This paper comprehensively summarizes, analyses, and reviews Iravatham Mahadevan’s attempts to decipher the Indus script. Spanning a period of over thirty five years, Iravatham Mahadevan made continuous attempts to interpret and decipher the Indus script. Mahadevan claimed to have adapted the method of parallels between the symbolic representation and the text, between the written object and its designation, between the written symbol itself and its meaning, and the similarity throughout the ancient East of certain portions of the inscriptions, with the assumption that the underlying language of the script is Dravidian. Mahadevan was very flexible in changing his views and finding new interpretations, and gradually he shifted his interpretation of Indus signs from being phonetic/logographic/word to ideographic, leaving unshaken his core personal hypothesis and belief in the Veḷier clan and Tamil cultural settings. While Mahadevan did not succeed in making a self-consistent system of readings applicable to a large number of discovered pieces of writings, he did make a determined, persistent effort to develop a Dravidian framework for deciphering of the Indus script. This study seeks to find weaknesses in the methodology and assumptions of Mahadevan and searches for possible alternatives within that framework.
{"title":"Iravatham Mahadevan’s Reading of Indus Script: A Critical Review","authors":"C Jyothibabu","doi":"10.23993/store.85246","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23993/store.85246","url":null,"abstract":"This paper comprehensively summarizes, analyses, and reviews Iravatham Mahadevan’s attempts to decipher the Indus script. Spanning a period of over thirty five years, Iravatham Mahadevan made continuous attempts to interpret and decipher the Indus script. Mahadevan claimed to have adapted the method of parallels between the symbolic representation and the text, between the written object and its designation, between the written symbol itself and its meaning, and the similarity throughout the ancient East of certain portions of the inscriptions, with the assumption that the underlying language of the script is Dravidian. Mahadevan was very flexible in changing his views and finding new interpretations, and gradually he shifted his interpretation of Indus signs from being phonetic/logographic/word to ideographic, leaving unshaken his core personal hypothesis and belief in the Veḷier clan and Tamil cultural settings. While Mahadevan did not succeed in making a self-consistent system of readings applicable to a large number of discovered pieces of writings, he did make a determined, persistent effort to develop a Dravidian framework for deciphering of the Indus script. This study seeks to find weaknesses in the methodology and assumptions of Mahadevan and searches for possible alternatives within that framework.","PeriodicalId":178307,"journal":{"name":"Studia Orientalia Electronica","volume":"131 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114749372","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article examines two novels by Phaswane Mpe and Niq Mhlongo, Welcome to Our Hillbrow and Dog Eat Dog, by focusing on how they portray post-apartheid South African women and their experiences during and after the fall of apartheid. Set in the early years of South Africa’s democracy, these novels can be read from a feminist perspective, which offers an opportunity to investigate the condition of black South African women and their struggle in the context of the legacies of apartheid and the persisting male domination. The article employs postcolonial feminism as an approach and studies the two novels comparatively to see how the authors depict South African women in the face of double colonization and how they stand up to it. As the analysis indicates, Mpe and Mhlongo have voiced the plight of South African women through female characters that have continued to carry the burden of the legacy of apartheid and the persistence of patriarchy in the post-apartheid era. They have also demonstrated the resilience of women by featuring characters that reject exploitation and seize the opportunities offered by the newly-democratized nation.
{"title":"Female Characters in Phaswane Mpe's Welcome to Our Hillbrow and Niq Mhlongo's Dog Eat Dog","authors":"Aklilu Dessalegn Zewdu, A. Daniel","doi":"10.23993/store.127000","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23993/store.127000","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines two novels by Phaswane Mpe and Niq Mhlongo, Welcome to Our Hillbrow and Dog Eat Dog, by focusing on how they portray post-apartheid South African women and their experiences during and after the fall of apartheid. Set in the early years of South Africa’s democracy, these novels can be read from a feminist perspective, which offers an opportunity to investigate the condition of black South African women and their struggle in the context of the legacies of apartheid and the persisting male domination. The article employs postcolonial feminism as an approach and studies the two novels comparatively to see how the authors depict South African women in the face of double colonization and how they stand up to it. As the analysis indicates, Mpe and Mhlongo have voiced the plight of South African women through female characters that have continued to carry the burden of the legacy of apartheid and the persistence of patriarchy in the post-apartheid era. They have also demonstrated the resilience of women by featuring characters that reject exploitation and seize the opportunities offered by the newly-democratized nation.","PeriodicalId":178307,"journal":{"name":"Studia Orientalia Electronica","volume":"22 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134525596","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article examines the evolution of rabbinic interpretative discourse on the creation of woman, as depicted in the Hebrew Bible, addressing well-known rabbinic writings from the fifth to the tenth centuries. My feminist and genealogical discourse-analytic exploration illustrates the accumulation of gender-biased elements and the concomitant strengthening of an obvious, all-encompassing patriarchal ethos along this hermeneutical trajectory. I argue that the diachronic development of the rabbinic discourse on the creation of woman took place in three consecutive discursive stages representing self-dependent characteristics. The tradition corpus was first established in Genesis Rabbah and Leviticus Rabbah, then reinforced in the Babylonian Talmud, and finally it became embroidered with versatile elaborations, as demonstrated in passages from Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, Avot de-Rabbi Nathan, Pirqe de-Rabbi Eliezer, and Alphabet of Ben Sira.
{"title":"Establishing Gender Categories and Hierarchies: The Evolution of Rabbinic Discourse on the Creation of Woman","authors":"Katja von Schöneman","doi":"10.23993/store.109392","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23993/store.109392","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the evolution of rabbinic interpretative discourse on the creation of woman, as depicted in the Hebrew Bible, addressing well-known rabbinic writings from the fifth to the tenth centuries. My feminist and genealogical discourse-analytic exploration illustrates the accumulation of gender-biased elements and the concomitant strengthening of an obvious, all-encompassing patriarchal ethos along this hermeneutical trajectory. I argue that the diachronic development of the rabbinic discourse on the creation of woman took place in three consecutive discursive stages representing self-dependent characteristics. The tradition corpus was first established in Genesis Rabbah and Leviticus Rabbah, then reinforced in the Babylonian Talmud, and finally it became embroidered with versatile elaborations, as demonstrated in passages from Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, Avot de-Rabbi Nathan, Pirqe de-Rabbi Eliezer, and Alphabet of Ben Sira.","PeriodicalId":178307,"journal":{"name":"Studia Orientalia Electronica","volume":"123 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115162362","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper explores the relationship between bird omens that occur in both the Sanskrit Gārgīyajyotiṣa Aṅga 42 and the Akkadian Šumma Ālu and related Cuneiform tablets. After an overview of the Sanskrit omens and their source, the study proceeds to compare the Indian and Mesopotamian bird omens with special reference to the omens of the crow in order to show that the series of Akkadian omens and Sanskrit omen verses share a common conceptual paradigm. A list of the different omen birds and animals mentioned in the Gārgīyajyotiṣa occurs in an appendix.
{"title":"Mesopotamian and Indian Bird Omens","authors":"K. Zysk","doi":"10.23993/store.113417","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23993/store.113417","url":null,"abstract":"This paper explores the relationship between bird omens that occur in both the Sanskrit Gārgīyajyotiṣa Aṅga 42 and the Akkadian Šumma Ālu and related Cuneiform tablets. After an overview of the Sanskrit omens and their source, the study proceeds to compare the Indian and Mesopotamian bird omens with special reference to the omens of the crow in order to show that the series of Akkadian omens and Sanskrit omen verses share a common conceptual paradigm. A list of the different omen birds and animals mentioned in the Gārgīyajyotiṣa occurs in an appendix.","PeriodicalId":178307,"journal":{"name":"Studia Orientalia Electronica","volume":"46 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128920770","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Tags made of mudstone are predominantly found in ancient Egyptian Predynastic cemetery contexts. This study examines the symbolism and significance of mudstone tags with the recurved horns of hartebeests and crescent-shaped mudstone tags. The use of syncretic imagery on these tags provides evidence for the fluidity of artistic perceptions in Predynastic Egypt. Available data suggests that individuals buried with mudstone hartebeest and crescent tags were almost exclusively female. Evidence for use wear and the find locations of the tags in burials indicates these artefacts were likely associated with rituals performed by female individuals.
{"title":"The Grammar of Ornamentation: An Egyptian Predynastic Decorative Continuum","authors":"Tatjana P. Beuthe","doi":"10.23993/store.97009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23993/store.97009","url":null,"abstract":"Tags made of mudstone are predominantly found in ancient Egyptian Predynastic cemetery contexts. This study examines the symbolism and significance of mudstone tags with the recurved horns of hartebeests and crescent-shaped mudstone tags. The use of syncretic imagery on these tags provides evidence for the fluidity of artistic perceptions in Predynastic Egypt. Available data suggests that individuals buried with mudstone hartebeest and crescent tags were almost exclusively female. Evidence for use wear and the find locations of the tags in burials indicates these artefacts were likely associated with rituals performed by female individuals.","PeriodicalId":178307,"journal":{"name":"Studia Orientalia Electronica","volume":"80 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134312287","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article investigates the Arabic component of the Standard Swahili lexicon, aiming to identify the Omani Arabic dialect which comprises the dominant donor of loanwords to Swahili. I isolate words from this “donor dialect” from other Arabic dialects that have influenced Swahili, and compare this lexical archive with data on the dialectology of Omani Arabic phonology and verbal morphology. I find that, contrary to widespread assumptions, documented Arabic from Oman’s mountainous interior, the source region of Omani settlers, has significant differences from the donor dialect. This holds true for fieldwork done in the nineteenth century and in the twenty-first. I characterize the donor dialect to the fullest extent possible, given the Swahili data, and find that it is closest to modern Zanzibari Arabic, which may be its descendant. I proceed to review how a better understanding of the donor dialect can clear up errors made in the literature of Swahili history and historical linguistics, and finally provide etymologies for twenty-two Swahili words that are likely borrowings from Omani Arabic but frequently attributed to other sources, due to being borrowings within Omani Arabic itself.
{"title":"Which Arabic Dialect Are Swahili Words From?","authors":"Zev Brook","doi":"10.23993/store.101917","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23993/store.101917","url":null,"abstract":"This article investigates the Arabic component of the Standard Swahili lexicon, aiming to identify the Omani Arabic dialect which comprises the dominant donor of loanwords to Swahili. I isolate words from this “donor dialect” from other Arabic dialects that have influenced Swahili, and compare this lexical archive with data on the dialectology of Omani Arabic phonology and verbal morphology. I find that, contrary to widespread assumptions, documented Arabic from Oman’s mountainous interior, the source region of Omani settlers, has significant differences from the donor dialect. This holds true for fieldwork done in the nineteenth century and in the twenty-first. I characterize the donor dialect to the fullest extent possible, given the Swahili data, and find that it is closest to modern Zanzibari Arabic, which may be its descendant. I proceed to review how a better understanding of the donor dialect can clear up errors made in the literature of Swahili history and historical linguistics, and finally provide etymologies for twenty-two Swahili words that are likely borrowings from Omani Arabic but frequently attributed to other sources, due to being borrowings within Omani Arabic itself.","PeriodicalId":178307,"journal":{"name":"Studia Orientalia Electronica","volume":"76 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117277220","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Review of Christian Mauder: In the Sultan’s Salon. Learning, Religion, and Rulership at the Mamluk Court of Qāniṣawh al-Ghawrī (r. 1501–1516). (Islamic History and Civilization. Studies and texts volume 169/1). Leiden: Brill 2021. 2 volumes. ISSN 0929-2403; ISBN 978-90-04-43576-6 (hardback, set); ISBN 978-90-04-47100-9 (hardback, vol. 1); ISBN 978-90-04-47101-6 (hardback, vol. 2); ISBN 978-90-04-44421-8 (e-book).
{"title":"Christian Mauder: In the Sultan’s Salon. Learning, Religion, and Rulership at the Mamluk Court of Qāniṣawh al-Ghawrī (r. 1501–1516).","authors":"S. Ståhlberg","doi":"10.23993/store.119780","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23993/store.119780","url":null,"abstract":"Review of \u0000Christian Mauder: In the Sultan’s Salon. Learning, Religion, and Rulership at the Mamluk Court of Qāniṣawh al-Ghawrī (r. 1501–1516). (Islamic History and Civilization. Studies and texts volume 169/1). Leiden: Brill 2021. 2 volumes. ISSN 0929-2403; ISBN 978-90-04-43576-6 (hardback, set); ISBN 978-90-04-47100-9 (hardback, vol. 1); ISBN 978-90-04-47101-6 (hardback, vol. 2); ISBN 978-90-04-44421-8 (e-book).","PeriodicalId":178307,"journal":{"name":"Studia Orientalia Electronica","volume":"89 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"120883948","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
From the ninth century until the last quarter of the seventh century BCE, the Assyrian Empire first extended its power over Babylonia and then engaged in a prolonged effort to retain control. The patchwork nature of Babylonian society—divided as it was between the traditional urban centers, territories controlled by five distinct Chaldean tribes, and regions inhabited by Aramaean tribes—presented opportunities and challenges for Assyria as it sought to assert its dominance. Assyrian interactions with the Chaldean tribes of Babylonia redefined the Chaldeans’ place within power relationships in southern Mesopotamia. Starting in 878, Assyria first perceived Chaldean territory as distinct from what they defined as Karduniaš, the land ruled by the king of Babylon. Shalmaneser III exploited and accentuated this division by recognizing the Chaldean leaders as kings and accepting their tribute even as he concluded a treaty with the Babylonian king, Marduk-zakir-shumi I. By decentralizing power in Babylonia, Assyria was able to assert indirect control over Babylonia. However, periods of Assyrian weakness created opportunities for several Chaldeans—drawing upon the economic and military power they could muster—to claim the title of king of Babylon with all the accompanying ideological power. These new developments prompted Assyria under the Sargonids to create counter-narratives that questioned the legitimacy of Chaldeans as kings of Babylon by presenting them as strange and inimical to the Assyrian order even as Assyrian interactions with the Chaldeans improved Assyrian familiarity with them.
{"title":"Kings of Chaldea and Sons of Nobodies: Assyrian Engagement with Chaldea and the Emergence of Chaldean Power in Babylonia","authors":"J. Nielsen","doi":"10.23993/store.89456","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23993/store.89456","url":null,"abstract":"From the ninth century until the last quarter of the seventh century BCE, the Assyrian Empire first extended its power over Babylonia and then engaged in a prolonged effort to retain control. The patchwork nature of Babylonian society—divided as it was between the traditional urban centers, territories controlled by five distinct Chaldean tribes, and regions inhabited by Aramaean tribes—presented opportunities and challenges for Assyria as it sought to assert its dominance. Assyrian interactions with the Chaldean tribes of Babylonia redefined the Chaldeans’ place within power relationships in southern Mesopotamia. Starting in 878, Assyria first perceived Chaldean territory as distinct from what they defined as Karduniaš, the land ruled by the king of Babylon. Shalmaneser III exploited and accentuated this division by recognizing the Chaldean leaders as kings and accepting their tribute even as he concluded a treaty with the Babylonian king, Marduk-zakir-shumi I. By decentralizing power in Babylonia, Assyria was able to assert indirect control over Babylonia. However, periods of Assyrian weakness created opportunities for several Chaldeans—drawing upon the economic and military power they could muster—to claim the title of king of Babylon with all the accompanying ideological power. These new developments prompted Assyria under the Sargonids to create counter-narratives that questioned the legitimacy of Chaldeans as kings of Babylon by presenting them as strange and inimical to the Assyrian order even as Assyrian interactions with the Chaldeans improved Assyrian familiarity with them. ","PeriodicalId":178307,"journal":{"name":"Studia Orientalia Electronica","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133961027","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The goal of this article is to draw attention to a seemingly strange, generative pattern that, at times and under certain conditions, has shaped socially shared worlds of imagination among subordinate groups within imperial or hierarchically asymmetric structures of power, especially among “retainer” groups who saw themselves as a “cultural elite” of the subordinate group. I am referring to a generative pattern that in a significant number of such groups, across time and space, has led to constructions of worlds of imagination, and vicarious participation in them through readings or other social acts of imagination that involved “bracketing the empire out.” The article focuses on the world of the literati of late Persian Yehud/Judah, and especially the bracketing out of Ramat Rahel, the most obvious and monumental, explicit, imperial site in the province, but a number of various examples from diverse historical and geographical contexts are also brought to bear to make a point that this is a well-instantiated pattern. The article then concludes with a discussion of what was often gained by acts of imagination and memory involved in bracketing out “empire” and under which circumstances such acts tended to be historically likely.
{"title":"The Art of Bracketing Empire Out and Creating Parallel Worlds: The Case of Late Persian Yehud","authors":"Ehud Ben Zvi","doi":"10.23993/store.89226","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23993/store.89226","url":null,"abstract":"The goal of this article is to draw attention to a seemingly strange, generative pattern that, at times and under certain conditions, has shaped socially shared worlds of imagination among subordinate groups within imperial or hierarchically asymmetric structures of power, especially among “retainer” groups who saw themselves as a “cultural elite” of the subordinate group. I am referring to a generative pattern that in a significant number of such groups, across time and space, has led to constructions of worlds of imagination, and vicarious participation in them through readings or other social acts of imagination that involved “bracketing the empire out.” The article focuses on the world of the literati of late Persian Yehud/Judah, and especially the bracketing out of Ramat Rahel, the most obvious and monumental, explicit, imperial site in the province, but a number of various examples from diverse historical and geographical contexts are also brought to bear to make a point that this is a well-instantiated pattern. The article then concludes with a discussion of what was often gained by acts of imagination and memory involved in bracketing out “empire” and under which circumstances such acts tended to be historically likely.","PeriodicalId":178307,"journal":{"name":"Studia Orientalia Electronica","volume":"6 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116887155","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The absence of a true Achaemenid Persian “historiography” necessitates that we look elsewhere to construct Persian ideological interactions with the periphery. Like many Mesopotamian kings before them, the Achaemenids became famous for their collecting practices, and sources often depict them looting and stealing artifacts—many of an antiquarian nature—from conquered peoples. Recently, scholars have argued that we should read this picture as a later Greco-Roman historiographical construct, meant to retroactively vilify the Persian kings for their involvement in Hellenic affairs. However, the archaeological record, read together with cuneiform sources, appears to corroborate these statements. The careful recontextualization in Persian capitals of important cultural heritage items, looted mainly from religious environments in rebellious areas, served not only to demonstrate the superiority and dominance of the Persian center over the periphery but also to situate the Persian kings in an historical continuum of Mesopotamian kingship. A reevaluation of Achaemenid collecting practices from the sixth to the fourth centuries BCE may allow for a more complete understanding of the discursive nature of Persian imperial display.
{"title":"Persian Collections: Center and Periphery at Achaemenid Imperial Capitals","authors":"J. Finn","doi":"10.23993/store.89186","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23993/store.89186","url":null,"abstract":"The absence of a true Achaemenid Persian “historiography” necessitates that we look elsewhere to construct Persian ideological interactions with the periphery. Like many Mesopotamian kings before them, the Achaemenids became famous for their collecting practices, and sources often depict them looting and stealing artifacts—many of an antiquarian nature—from conquered peoples. Recently, scholars have argued that we should read this picture as a later Greco-Roman historiographical construct, meant to retroactively vilify the Persian kings for their involvement in Hellenic affairs. However, the archaeological record, read together with cuneiform sources, appears to corroborate these statements. The careful recontextualization in Persian capitals of important cultural heritage items, looted mainly from religious environments in rebellious areas, served not only to demonstrate the superiority and dominance of the Persian center over the periphery but also to situate the Persian kings in an historical continuum of Mesopotamian kingship. A reevaluation of Achaemenid collecting practices from the sixth to the fourth centuries BCE may allow for a more complete understanding of the discursive nature of Persian imperial display.","PeriodicalId":178307,"journal":{"name":"Studia Orientalia Electronica","volume":"65 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127494803","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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