Achaemenid Anatolia and the Creation of Empire

Elspeth Dusinberre (AB Harvard 1991, PhD Michigan 1997) is Professor of Distinction at the University of Colorado and a current Getty Villa Research Scholar. She is interested in cultural interactions in Anatolia. Her work has investigated the ways in which the Achaemenid Persian empire (ca. 550-330 BCE) affected local social structures in the give-and-take between Achaemenid and other cultures and has delved into pre-Achaemenid matters at the sites of Gordion and Sardis. Her first book, Aspects of Empire in Achaemenid Sardis (Cambridge 2003), examines the impact of Achaemenid hegemony from the vantage of the Lydian capital. Her second and fourth books focus on the Phrygian capital: Gordion Seals and Sealings: Individuals and Society (Philadelphia 2005) and (with Ellen Kohler) The Lesser Phrygian Tumuli: The Cremations (Philadelphia 2023). Dusinberre’s third book, Empire, Authority, and Autonomy in Achaemenid Anatolia (Cambridge 2013), considers all of Anatolia under Persian rule and proposes a new model for understanding imperialism. She has co-edited a Festschrift for Margaret Cool Root, The Art of Empire in Achaemenid Persia (Leiden 2020), and at the moment is co-editing a volume on Middle and Late Phrygian Gordion.