Telling Tales: Constructing Sasanian History in the Landscape The narrative stories and physical landscapes of the Sasanian Empire run parallel to each other, intersecting in areas where historical source and physical remnant of the material culture collide.  This is specifically relevant in the borderlands of the Sasanian’s vast realm, between the lands of Eran and...

An Entangled Empire:  Dress, Reciprocal Construction, and the Experience of Kingship at Persepolis In reliefs across Persepolis, the Achaemenid administrative center, depictions of mediated bodies offer insight into an imperial ideology that generates inclusion through categorical and material slippages.  The crown of the king parallels the crenellations of the architecture that surround him even as...

The Collapse of Empire: Gordion’s Transition from the Achaemenid to the Hellenistic World This talk will highlight the huge changes that characterized Gordion’s transition from the Achaemenid to the Hellenistic periods. Gordion, ancient capital of Phrygia, was a large and thriving city of secondary importance during the period of the Achaemenid Persian empire (ca 550–333...

How Zoroastrians Argued with Muslims in the Early Islamic Period This lecture will explore the early conflict between Zoroastrians and Muslims by examining the most important polemical treatise in the Zoroastrian tradition, the Škand Gumānīg-Wizār (“The Doubt-Dispelling Disquisition”), written by the ninth/tenth century theologian and philosopher Mardānfarrox son of Ohrmazddād. A sophisticated work of rationalist theology,...

Consolidation of Law, Legal Order, and the Question of Constitutionalizing Processes in the Achaemenid Empire The Old Persian inscriptions of Darius I deal with a range of legal, particularly constitutional questions. The famous grave inscription from Naqsh-i Rustam (DNb) constitutes the conceptional center of a thematical text corpus, exemplified in specific details and different legal...

Due to recent events on campus resulting in the cancellations of classes at UCLA today, Professor Robert Rollinger's lecture has been canceled. We apologize for any inconvienence and thank you for your understanding. We look forward to hosting you at one of our upcoming events soon.   The “Persian Wars”: An Alternative Perspective? The “Persian...