Studies in Ancient Persia and the Achaemenid Period

An important collection of eight essays on Ancient Persia (Iran) in the periods of the Achaemenid Empire (539-330 BC), when the Persians established control over the whole of the Ancient Near East, and later the Sasanian Empire. It will be of interest to historians, archaeologists and biblical scholars. Paul Collins writes about stone relief carvings from Persepolis; John Curtis and Christopher Walker illuminate the Achaemenid period in Babylon; Terence Mitchell, Alan Millard and Shahrokh Razmjou draw attention to neglected aspects of biblical archaeology and the books of Daniel and Isaiah; and Mahnaz Moazami and Prudence Harper explore the Sasanian period in Iran (AD 250-650) when Zoroastrianism became the state religion. Contents 6 Editor’s note 8 Introduction 10 Terence Mitchell’s Published Works 12 1. Five Unpublished Persepolis Relief Fragments in the Ashmolean Museum 16 2. Where Did the Persian Kings Live in Babylon? 25 3. The Use of Seals in Babylonia under the Achaemenids 49 4. An Iranian in the Court of King Nebuchadnezzar 61 5. Biblical Archaeology in the Persian Period 66 6. The Textual Connections between the Cyrus Cylinder and the Bible, with Particular Reference to Isaiah 173 7. Interpreting Sasanian Beards: Significant Images in an Interconnected World 190 8. Sasanian-Zoroastrian Intellectual Life in the Fifth and Sixth Centuries AD 214 A collection of essays in memory of the curator and scholar Terence Mitchell, exploring the history and archaeology of Ancient Persia.