA
Musée Achéménide at the Collège de France
This story is an expanded version of the news item released by The University of Chicago News Office.
The Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago is using modern technology to digitally record thousands of tablets that, as they are being pieced together, tell an unusually detailed story of the Persian Empire.
These ancient tablets from the palaces of Persepolis include pieces of language and art from the center of the Persian Empire, all made when it extended from India and Central Asia to Egypt and the Mediterranean. Most have texts in impressed cuneiform characters, many them have inked texts in Aramaic writing and almost all of the tablets have seal impressions. They are now being recorded and distributed with digital processes that will allow scholars and viewers across the world to examine them as if they had picked them up and rotated under a light.
With a substantial grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, a team of researchers began work in 2007. Now, with a second Mellon grant, the team will continue this work through 2010. By that time researchers hope to have about 10,000 tablets and fragments recorded.
Gil Stein, Director of the Oriental Institute, where the tablets are kept, is principal investigator along with Matthew Stolper, John A. Wilson Professor in the Oriental Institute. Other team members and co-principal investigators are Annalisa Azzoni at Vanderbilt University, Elspeth Dusinberre at the University of Colorado, Mark Garrison at Trinity University, Wouter Henkelman at the Free University of Amsterdam, and Bruce Zuckerman and members of the West Semitic Research Project at the University of Southern California. The team collaborates in person, but also electronically.
The tablets being digitized come from the Persepolis Fortification Archive, some 30,000 administrative tablets and fragments that Oriental Institute archaeologists recovered in 1933 at Persepolis, the ruined palaces where the kings of the ancient Persian Empire held court. Since 1936 they have been on loan from Iran to the Oriental Institute for analysis and recording.
“They were written, sealed and filed in a short span of time, between 509 and 493 B.C., in the middle of the reign of the Achaemenid Persian king Darius I,” Stein said. “The oldest Greek tragedy of Aeschylus, and the first Greek history of Herodotus tell us about the reign of Darius, but they don’t tell us anything like this. The administration that these documents record touched every level of society, from lowly workers through bureaucrats and governors to the royal family itself,” he said.
Part of the collection has been recorded, and many of the tablets have been returned to Iran, but the tablets have challenged scholars since their discovery. Only one other document of its kind had been found before the discovery of the archive, making the comparison, reading and understanding of the archive’s tens of thousands of pieces difficult.
Oriental Institute professor Richard Hallock devoted his career to the tablets. His work, culminating in the groundbreaking publication of 2,087 texts in 1969, fundamentally changed how scholars look at the Persian Empire.
“It is no exaggeration to say that this knowledge has transformed every aspect of modern study of the languages, history and society, institutions and art of the Achaemenid Persian Empire,” Stolper said. “No serious treatment of the Achaemenid Empire can any longer omit the perspectives provided by the Fortification Archive.”
As the project continues, scholars will be able to better analyze the information available in the archive. Online presentation of images of the tablets, images of the seal impressions and editions of the texts will allow researchers to be able to look at each piece, compare and connect it with other pieces, and to assemble and work with the archive as a whole system.
How the recording works
The phase of the project supported by the Mellon grants is a close collaboration between the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago and the West Semitic Research Project at the University of Southern California. This phase captures and distributes two kinds of high-quality images of Persepolis Fortification tablets.
One set of images is made with a high-resolution, large-format scanning camera with polarized and filtered lighting. The lighting compensates for some of the staining, glare and fading that problematic in seeing inked texts.
The second set of images is captured with Polynomial Texture Mapping (PTM) apparatuses, using a technology developed by Hewlett Packard Labs and Cultural Heritage Imaging. Only a dozen or so of these apparatuses exist, and two of them are recording Persepolis tablets in the basement of the Oriental Institute. A computer controls the camera in each device, making a set of 32 distinctly lighted views of each document. Each image set is combined by a software application in such a way that viewers can control the apparent direction, angle and intensity of the light falling on the object, using a computer mouse just as if they were handling the original object under a desk lamp.
High-resolution images of about 200 Persepolis Fortification texts are available on InscriptiFact, on the Web site of the West Semitic Research Project. Several hundred more will be available soon. Images of about 150 more Persepolis tablets, along with editions, and analytical tools, will soon be released on the On-Line Cultural Research Environment (OCHRE), the archaeological and textual database and presentation application developed at the Oriental Institute and maintained by the University of Chicago Library.
West Semitic Research Project
On-Line Cultural Research Environment (OCHRE)
Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative at UCLA
Musée Achéménide at the Collège de France
This story is an expanded version of the news item released by The University of Chicago News Office.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Panoramas of Achaemenid sites in Iran
The 360 Cities project offers some interesting panoramas of achamenid sites
The Throne Hall in Persepolis
Apadana Hall in Persepolis
The Gate of All Nations in Persepolis
Pasargadae in Pasargadae
The tomb of Cyrus the Great in Pasargadae
The Private Palace of Cyrus the Great in Pasargadae
Pasargad Audience Hall in Pasargadae
The Throne Hall in Persepolis
Apadana Hall in Persepolis
The Gate of All Nations in Persepolis
Pasargadae in Pasargadae
The tomb of Cyrus the Great in Pasargadae
The Private Palace of Cyrus the Great in Pasargadae
Pasargad Audience Hall in Pasargadae
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Visual Representation of the Divine and the Numinous in Early Achaemenid Iran: Old Problems, New Directions
Visual Representation of the Divine and the Numinous in Early Achaemenid Iran: Old Problems, New Directions, by Mark A. Garrison
Text - last updated: 3 March 2009 (1.7 MB)
Illustrations - last updated: 25 February 2009 (4.5 MB)
An electronic prepublication of an entry in ICONOGRAPHY OF DEITIES AND DEMONS IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST, A Research Project of the History of Religions Chair of the University of Zurich, Switzerland, in co-operation with Brill Academic Publishers, Leiden, Netherlands
Text - last updated: 3 March 2009 (1.7 MB)
Illustrations - last updated: 25 February 2009 (4.5 MB)
An electronic prepublication of an entry in ICONOGRAPHY OF DEITIES AND DEMONS IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST, A Research Project of the History of Religions Chair of the University of Zurich, Switzerland, in co-operation with Brill Academic Publishers, Leiden, Netherlands
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
National Iranian American Council Action Alert
The National Iranian American Council is asking people to contact Eric H. Holder,, Attorney General, Acting Attorney General and Barack H. Obama, President of the United States to to prevent the auction of the Perspolis Fortification Archive:
"Ask President Obama to prevent the auction of priceless Persepolis artifacts
At a time of hope when President Barack Obama has commended our heritage, saying "The Iranian people are a great people, and Persian civilization is a great civilization," a court in Chicago is about to confiscate and auction off some of the most powerful symbols of this civilization: priceless artifacts from Takht-e-Jamshid.
By failing to gain reparations from the Iranian government, lawyers for victims of terrorist attacks in Israel are now in turn attacking the heritage of Iranian Americans.
The plaintiff's objective: seize these relics of our heritage and auction them off to the highest bidder like items sold on e-bay. "Maybe they'll end up on coffee tables around the country," one lawyer for the plaintiffs mused.
This must be stopped. Ask President Obama to prevent the auction of our cultural heritage!
The artifacts from Persepolis are part of our heritage and identity. While far too few people know of the glories of our Iranian heritage, even fewer will have a chance to discover our history if these artifacts are taken from the museums and sold to the highest bidder on e-bay.
By sending a letter to President Obama, you are not only saving Iranian-American history and culture, but you are preserving it for your children's education and pride as well.
NIAC sounded the alarm in 2006 after ancient artifacts held by Harvard University were in danger. Now, irreplaceable clay tablets from the rule of Darius the Great on loan to the University of Chicago are under risk.
Not surprisingly, the thought of putting a price tag on 2,500 years of history has caused outrage world-wide. A European group of scholars has already collected hundreds of signatures in their petition to President Obama. Even the Department of Justice has recognized that this case has crossed the line.
By enlisting the help of a major law firm, NIAC has created an avenue to make your voice heard. Mayer Brown LLP is in the process of submitting an amicus brief on behalf of NIAC and the Iranian-American community. But we need your help!
Act now to stop this affront to our rich Iranian heritage. Ask President Obama to intervene to prevent our history and symbols of our identity from falling into careless hands.
Take this opportunity to speak out against the looting of our Iranian culture."
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
AIA Statement on Attachment of Cultural Objects
The Archaeological Institute of America has issued the following statement concerning cultural objects on loan to U.S. institutions and calls for Congressional action to assure the security of international loans and exhibitions from attachment.
Download pdf of statement
On the Attachment of Cultural Objects to Compensate Victims of Terrorism
Statement
The Archaeological Institute of America believes that loans of cultural objects from foreign nations to U.S. cultural institutions serve the best interests of the people of the United States. We are concerned that legal actions and the threat of legal action on behalf of victims of terrorism now jeopardize the participation of American institutions in international cultural exchanges. These legal actions seek to force the sale of cultural artifacts on loan to or in U.S. institutions to satisfy court judgments obtained by these victims. The AIA strongly condemns all acts of international terrorism and supports efforts by victims of terrorism to obtain compensation. However, we believe that archaeological artifacts should not be sold to satisfy a court judgment, regardless of the actions of a particular regime, and that it should be possible for nations to share their cultural heritage without fear of loss.
In light of our concern that archaeological and other cultural objects should be part of cultural exchanges that benefit the American public, the Archaeological Institute of America calls on the U.S. Congress to enact new legislation to ensure that such cultural exchanges can take place. This legislation should prevent the sale of cultural objects to compensate those who have obtained court judgments under anti-terrorism provisions of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act and would apply to cultural objects on loan from other nations to U.S. nonprofit institutions as part of public exhibitions that have a cultural and educational purpose.
Background
In 1996, the U.S. Congress amended the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA), narrowing the traditional immunity that had been granted to foreign sovereigns and allowing individual victims of terrorist acts to sue those countries that the United States has listed as state sponsors of terrorism. In January 2008, the Congress amended the FSIA, in order to facilitate recovery of judgments that had been awarded to terrorism victims. Both before and after the 2008 amendments were enacted, cultural artifacts on loan to or present in U.S. institutions were under threat.
A group of plaintiffs, who were the victims of a Hamas bombing in Jerusalem, won a judgment against Iran, which defaulted in the proceedings. Having difficulty locating Iranian assets in the United States, in 2004 this group sued the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, the Field Museum of Natural History, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Harvard University, the University of Michigan and the Detroit Institute of Art under both the FSIA and the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act. The plaintiffs sought to attach (that is, obtain for purpose of sale to satisfy a judgment) two collections of cuneiform tablets (the Persepolis Fortification Tablets and the Choga Mish tablets) that had been on loan to the Oriental Institute from Iran since the 1930s and the 1960s, respectively. The plaintiffs are also seeking to attach additional artifacts in the collections of these institutions, alleging that the artifacts are stolen property and therefore belong to Iran. While this litigation was ongoing, a second group of plaintiffs, the relatives of U.S. Marines killed in the Beirut barracks bombing, who had also won a default judgment against Iran, intervened in the attachment proceedings and are now also claiming a right to the monetary value of the artifacts.
In fall 2008, when the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York was organizing its major exhibition “Beyond Babylon: Art, Trade and Diplomacy in the Second Millennium B.C.,” Syria gave the museum permission to borrow 55 objects. Under the Immunity from Seizure Act, the U.S. State Department can grant immunity from seizure to objects brought into the U.S. on temporary loan for exhibition purposes. However, when the Metropolitan Museum requested immunity for the objects to be loaned by Syria, there was concern that, in light of the 2008 amendments, even a State Department grant of immunity might not protect the objects from attachment by individuals who have claims against Syria for supporting terrorist activity. According to a statement by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, it was therefore not possible for these objects to be part of the exhibit.
The ability of nations and institutions throughout the world to loan objects is crucial to achieving international cultural exchange and increasing understanding of different places, different times, and different people. Such archaeological artifacts should not be sold to satisfy claims that are unrelated to the objects themselves. While the earlier litigation related to Iran had already indicated some threat to cultural interchanges, the Metropolitan’s inability to borrow objects from Syria for an exhibition indicates the danger this legislation and litigation pose to cultural exchange. American citizens have been deprived of the opportunity of appreciating and learning from archaeological artifacts and works of art from one of the world’s oldest civilizations. The actions in question therefore pose a serious threat to cultural exchange and cultural diplomacy, which are extremely important in building understanding among peoples.
If the United States is in the practice of confiscating artifacts that belong to other nations, then other nations will be unlikely to lend objects to U.S. cultural institutions. In addition, the U.S. will make itself vulnerable to the confiscation of its own cultural objects on loan in foreign nations. In the suit against the Oriental Institute, the Justice Department has, in fact, recommended against attachment of the tablets, presumably in part because of the bad precedent it would set for U.S. interests elsewhere. We call on Congress to enact legislation to preserve the principle that cultural heritage should be made available for public viewing and cultural exchange in the interest of promoting greater understanding of our shared past.
Download pdf of statement
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
News from Achaemenet
Livres récents
Peter Calmeyer, Die Reliefs der Gräber V und VI in Persepolis (Archäologie in Iran und Turan 8), Mainz 2009.
ARTA
John Hyland, “Pharnabazos, Cyrus' Rebellion, and the Spartan War of 399”.
Sous presse
Olivier Casabonne, “De la Cappadoce à la Cilicie : deux notes anatoliennes”, in: O. Tekin (ed.), Ancient History, Numismatics and Epigraphy in the Mediterranean World, Studies in Honour of Clemens E. Bosch, Sabahat Atlan and Nezahat Baydur, Istanbul (forthcoming).
For details go here.
Peter Calmeyer, Die Reliefs der Gräber V und VI in Persepolis (Archäologie in Iran und Turan 8), Mainz 2009.
ARTA
John Hyland, “Pharnabazos, Cyrus' Rebellion, and the Spartan War of 399”.
Sous presse
Olivier Casabonne, “De la Cappadoce à la Cilicie : deux notes anatoliennes”, in: O. Tekin (ed.), Ancient History, Numismatics and Epigraphy in the Mediterranean World, Studies in Honour of Clemens E. Bosch, Sabahat Atlan and Nezahat Baydur, Istanbul (forthcoming).
For details go here.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Persepolis Fortification Archive Project in Facebook
[Originally posted 12/4/08, updated 1/22/09]
Readers who have facebook accounts can read this blog also at the Persepolis Fortification Archive Project Facebook Application
There are also two groups about the Persepolis Fortification Archive
Stop the Sale of the Elamite Tablets!!
and
Save Persepolis Artifacts!
Readers who have facebook accounts can read this blog also at the Persepolis Fortification Archive Project Facebook Application
There are also two groups about the Persepolis Fortification Archive
Stop the Sale of the Elamite Tablets!!
and
Save Persepolis Artifacts!
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Petition to the President: Persepolis Fortification Archive
Members of the Societas Iranologica Europea request that colleagues read and consider signing the following petition:
For a chronicle of networked stories relating to the Persepolis Fortification Archive and the lawsuit see: Persepolis Tablets in the News.
Sign the PetitionTo the President of the United States of America
Mr President,
It has been reported by the Press and confirmed by authoritative scholarly sources that an important part of the Elamite clay tablets forming the archive of the Achaemenid center of Persepolis, found during excavations at Persepolis (Iran) and presently on loan to the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, are currently involved in a lawsuit in the US courts, and face the threat of confiscation and sale in order to compensate a legal case brought by private persons against the Government of Iran.
Without entering the matter of the legal case, we the undersigned archaeologists from different countries of Europe, Oceania and America, remark that the Elamite tablets, being cultural property, should not be considered as a common property, whose financial value can be exploited for the purpose of legal compensation.
The antiquities belong to the cultural heritage of Iran on behalf of human kind and should therefore remain in public hands.
We therefore, well aware of the separation of powers, nevertheless apply to you in order that this unconscionable decision with irreversible consequences should be avoided.
A country such as the United States should not be complicit in the sale of the world’s cultural heritage.
For a chronicle of networked stories relating to the Persepolis Fortification Archive and the lawsuit see: Persepolis Tablets in the News.
Thursday, January 08, 2009
Oriental Institute Publications on Iranian Civilization
The following list includes those publications of the Oriental Institute which are currently available either in print, or in the OI Electronic Publication Initiative, ordered stratigraphically (i.e. most recent at the top)
- OIP 130. Chogha Mish, Volume II. The Development of a Prehistoric Regional Center in Lowland Susiana, Southwestern Iran: Final Report on the Last Six Seasons of Excavations, 1972–1978. Abbas Alizadeh. 2008.
- OIMP 26. Daily Life Ornamented: The Medieval Persian City of Rayy. Tanya Treptow. 2007.
- OIP 128. The Origins of State Organizations in Prehistoric Highland Fars, Southern Iran: Excavations at Tall-e Bakun. Abbas Alizadeh. 2006.
- OIP 120. Excavations at the Prehistoric Mound of Chogha Bonut, Khuzestan, Iran, Seasons 1976/77, 1977/78, and 1996. Abbas Alizadeh. 2003.
- OIP 117. Seals on the Persepolis Fortification Tablets, Volume I: Images of Heroic Encounter. Mark B. Garrison and Margaret Cool Root. 2001.
Purchase Book or Download PDF - OIP 101. Chogha Mish, Volume 1: The First Five Seasons, 1961-1971. Helene Kantor and P. Delougaz. 1996.
Purchase Book or Download PDF Download PDF - SAOC 47. Essays in Ancient Civilization Presented to Helene J. Kantor. A. Leonard, Jr. and B. B. Williams, eds. 1989.
Purchase Book - OIP 108. The Holmes Expeditions to Luristan. E. F. Schmidt, et. al. 1987.
Purchase Book - OIP 105. Prehistoric Archeology Along the Zagros Flanks. L. S. Braidwood, et. al. 1983.
Purchase Book or Download PDF - MSKH 1. A Catalogue of Cuneiform Sources Pertaining to Specific Monarchs of the Kassite Dynasty. J. A. Brinkman. 1977.
Purchase Book - OIP 91. Aramaic Ritual Texts from Persepolis. R. A. Bowman. 1970.
- OIP 92. Persepolis Fortification Tablets. R. T. Hallock. 1969.
Purchase Book or Download PDF - SAOC 41. Ecology and Empire: The Structure of the Urartian State. P. E. Zimansky.
Purchase Book - SAOC 31. Prehistoric Investigations in Iraqi Kurdistan. R. J. Braidwood and B. Howe. 1960.
- OIP 70. Persepolis III: The Royal Tombs and Other Monuments. E. F. Schmidt. 1970.
- OIP 69. Persepolis II: Contents of the Treasury and Other Discoveries. Erich F. Schmidt with contributions by Sydney P. Noe et al., Frederick R. Matson, Lawrence J. Howell, and Louisa Bellinger. 1957.
- OIP 68. Persepolis I: Structures, Reliefs, Inscriptions. Erich F. Schmidt with contribution by F. R. Matson. 1953.
- OIP 65. Persepolis Treasury Tablets. George G. Cameron. 1948
- OIP 59. Tall-i-Bakun A: Season of 1932. Alexander Langsdorff and Donald E. McCown. 1942.
- Flights Over Ancient Cities of Iran. Erich F. Schmidt. 1940.
- OIC 21. The Treasury of Persepolis and Other Discoveries in the Homeland of the Achaemenians Erich F. Schmidt.
1939.
Download PDF - SAOC 5. A New Inscription of Xerxes from Persepolis Ernst E. Herzfeld. 1932.
Download PDF
Purchase Book or Download PDF
Purchase Book or Download PDF
Purchase Book or Download PDF
Purchase Book or Download PDF
Purchase Book or Download PDF
Purchase Book or Download PDF
Purchase Book or Download PDF
Download PDF
Download PDF
Download PDF
Download PDF
Download PDF
Thursday, December 04, 2008
Useful Tools: Hellenistic Babylonia: Texts, Images and Names
hbtin: Hellenistic Babylonia: Texts, Images and Names, part of the Cuneiform Digital Library, is being developed under the direction of Dr. Laurie Pearce at the University of California, Berkeley.
At the moment hbtin includes a small corpus of Achaemenid Legal texts Uruk, in transliteration and translation.
More than 3,000 cuneiform clay tablets document the intellectual, religious, scientific, legal and economic activities in Hellenistic Mesopotamia. Originating primarily from Uruk and Babylon, these texts show that although Alexander the Great and his successors transformed much of the cultural landscape of western and central Asia, they left many native practices and institutions intact. Hellenistic Babylonia: Texts, Images and Names presents to Assyriologists, Classicists, ancient historians and others the evidence necessary for study of Mesopotamia at the time when traditional culture came under the powers of the Hellenistic world. The three linked areas of this website include up-to-date and readable publication of the materials necessary for an integrated study of Hellenistic Mesopotamia. Texts: transliterations and translations into English of texts from the major sites of Uruk and Babylon. Images: photographs of seal impressions on the archival documents. Names: prosopographical data and family trees of the great lineages of the major sites.
At the moment hbtin includes a small corpus of Achaemenid Legal texts Uruk, in transliteration and translation.
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Review of: Pierre Briant and Francis Joannès (edd.), La transition entre l'empire achéménide et les royaumes hellénistiques
Pierre Briant and Francis Joannès (edd.), La transition entre l'empire achéménide et les royaumes hellénistiques. Persika, 9. Paris: De Boccard, 2006. Pp. 476. ISBN 978-2-7018-0213-8. €75.00 (pb).
Reviewed by Paola Ceccarelli, Durham University in Bryn Mawr Classical Review.
Reviewed by Paola Ceccarelli, Durham University in Bryn Mawr Classical Review.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
The Persian Empire: A Corpus of Sources from the Achaemenid Period
The Persian Empire
A Corpus of Sources from the Achaemenid Period
By Amelie Kuhrt
List Price: $320.00
* ISBN: 978-0-415-43628-1
* Binding: Hardback
* Published by: Routledge
* Publication Date: 12/14/2007
* Pages: 736
The volume includes translations of a large number of Persepolis Fortification Texts.
A Corpus of Sources from the Achaemenid Period
By Amelie Kuhrt
List Price: $320.00
* ISBN: 978-0-415-43628-1
* Binding: Hardback
* Published by: Routledge
* Publication Date: 12/14/2007
* Pages: 736
This lavish set of books contains the most complete collection of raw material for reconstructing the history of the Achaemenid Persian Empire to date.
Studying Achaemenid history has been difficult in the past because original sources include texts from hugely disparate origins, many different languages and various periods in history; the risk is to rely too heavily on biased and often inaccurate Greek and Roman sources.
Amelie Kuhrt presents here an unprecedented collection of key texts to form a balanced representation of all aspects of the Empire, in translations from their original Greek, Old Persian, Akkadian, Hebrew, Aramaic, Egyptian or Latin.
Kuhrt selects from classical writers, the Old Testament, royal inscriptions, administrative documents and Babylonian historical writing, as well as the evidence of monuments, artefacts and archaeological sites. All material is accompanied by a detailed introduction to the sources and guidelines to their interpretation.
A truly monumental achievement, this collection will prove to be a major resource for any student of Persian history, from undergraduate level to the advanced scholar.
The volume includes translations of a large number of Persepolis Fortification Texts.
Friday, November 14, 2008
"Lettre ouverte à Alexandre le Grand"
Lettre ouverte à Alexandre le Grand - Pierre Briant
Actes Sud
Parution : 05 Novembre 2008
230 pages, 21.7 X 11 cm, 260 grammes
9782742780259
Actes Sud
Parution : 05 Novembre 2008
230 pages, 21.7 X 11 cm, 260 grammes
9782742780259
Thursday, November 13, 2008
The Other Gods Who Are
Wouter F.M. Henkelman, The Other Gods Who Are. Studies in Elamite-Iranian Acculturation Based on the Persepolis Fortification Texts (Achaemenid History XIV), Leiden, Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, 2008.
xxx + 670 pp.
"The Other Gods Who Are" presents four larger case studies in Elamite-Iranian acculturation, more specifically in the realm of religion, and does so largely on the basis of the Persepolis Fortification Archive, the richnesses of which had not been fully explored for this important subject. Treating the debated 'lan' sacrifice, the Elamite-Iranian background of the pantheon, the role of the god Humban and the older background of Persian 'paradise', the monograph aims to pave the way for a different understanding of Persian identity as a cultural construct that emerged in the Iranian highlands from a large-scale dynamic in which the Elamite state as well as the Elamites of eastern Khuzestand and of the highlands played a pivotal part. The four case studies are preceded by a survey and discussion of recent developments in Neo-Elamite history, and by a long introduction into the Persepolis Fortification Archive, which can be used separately by scholars interested in this material. Annotated translations of relevant Fortification texts are given in an appendix. Indices of proper names, text passages and Elamite and other ancient words complete the volume.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Iran: Jounal of the British Institute of Persian Studies available via JSTOR
The journal Iran, published by the British Institute of Persian Studies [RSS feed] is available online as of today at JSTOR. Content is available to JSTOR subscribers.
Iran (Arts & Sciences V)
Release Content:
Vols. 1 - 41 (1963 - 2003)
Moving Wall: 4 years
Publisher: British Institute of Persian Studies
ISSN: 0578-6967
The journal IRAN presents articles on the whole spectrum of Persian Studies, including articles on Persian arts, archaeology, history, literature, linguistics, religion and philosophy. This includes but is not limited to work sponsored by the Institute. There are also sections on recent archaeological research and shorter notices. The journal publishes articles in English, French and German and ranging in time from the Palaeolithic up to the Qajar Period. As one of the foremost journals in the field, IRAN is sold and distributed to a wide range of libraries, institutions and individuals throughout the world.
Iran (Arts & Sciences V)
Release Content:
Vols. 1 - 41 (1963 - 2003)
Moving Wall: 4 years
Publisher: British Institute of Persian Studies
ISSN: 0578-6967
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Persepolis Fortification Archive (PFA) Project Annual Report 2007-2008
[The following is a very slightly altered (addition of hyperlinks)
version of the text of an
PERSEPOLIS FORTIFICATION ARCHIVE PROJECT
2007-2008 Annual Report
2007-2008 Annual Report
The main aims of the Persepolis Fortification Archive Project are to record the Archive and to make the record available widely and continuously. The PFA Project pursues these aims in collaboration with projects at other institutions. A legal emergency clouds the future of the Persepolis Fortification tablets (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago’s_Persian_heritage_crisis), so Project members work with a constant tension between the need for fast work against an uncertain deadline and the need for precise results that will make serious work on the PFA possible even if access to the original tablets is interrupted.
One phase of the Project, carried out in collaboration with the West Semitic Research Project (WSRP) at the University of Southern California and supported by a two-year grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, captures two sets of very high-resolution images of Aramaic Fortification tablets and a sample of the uninscribed, sealed Fortification tablets. One set is made with high-resolution scanning backs, long exposures, polarized and filtered lighting (fig. 1); another set is made with a polynomial texture mapping (PTM) apparatus, producing images that allow the viewer to manipulate the apparent angle and intensity of the lighting (fig. 2). Since the set-up, training, and shakedown phase described in last year’s Annual Report, Dennis Campbell (Ph.D., NELC), John Nielsen (Ph.D., NELC), Clinton Moyer (Ph.D. candidate, Cornell), and Miller Prosser (Ph.D. candidate, NELC) have made image sets of about 750 items.
The number of setups required for thorough recording of these awkwardly shaped objects is larger than first projected, but the work flow has been growing smoother and faster, so by the end of 2008, we expect to have very high-quality records of at least 1,100 items, including all the monolingual Aramaic documents identified so far. As of July 2008, images of about seventy items are available on the Web site of the WSRP, InscriptiFact (fig. 3), another 120 are being reviewed for public display, and a procedure is in place for rolling out additional groups of images at more or less regular intervals.
A second phase of the Project makes conventional digital images of Elamite Fortification tablets, concentrating first on more than 2,600 documents that were edited by the late Richard T. Hallock, but never published (the so-called PF-NN texts), and secondarily on more than 2,000 documents published by Hallock in Persepolis Fortification Tablets (OIP 92 [1969], available for free download). During 2007–2008, the crew of photographers and editors included undergraduates Ivan Cangemi, Elizabeth Davidson, and Madison Krieger (all Classics); graduate students Lori Calabria, Jennifer Gregory, Megaera Lorenz, and Elise MacArthur (all NELC); volunteers Irene Glasner, Louise Golland, and Siwei Wang; as well as Gregory Hebda (B.A., University of New Hampshire) and Joseph Rosner (undergraduate, Brown University). As of July 2008, we have useful image sets of about 1,700 of the PF-NN documents and about 600 of the published documents (including all those restored to Iran in 2004, fig. 4). By early 2009 we anticipate that all the PF-NN documents will be recorded in this way.
A third phase, carried out in collaboration with the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative at UCLA, makes fast flat-bed scans of previously unphotographed Elamite texts beginning with the well-studied and collated items published in OIP 92. Preliminary versions of online editions of these texts, some with accompanying images, can be viewed on the CDLI Web site [click on “CDLI Search” and enter “OIP 092” in the form under “Primary Publication”]) (figs. 5–6).
Graduate students Andrew Dix, Seunghee Yie (both NELC), and Wayne Munsch (Divinity) are preparing updated transliterations in PFA Project standard form, entering corrections and revisions made since the original publication, and making scans of the unphotographed tablets. A complete set of corrected transliterations and images will be available online in early 2009, and as PFA Project editor Wouter Henkelman (Amsterdam and Paris) supplies revised translations and notes, this will become the revised, corrected, and updated edition of Hallock’s fundamental work on the archive, Persepolis Fortification Tablets.
The streams of images and editions coming from all these phases pour into the Online Cultural Heritage Research Environment, based in Chicago (OCHRE). As the Elamite texts published in OIP 92 are completed for presentation via CDLI, they will also be imported into OCHRE, and as PF-NN texts and images are entered in OCHRE, they are also prepared for export to CDLI. At the same time PFA Project editor Annalisa Azzoni (Vanderbilt University) prepares online editions of the Aramaic texts, PFA Project editor Mark Garrison (Trinity University) prepares analytical entries of uninscribed, sealed texts. All the editors are collaborating with OCHRE specialist Sandra Schloen in preparing a first version of a user interface that will make an interconnected sample of Fortification documents of all categories — Aramaic, Elamite, Uninscribed, and Miscellaneous — publicly available for complex views and searches by the end of 2008 (fig. 7).
Detailed cataloging of the immense unstudied balance of PFA tablets and fragments has taken a backseat to triage, for the time being, as PFA Project editors search the storage boxes for items that are in good enough condition to reward immediate recording and presentation, and for other items that require immediate conservation to prepare them for recording and presentation. During 2007–2008, the results of this triage included selection and classification of several hundred uninscribed tablets, with a stunning variety of seal impressions and sealing patterns; recording and preliminary readings of more than 100 new Elamite tablets and fragments (fig. 8); infrequent but steady identification of previously unrecognized monolingual Aramaic documents; and painstaking cleaning and conservation of more than 300 tablets (fig. 9).
The PFA Project continues to be fortunate in gaining support within and beyond the University community. Humanities Division Computing stepped up in the emergency to provide storage for the rapidly growing volume of PFA Project digital data and support for file movement among collaborating projects. The PARSA Community Foundation generously renewed its support for conservation of PFA tablets for the coming year, the Iran Heritage Foundation offers support for some of our pressing equipment needs, and substantial grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and from the Getty Foundation assure continuing support for some phases of the Project and some Project staff for the coming two years.
There have been many occasions to plead for the unique importance of the PFA and to try to engage the scholarly and general audiences with the work and aspirations of the PFA Project. In November and December 2007, I summarized the Project at workshops, at UCLA and Johns Hopkins, convened by the collaborating projects CDLI and WSRP. In March 2008, I described the Archive and the Project during a daylong lecture series on The Presence of Iran in the Ancient World, sponsored by the Razi family at the University of California at Irvine (RealAudio version available). Early in April 2008, I spoke on the Project to digital information specialists at the Spring Task Force Meeting of the Coalition for Networked Information. Later in April, I spoke to Zoroastrian communities in Dallas and Houston (alongside presentations by Zoroastrian scholars Almut Hintze [London] and Jennifer Rose [Berkeley]), to the presidential dinner of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and American Association of Physicians, and to members of the Oriental Institute.
An article in the Winter 2008 issue of Tableau, the publication of the University of Chicago Division of Humanities discusses the legal crisis and the Project’s responses for the University community and its alumni. The PFA Project Weblog provides the greater online audience with a variety of articles from news and scholarly media, about the Archive, the lawsuit, and other matters connected with Achaemenid archaeology and epigraphy. PFA Project Editor and Oriental Institute Research Associate Charles E. Jones (Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York), reports that the blog has been viewed more than 18,600 times in the twelve months after July 2007, by more than 11,100 visitors, 1,700 of whom made repeat visits. After the home page, the most popular entries so far are “What Are the Persepolis Fortification Tablets?” (originally published in the Oriental Institute News & Notes, Winter 2007), and the announcement of our most extraordinary discovery “An Old Persian Text in the Persepolis Fortification Archive” (with a link to the full online publication).
Extraordinary items continue to appear as the material is sifted. The impressions of two seals with Achaemenid imagery and Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions (to be published by Project Editor Mark Garrison and Oriental Institute Professor Robert Ritner, fig. 10) are the most engaging of these discoveries, emblematic of the value of the PFA. Seals of this kind are very rare, but impressions that tie the owners of such seals to a specific place, moment, and institutional context are unique to the PFA. With discoveries of this kind, the PFA Project not only adds depth and density to knowledge of the Archive itself, but also creates links to other strands in the common project of the Oriental Institute.
————————————————————
This Annual Report is republished here with the kind permission of the Oriental Institute Membership Office. The Oriental Institute Annual Reports are
available for members as one of the privileges of membership. They are
not for sale to the general public. They contain yearly summaries of the
activities of the Institute’s faculty, staff, and research projects, as
well as descriptions of special events and other Institute functions.
————————————————————
See linked data for Persepolis via awld.js
- 2010 - 2011 Annual Report
- 2009 - 2010 Annual Report
- 2008 - 2009 Annual Report
- 2007 - 2008 Annual Report
- 2006 - 2007 Annual Report
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Tangent: Reusing achaemenid art
Achaemenid inspired body art
[First posted 9/24/08, updated 5/16/13]
[First posted 9/24/08, updated 5/16/13]
If you know of other things like this, please leave a comment.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Persepolis at the Internet Archive
A number of traveler's accounts and works of early scholarship on Persepolis are beginning to emerge in open access formats at the Internet Archive. Among these are:
Travels in Assyria, Media and Persia : including a journey from Bagdad by Mount Zagros, to Hamadan, the ancient Ecbatana, researches in Ispahan and the ruins of persepolis (Volume 1) - Buckingham, James Silk, 1786-1855
Travels in Assyria, Media and Persia : including a journey from Bagdad by Mount Zagros, to Hamadan, the ancient Ecbatana, researches in Ispahan and the ruins of persepolis (Volume 2) - Buckingham, James Silk, 1786-1855
Nineveh and Persepolis : an historical sketch of ancient Assyria and Persia, with an account of the recent researches in those countries - Vaux, William Sandys Wright, 1818-1885
Narrative of a residence in Koordistan : and on the site of ancient Nineveh; with journal of a voyage down the Tigris to Bagdad and an account of a visit to Shirauz and Persepolis (Volume 1) - Rich, Cladius James, 1787-1820
Observations made on a tour from Bengal to Persia, in the years 1786-7; with a short account of the remains of the celebrated palace of Persepolis and other interesting events - Francklin, William, 1763-1839
Remains of lost empires: sketches of the ruins of Palmyra, Nineveh, Babylon, and Persepolis, with some notes on India and the Cashmerian Himalayas - Myers, P. V. N. (Philip Van Ness), 1846-1937
Travels in Assyria, Media and Persia : including a journey from Bagdad by Mount Zagros, to Hamadan, the ancient Ecbatana, researches in Ispahan and the ruins of persepolis (Volume 1) - Buckingham, James Silk, 1786-1855
Travels in Assyria, Media and Persia : including a journey from Bagdad by Mount Zagros, to Hamadan, the ancient Ecbatana, researches in Ispahan and the ruins of persepolis (Volume 2) - Buckingham, James Silk, 1786-1855
Nineveh and Persepolis : an historical sketch of ancient Assyria and Persia, with an account of the recent researches in those countries - Vaux, William Sandys Wright, 1818-1885
Narrative of a residence in Koordistan : and on the site of ancient Nineveh; with journal of a voyage down the Tigris to Bagdad and an account of a visit to Shirauz and Persepolis (Volume 1) - Rich, Cladius James, 1787-1820
Observations made on a tour from Bengal to Persia, in the years 1786-7; with a short account of the remains of the celebrated palace of Persepolis and other interesting events - Francklin, William, 1763-1839
Remains of lost empires: sketches of the ruins of Palmyra, Nineveh, Babylon, and Persepolis, with some notes on India and the Cashmerian Himalayas - Myers, P. V. N. (Philip Van Ness), 1846-1937
Friday, August 22, 2008
MDPs online
This is not strictly speaking Persepolis related, but certainly worth noting. The Internet Archive has posted online the first 16 volumes of the publications of the Mission archéologique en Iran (cited variously as Délégation en Perse; Mission archéologique de Susiane; Mission archéologique de Perse, and commonly known as MDP).
Of particular interest for Persepolis is V. Scheil's MDP IX: Textes Elamites-Anzanites : troisieme serie. If you simply must use a hard copy, you might be able to find one at a library near (or not so near) you, or you might borrow mine, if you're nice to me!
Of particular interest for Persepolis is V. Scheil's MDP IX: Textes Elamites-Anzanites : troisieme serie. If you simply must use a hard copy, you might be able to find one at a library near (or not so near) you, or you might borrow mine, if you're nice to me!
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