Narseh’s Diadem: Religion, Royalty, and Power under the Early Sasanians This talk focuses on the Sasanian king Narseh (293-302 CE), who celebrated his accession to the throne through the bilingual…
Read More
Reconsidering the Emergence of the Parthian State: The Crisis of the 240s-230s BCE in the Hellenistic Middle East Nikolaus Overtoom’s study of the rise of the Parthian Empire, Reign of…
Read More
Rome, Parthia, and the Politics of Peace: The Origins of War in the Ancient Middle East This volume offers an informed survey of the problematic relationship between the ancient empires…
Read More
Sasanian Iran: A Personal View This talk focuses on topics included in Dr. Bonner’s new book, The Last Empire of Iran, a narrative history of Sasanian Persia. Throughout this lecture,…
Read More
Achaemenid Egypt: The Archaeology of a Colonial Encounter Traditionally, Egyptologists have regarded the period of Achaemenid Persian rule (the 27th Dynasty, c. 526-404 BCE) as an unmitigated disaster for the…
Read More
Achaemenids or Persians? Burials, Material Culture, and Imperial Identities in the Euphrates Valley (5th-4th centuries BCE) The Achaemenid empire was the largest empire in the world in the 5th-4th centuries…
Read More
Parthians in the Roman Army The open frontier along the Euphrates River between the Roman and Parthian empires by no means marked a cultural divide. From the time of Pompey…
Read More
Motivations in the Ancient Middle East: Rome, Parthia, and Realpolitik The Roman and Parthian Empires enjoyed no shortage of wars. From the 50s BCE through the 200s CE, they frequently…
Read More
The Lords of Canals: Re-Examining the Sasanian Hydraulic Landscapes and Their Heritage in the Islamic Period Sasanian kings are known as builders of impressive hydraulic projects such as the monumental…
Read More
Word Order Variation and Change in the Languages of Western Asia Western Asia is an area of linguistic diversity and longstanding contact between languages of different families (Indo-European, Semitic, Turkic,…
Read More
