Entangled Worlds: Afro-Eurasian Networks in Achaemenid Times

Recorded: February 19, 2020
Event: Contextualizing Iranian Religions in the Ancient World - 14th Melammu Symposium
Citation: Rollinger, Robert. "Entangled Worlds: Afro-Eurasian Networks in Achaemenid Times," Contextualizing Iranian Religions in the Ancient World - 14th Melammu Symposium. February 19, 2020.

by Robert Rollinger (University of Innsbruck)

Entangled Worlds: Afro-Eurasian Networks in Achaemenid Times

Sources on transregional networks in Achaemenid times, which cover the entire range of the empire, and especially its borderlands, are very scarce and mainly secondary. This contribution aims to collect and reinterpret the available evidence on a comparative level. It intends to shed additional light on an empire that already established a world-system of its own, and where the Great King as well as the elites were well aware of the (supra-)regional dimensions of trade, income, and wealth.

About the Speaker

Robert Rollinger is Professor of Ancient History and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at Universität Innsbruck, Austria. He is a scholar of history and culture between the Aegean world and the ancient Near East. He has been a visiting professor at the Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilizations (AKU-ISMC) and the Institute for History (Jean Monnet Chair for European History) at Universität Hildesheim. In 2008, Rollinger became the first Austrian historian to be a member of the European Network for the History of Ancient Greece, which is dedicated to changes in ancient historical research.