Studies in Ancient Persia and the Achaemenid Period

Product Description

An important collection of eight essays on Ancient Persia (Iran) in the periods of the Achaemenid Empire (539-330 BC), when the Persians established control over the whole of the Ancient Near East, and later the Sasanian Empire. It will be of interest to historians, archaeologists and biblical scholars. Paul Collins writes about stone relief carvings from Persepolis; John Curtis and Christopher Walker illuminate the Achaemenid period in Babylon; Terence Mitchell, Alan Millard and Shahrokh Razmjou draw attention to neglected aspects of biblical archaeology and the books of Daniel and Isaiah; and Mahnaz Moazami and Prudence Harper explore the Sasanian period in Iran (AD 250-650) when Zoroastrianism became the state religion.

Review

The eight essays published in this volume make a valuable contribution to the study of ancient Iran. Covering a diverse range of subjects and written by leading experts in the field, they illuminate aspects of the arts, architecture and culture of Persia from the Achaemenid to the Sassanian period.- Michael Roaf, Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology at the University of MunichBook dallies with a handful of attractive topics in two discrete time periods. The volume's inclusion on library shelves will please those with a compulsion towards thoroughness-Jason M. Silverman, Cuadernos del Centro de Estudios de historia del Antiguo Oriente, Volume 17, 2019

About the Author

John Curtis was Keeper of the Middle East Department at the British Museum 1989-2011. He is now Chief Executive Officer of the Iran Heritage Foundation, President of the British Institute for the Study of Iraq, and a Trustee of the Honor Frost Foundation. He specialises in the archaeology and history of Iraq and Iran c. 1000-330 BC on which he has written or edited twenty-three books and more than 100 articles. He directed excavations at eight different sites in Iraq on behalf of the British Museum between 1982 and 1989, including the important Assyrian sites of Khirbet Qasrij, Khirbet Khatuniyeh, Nimrud and Balawat.