The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Iran

Iran's heritage is as varied as it is complex, and the archaeological, philological, and linguistic scholarship of the region has not been the focus of a comprehensive study for many decades. The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Iran provides up-to-date, authoritative essays on a wide range of topics extending from the earliest Paleolithic settlements in the Pleistocene era to the Arab conquest in the 7th century AD. The volume, authored by specialists based both inside and outside of Iran, is divided into sections covering prehistory, the Chalcolithic, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, the Achaemenid period, the Seleucid and Arsacid periods, the Sasanian period, and the Arab conquest. In addition, more specialized chapters are included which treat numismatics, religion, languages, political ideology, calendrics, the use of color, textiles, Sasanian silver and reliefs, and political relations with Rome and Byzantium. No other single volume covers as much of Iran's archaeology and history with the same degree of authority. Drawing on the results of the latest fieldwork in Iran and studies by scholars from around the world, this volume addresses a longstanding gap in the literature of the ancient Near East.

D. T. Potts is Professor of Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology and History at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University.

Contributors
Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
Introduction
Part I. Background and beginnings
1. The history of archaeological research in Iran: A brief survey
Ali Mousavi
2. Key questions regarding the palaeoenvironment of Iran
Matthew D. Jones
3. The Paleolithic of Iran
Nicholas J. Conard, Elham Ghasidian and Saman Heydari-Guran
4. The development and expansion of a Neolithic way of life
Lloyd R. Weeks
Part II. The Chalcolithic period
5. The Chalcolithic of northern Iran
Barbara Helwing
6. The Chalcolithic in the central Zagros
Abbas Moghaddam and Ardashir Javanmardzadeh
7. The Later Village (Chalcolithic) period in Khuzestan
Abbas Moghaddam
8. The Chalcolithic in southern Iran
Cameron A. Petrie
Part III. The Bronze Age
9. The Early Bronze Age in northwestern Iran
Geoffrey D. Summers
10. The Bronze Age in northeastern Iran
Christopher P. Thornton
11. Luristan and the central Zagros in the Bronze Age
D. T. Potts
12. Khuzestan in the Bronze Age
Javier ?lvarez-Mon
13. Early writing in Iran
J.L. Dahl
14. The use of Akkadian in Iran
Katrien De Graef
15. Bronze Age Fars
Bernadette McCall
16. Eastern Iran in the Early Bronze Age
Holly Pittman
Part IV. The Iron Age
17. The Late Bronze and Early Iron Age in northwestern Iran
Michael D. Danti
18. Luristan during the Iron Age
Bruno Overlaet
19. The central Alborz region in the Iron Age
Ali Mousavi
20. Linguistic groups in Iran
Ran Zadok
21. Iranian migration
M. Witzel
22. Assyria and the Medes
Karen Radner
23. Elam in the Iron Age
Javier ?lvarez-Mon
24. Elam, Assyria, and Babylonia in the early 1st millennium BC
Matt Waters
25. Iron Age southeastern Iran
Peter Magee
Part V. The Achaemenid period
26. Southwestern Iran in the Achaemenid period
R?my Boucharlat
27. Administrative realities: The Persepolis Archives and the archaeology of the Achaemenid heartland
Wouter F.M. Henkelman
28. Avesta and Zoroastrianism under the Achaemenids and early Sasanians
P.O. Skj?rv?
29. Royal Achaemenid iconography
Mark B. Garrison
30. Color and gilding in Achaemenid architecture and sculpture
Alexander Nagel
31. Eastern Iran in the Achaemenid period
Bruno Genito
32. Old Persian
Jan Tavernier
33. Greek sources on Achaemenid Iran
Maria Brosius
VI. Seleucid, post-Achaemenid and Arsacid archaeology and history
34. Alexander the Great and the Seleucids in Iran
Paul Kosmin
35. Media, Khuzestan and Fars between the end of the Achaemenids and the rise of the Sasanians
Pierfrancesco Callieri and Alireza Askari Chaverdi
36. Fratarak? and Seleucids
Josef Wieseh?fer
37. The Arsacids (Parthians)
Stefan R. Hauser
38. Parthian and Elymaean rock reliefs
Trudy S. Kawami
39. Arsacid, Elymaean and Persid coinage
Khodadad Rezakhani
40. Aramaic, Parthian and Middle Persian
Seiro Haruta
41. The use of Greek in pre-Sasanian Iran
Georges Rougemont
VII. The Sasanian period
42. Sasanian political ideology
M. Rahim Shayegan
43. Sasanian coinage
Nikolaus Schindel
44. Sasanian interactions with Rome and Byzantium
P. Edwell
45. Sasanian rock reliefs
Matthew P. Canepa
46. Kuh-e Khwaja and the religious architecture of Sasanian Iran
Soroor Ghanimati
47. Sasanian administation and sealing practices
Negin Miri
48. Luxury silver vessels of the Sasanian period
Kate Masia-Radford
49. Sasanian textiles
Carol Bier
50. Pre-Islamic Iranian calendrical systems in the context of Iranian religious and scientific history
Antonio Panaino
51. The Islamic conquest of Sasanian Iran
Michael Morony