An investigation on tool marks at Achaemenid Borazjan palaces

Journée des Doctorants / Postgraduate workshop Salle Gaston Paris (D064, escalier E), Sorbonne, l’Iran ancien: mondes élamite, achéménide & sassanide Ancient Iran: Elamites, Achaemenids and Sasanians Monday, June 25, 2018 1. Elam: language, texts 09.00-09.15 09.15-10.00 10.00-10.30 Philip Huyse Marc Bavant Milad Jahangirfar 10.30-10.45 coffee break (chair: Florence Malbran-Labat) Welcome About possible Caucasian cognates in Elamite Šilhaha and Huban-numena 2. Elam: roles and status of women 10.45-11.15 11.15-11.45 Mina Dabbagh Schirin Ghazivakili 12.00-13.00 lunch (Sorbonne) (chair: Florence Malbran-Labat) Participation of women in real estate transactions A new approach to the relief of Kurangun 3. Achaemenids: networks, system 13.00-13.30 13.30-14.00 14.00-14.30 14.30-15.00 Rhyne King Mitchka Shahryari Laura Brillant Mark Tamerus 15.30-16.00 coffee break (chair: Pierre Briant) Extra-urban Power in the Achaemenid Empire Provinces in the extreme west of the Achaemenid Empire Center and periphery in the Achaemenid Empire bazikara (*bājikara-) in the Persepolis archives 4. Achaemenids-Sasanids: sites and scribal tradition (chair: Pierre Briant) An investigation on tool marks at Achaemenid Borazjan palaces Royal Scribes and the Achaemenid Royal Inscriptions Performative formulas in ancient Iranian epigraphic texts 16.00-16.30 16.30-17.00 17.00-17.30 Zohreh Zehbari Soheil Delshad Olivia Ramble 19.00 dinner (Roger de Beyrouth, 103 Rue Monge) Tuesday June 26, 2018 5. Achaemenids: religion 09.00-09.30 09.30-10.00 10.00-10.30 Ardalan Emami Anahita Zabeti Hamaseh Golestaneh 10.30-11.00 coffee break 6. Sasanians and beyond 11.00-11.30 11.30-12.00 12.00-12.30 Delphine Poinsot Alessia Zubani Aida Alavi 12.00-13.00 lunch (Sorbonne) (chair: Frantz Grenet) Conceptualizing Religious Change in the Achaemenid Empire Mountains and Rivers: places of worship in Achaemenid Persia A generous goddess at Persepolis (chair: Frantz Grenet) The Bear : the story of a king The Šāhanšāh trope in Middle-Persian and Arabic Literature Safavid Divinatory Practices, Between Text and Object Abstracts Aida Alavi (Sorbonne Paris Cité and Université Bordeaux Montaigne) Safavid Divinatory Practices, Between Text and Object This work is a vast reflection on the most practiced Iranian magical rituals, divination in the Safavid context. Also, we look at magical practices that become increasingly important and objects and manuscript production which flourished. The focus will therefore be on ritualistic objects particularly through th way of explorations and accessible Iranian and European collections. We will then analyze these figures and their symbolism according to manuscripts of occult science of the same period (1501-1722). The comparison of text and divinatory objects gives us the unique opportunity to study the history of Islamic occult sciences. Marc Bavant (École Pratique des Hautes Études/PSL, Paris) About possible Caucasian cognates in Elamite Many attempts have been made to affiliate the isolated Elamite language with other languages. The Elamo-Dravidian hypothesis is probably the most widely known despite its scant bases. Moreover very few people have questioned or expanded the work of its main supporter, D. W. McAlpin. In the beginning of the 20th century a different hypothesis was trendy. It was based on a few grammatical similarities between Elamite and some Caucasian languages. It was supported i.a. by Hüsing, Bork and Winkler, who had no other knowledge of the Caucasian languages than what they could find in one of the first descriptions available of those languages by Erckert, and was rightly dismissed by Dirr, a researcher seriously involved in Caucasian studies, due to the weakness of their sources. The aim of this work is to revisit the "Elamo-Caucasian" hypothesis, based on new material, on the progress of Caucasology since the times of Erckert and on the proper interest of a typological comparison, even if it does not lead to a firm conclusion about the genetic affiliation between Elamite and Caucasian languages. Among other things plausible Caucasian cognates of kurpi "hands" and of the class agreement are presented herein. Laura Brillant (École Pratique des Hautes Études/PSL, Paris) The relation between center and periphery in the Achaemenid Empire : the example of the Sogdiana. Located on the northeastern frontier of the achaemenid territory, Sogdiana was one of the provinces most distant from the hearthland of the Empire. Yet, in spite of the distance, the two areas showed some similarities. The imperial administration indeed was implanted in the Sogdian territory and its presence led to the establishment of an « institutional landscape », which, in many respects, seems to be similar to the pattern highlighted in the hearthland of the Empire. The Persepolis Fortification Archive, the Aramaic documents of ancient Bactria, and the archeological sites in Central Asia thus enable to reconsider the extent of Sogdiane’s integration into the imperial administrative system. Mina Dabbagh (Université Lumière-Lyon 2, Lyon) Participation of women in real estate transactions: a case study of two legal texts of sukkalmah period in Elam In order to elucidate the role of women in Elamite society from the economic perspective, it is useful to reconstruct the social and economic structure of the Elamite kingdom according to textual sources. Through the analysis of Elamite juridical sources dating back to the 1st half of the second millennia B.C., it is possible to identify activities specific to women and certainly in the context of domestic economy. Within juridical texts, one large series of Susiana archives concern the real estate transaction contracts. There are many examples of these agreements in which the women participate as the major agent. In these sources, women can be involved as seller, purchaser. They could participate in several types of commercial activities as the owner of the land, an orchard, a house, a field etc. Soheil Delshad (Freie Universität Berlin) Royal Scribes and the Achaemenid Royal Inscriptions: a Mesopotamian Approach Our knowledge about the scribes at the royal court of the Achaemenids is so limited that without evidence of those individuals in Pre-Achaemenid periods, it would be nearly impossible to talk about them. Because of difficulties regarding the long history of literacy in the Ancient Near East, the focus of this discussion would be mostly on the first millennium B.C. in both Babylonian and Assyrian royal courts. The discussion begins with the terminology of the scribes at the Mesopotamian royal courts and then continues with textual evidence regarding those scribes and their duties at the royal courts. Finally, the discussion ends with the following questions: How can we apply those issues discussed above in the case of Achaemenid royal courts? Who could be engaged with the composition of royal inscriptions in the Achaemenid period? Ardallan Emami (Leiden University) Conceptualizing Religious Change in the Achaemenid Empire The establishment of the Achaemenid Persian Empire brought about large scale socio-political change in the Ancient Near East. This socio-political change inevitably affected the status of Persian religion and its later developments .While the role played by religion in the process of Empire making has been already investigated to some degree, we have yet to study the role played by the Achaemenid Empire in shaping up the Persian religion. My research focuses on the study of religious change in the Achaemenid period. Through analysis of various available sources on Achaemenid religion such as the Persepolis fortification Archive, I will try to show that our available sources reveal traces of large-scale transformation in the Achaemenid religion. I will also explore the implications of recognising this transformation for writing a general history of Zoroastrianism. Schirin Ghazivakili (Universität Zürich/École Pratique des Hautes Études/PSL, Paris) On the roles of women in Elamite religion: A new approach to the relief of Kurangun My project aims at a comprehensive study of the roles of women and goddesses in ancient Elam, taking into account current theories of gender studies and religious studies. When looking at the roles of women and goddesses in Elam the relief of Kurangun is of special importance since it is one of only a few elamite rock reliefs depicting deities interacting with humans, out of whom it is the best preserved. Furthermore, it is located in the elamite heartland, modern province Fars, while most other depictions of deities come from the Susiana, a region that has been under strong Mesopotamian influence for centuries. For my own work I would like to offer a new approach looking at Kurangun as a discourse, that produces gender roles in a specific situation, that is the interaction between humans and the divine. Hamaseh Golestaneh (Freie Universität, Berlin) A generous goddess at Persepolis The name of the goddess Mišdušiš (*Miždušī-), meaning “she who bestows richly,” is attested in no Iranian written source other than the Persepolis Fortification Archive; neither the Avesta, nor any of the later Zoroastrian texts mention it. However, because of its title and probable function, which is connected to reward (NP muzd), it is automatically taken as an epithet for the Avestan goddess Aši. This idea is however quite debatable; at most, what we could say by certainty is that these two divinities share some functions and characteristics. In any case, the meaning of names is the only connection between the two deities: Mišdušiš does not occur in the Zoroastrian tradition, either as deity, or as epithet. On the other hand, this name may be compared with a Vedic counterpart mīḍhvás-; the feminine equivalent for mīḍhvāṁs- “generous, gracious”. This is especially important, because it could indicate that Achaemenid religion is not the linear continuation of a Zoroastrian religious evolution or revolution, but comprises a wider span, involving and incorporating different cultures and ideas, notably from the Indo-Iranian horizon. In addition, the presence of a deity representing the idea of ‘Reward’ in the offerings conducted by the state could reflect the religious policy of the Achaemenid government. This deity is up to now attested six times in the Persepolis Fortification Archive, among which, three times accompanied by Sakurraziš, denoting the third Old Persian month, concurrent with May-June, hence with the present Persian month Khordād. The probability of a relation between this month name, and some agricultural and calendric festivals have been speculated by many scholars. In this presentation, I am going to remark the abovementioned observations, and deliberate on a possible relation between the accompaniment of these two entities in the archive, and the conceivable socio-political implications it may have had. Milad Jahangirfar (Freie Universität, Berlin) Šilhaha and Huban-numena: Two Legitimizing Figures in the Elamite History A recurring theme in the existing corpus of the Middle and Neo-Elamite royal inscriptions is the manifold use of the notion of time, which connects such diverse areas as historiography, chronology, and time-keeping. The particular awareness of time reflected in the inscriptions – understood under its various aspects of ritual time, historical time, and social time – underlies the way in which Elamite society, history, religion, and economy are self-expressed. Although these texts employ no word for “time”, they are rich in explicit time-statements such as “previously,” “kings of old,” “you, who in the future will,” etc. An analysis of these texts reveals how the Elamite kings used the “past” as a means of establishing their ideology and kingship. In doing so, they frequently refer to the kings of past and their deeds, mostly in the tradition of reconstructing temples where the kings reused the old inscribed bricks or had an account of the previous king(s) written down on the new building materials. Thus, the names and achievements of the previous kings have been preserved. This written history related how the Elamite identity had formed. A few figures began to stand out over ages as the focal points of the Elamite history. Two of these figures are Šilhaha, a founder-king who reigned at the beginning of the 2nd millennium, and Huban-numena whose name remained preserved and visible during the intermediate two hundred years and virtually all subsequent kings who restored his temple in Liyan, such as Šilhak-Inšušinak I, took great care to refer to him and associate themselves with him. This presentation is an attempt to show how Šilhaha and Huban-numena were regarded as the focal points and legitimizing figures in the extant Elamite texts. Rhyne King (University of Chicago) Extra-urban Power in the Achaemenid Empire In this paper, which arises out of my dissertation research on the satrapal houses and their role in the government of the Achaemenid Empire, I will argue that the Achaemenid state preferred to articulate power in extra-urban spaces. As two examples, I will consider the two most heavily urbanized regions of the Empire: western Asia Minor and southern Mesopotamia. In both regions, the mature Achaemenid Empire of the fifth century succeeded in extricating political and economic power from cities and establishing this power in extra-urban spaces, especially estates. I will draw evidence from both administrative documentation and Greek historiography. Delphine Poinsot (École Pratique des Hautes Études/PSL, Paris) The Bear : the story of a king In the Sasanian era the bear was a kingly prey and the animal figures among the species of the glyptic bestiary. Its representation reflect the way the royal iconography was adapted to suit that particular medium. The bear is an animal specific to Sasanian art. Its representations are scarce among the different iconographical traditions which influenced the Sasanian glyptic bestiary. As a kingly prey in the royal hunt the bear is closely linked to representations of the Sasanian monarch. This prey's status partly controls its mode of representation in the glyptic iconography. Now, beyond its privileged relationship with royalty, the bear is closely connected to Man because of its ancestry (the bear is the son of Jam and a demoness). This also influences its mode of representation. Olivia Ramble (École Pratique des Hautes Études/PSL, Paris) Performative formulas in ancient Iranian epigraphic texts In both the Achaemenid and Sassanian periods, monumental rock inscriptions were a means of visual and ritual colonisation of the topography of empire. Although philologists have examined the linguistic aspects of these texts, and historians have focused on the events they chronicle, a crossdisciplinary approach that admits a study of the performative significance of engraving an inscription on a tomb, a mountain, above a spring or underneath an older inscription is long overdue. The performativity of language was a concept first proposed by the philosopher J. L. Austin in 1962, and subsequently developed by the linguists E. Benveniste and J. Searle. In the past decade, B. Fraenkel has applied it to written 'speech acts', gradually defining the outlines of a pragmatic anthropology of writing. This approach, standing at the crossroads of linguistics, philosophy and anthropology, provides us with a useful framework within which to consider the meta-linguistic aspects of ancient Iranian inscriptions. The following presentation will offer a close study of what I propose to define as performative formulas in ancient Iranian inscriptions. I will first show the structural importance of these formulas for the epigraphic texts, and will then consider how they highlight the dynamic interaction of the inscriptions with their support, their geographical surroundings (natural and built) and, most importantly, with the other inscriptions that are either directly contiguous or even spatially separated from them. Mitchka Shahryari (École Pratique des Hautes Études/PSL, Paris) Provinces in the extreme west of the Achaemenid Empire and imperial administrative network Between Cilicia, Syria, Palestine and Jordan, the provinces west of the Achaemenid Empire are part of a process of continuity with the neo-Assyrian and neo-Babylonian empires. An administrative network is built using the strengths of previous empires. But unlike other empires, the Achaemenid empire decides to absorb and work more with local cultures. Multiculturalism is clearly visible in the archaeological material. It strenthens the administrative network. The Great Kings found an new administrative hierarchy on the remains of previous empires. This network is always centered on the figure of the Great King. Mark Tamerus (VU University, Amsterdam) bazikara (*bājikara-) in the Persepolis archives – ‘tax handlers’ or something else? In previous literature the appellative bazikara has often been considered to mean “tax handler” or something akin, at least in part because that compound formation contains the word bāji-, which itself – primarily on the basis of its use in a couple of Achaemenid royal inscriptions – is commonly translated “tax; tribute”. Although arguments can be brought forth in support of the idea that bazikara (and its Elamite functional equivalent matira) refers to something to do with taxationlike practices, the evidence from especially the Persepolis Fortification Archive complicates that notion, and this has hitherto not been properly discussed. This paper aims to present some of the relevant evidence and analyse it in the broader context of the management of agricultural production, from which it cannot be separated. This paper (based on current doctoral research) thereby aims to increase understanding of the meaning and function of bazikara as well as part of the economic and administrative structures witnessed by the Persepolitan texts. Anahita Zabeti (École Pratique des Hautes Études/PSL, Paris) Mountains and Rivers: places of worship in Achaemenid Persia according to the Persepolis Fortification Archive (PFA) My research topic concerns the Achaemenid religions, at the time of Darius I. The concentration of this study is on non-constructed loci connected to rituals functions. The Persepolis Fortification Archive forms the basic body of my study as it includes texts on religious subjects. Two types of loci are attested: contructed ones like “temple” and “tomb” and non-constructed ones like mountains and rivers. Elamite and Achaemenid archeological remains attest to the importance of these two types of loci in their religious or cultic context, as can be seen in certain archaeological sites such as Kūrangūn, Kūl-e Farah, Bisotoun, Naqš-e Rostam, etc. In some cases, a continuity of veneration of a mountain for centuries is noticeable. The royal Elamite and Achaemenid texts and inscriptions by themselves cannot provide a complete picture of this, so I have to use religious and historical sources of later periods. The use of religious written sources such as Avesta and Bundahišn will enable me to argue the holy character of mountains and waters in Iranian cosmology. At first, my research focuses on tablet data, such as onomastic, linguistic features, deities and commodities. For example, onomastic helps me to find parallels in certain religious and historical texts. In a second step, I study some Elamite and Achaemenid archaeological sites. Through the confrontation of various sources, I will highlight necessary evidences to consider the mountains and waters as a place of worship in Elamite and Achaemenid religions as reflected in the Persepolis Fortification Archive. Zohreh Zehbari (Tehran University) An investigation on tool marks at Achaemenid Borazjan palaces Borazjan is approximately 70 km north of Bushehr, in south of Iran and close to Persian Gulf. There are three palaces around this city called Charkhab, Bardak-e Siyah and Sang-e Siyah. The excavators of Borazjan palaces have proposed that these palaces belong to the beginning of Achaemenid period but accurate chronology is difficult. Carl Nylander suggested the idea that toothed tools were used after Cyrus the great period. He claims that toothed tools would be a chronology criterion, which means that monuments with this tool mark belong to after 520 and the others before 520 B.C. In his point of view, the toothed tools are imported by Ionian artisans to Persian Empire. My personal survey on these palaces shows that there are no toothed marks while different evidence indicate that some of these palaces were built in Darius period. This study seeks to investigate tool marks at Borazjan palaces and try to evaluate the artisans who have worked in these palaces. Keywords: Borazjan palaces, tool marks, artisan, Charkhab, Bardak-e Siyah and Sang-e Siyah Alessia Zubani (Università di Bologna and École Pratique des Hautes Études/PSL, Paris) The Šāhanšāh trope in Middle-Persian and Arabic Literature (VIth – XIth century) The starting point of my doctoral research is to further our understanding of the Perso-Arab relations before and after the Islamic conquest, with the aim of marking out the dynamics of appropriation and transformation of Iranian elements in the definition of the political theory and practice in the first centuries of the Abbasid caliphate. To this end, my intervention will revolve around an examination and comparative reading of the different formulations of the šāhanšāh trope in Middle-Persian and Arabic literatures, from Late Antiquity to the first Islamic period. I will thus try to explain the reception of this trope in the two literary traditions as well as in the two different cultural environments, namely that of the Abbasid court and of Zoroastrian religious circles. Access to the Salle Gaston Paris Enter the Sorbonne building at 17 rue de la Sorbonne, if necessary showing the laissezpasser (which will be sent to the non-french participants individually). Please make sure that you have an identity card, passport or university ID with you. After entering the Sorbonne, you will find yourself on a large court: proceed to the colonnade on the left, then turn right, enter the building at the end of the colonnade and walk straight ahead until you reach a door giving access to a staircase (“escalier E”). Ascend the staircase to the first floor (European style), turn right and enter through the door giving access to the spaces of the École Pratique des Hautes Études. The Salle Gaston Paris (D064) is all the way at the end.