St John Simpson – författare

Interest and fascination in Achaemenid Persia has burgeoned in recent years. It is time for a major new appraisal of the glorious civilization founded by Cyrus the Great and continued by his successors, the Great Kings Darius I, Xerxes and Artaxerxes I. This volume offers precisely that: a sustained and comprehensive overview of the field of Achaemenid studies by leading scholars and experts. It discusses all aspects of Achaemenid history and archaeology between 550 BCE and 330 BCE, and embraces the whole vast territory of the Persian Empire from North Africa to India and from Central Asia to the Persian Gulf. Topics covered in this title include aspects of Achaemenid religion, administration, material culture, ethnicity, gender and the survival of Achaemenid traditions. The publication of the book is an event: it represents a watershed not only in better appreciation and understanding of the rich and complex cultural heritage established by Cyrus, but also of the lasting significance of the Achaemenid kings and the impact that their remarkable civilization has had on wider Persian and Middle Eastern history.First published by I.B.Tauris in association with the Iran Heritage Foundation

Stone containers have been made and used in the Middle East for over eleven millennia where they pre-dated the invention of pottery and were widely traded. The appearance or properties of the stone helped govern how stone vessels were valued or used and many classes were strictly utilitarian, being used for storage, cooking or lighting. Others were decorated and at times they were considered valuable exotica, particularly in regions far removed from their source areas. The subject of stone vessels is attracting growing attention but this is the first attempt to bring together different approaches to the study of softstone vessels, particularly but not exclusively those carved from varieties of chlorite, and covering all periods from prehistory to the present.

Masters of the Steppe: the impact of the Scythians and later nomad societies of Eurasia consists of 45 papers presented at a major international conference held at the British Museum in 2017 on the occasion of the BP exhibition Scythians: warriors of ancient Siberia, both conference and exhibition being jointly organised with the State Hermitage Museum. There are 58 contributors and co-authors from 16 countries, mostly from Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, but also America, Britain, France, Germany, China and Mongolia. The papers range from new archaeological discoveries, results of scientific research and studies of museum collections to reconstructions of social elites, the phenomenon of monumental tomb construction, and ‘Animal Style’ art. Most results are presented for the first time in the English language and they throw a completely new light on a huge range of aspects of the lives of Scythians and other ancient nomads of Eurasia, their horses, rock art and the working of precious metals, textiles and other materials.

Gold, Silver and Glass takes an innovative approach to our understanding of cultural interaction in antiquity. It contains 14 papers arising from an international conference held at the British Museum in June 2023 and associated with the special exhibition Luxury and Power: Persia to Greece. The papers are by invited specialists ranging from the UK, America, France and Greece to Ukraine, Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, China and Japan. They are divided into two parts, focused on cultural and technological interactions respectively. The first examines definitions of Greek and Eurasian culture, challenges perceptions and creates new avenues of research. The second looks critically at issues of metrology and value of silver in antiquity, and presents case-studies containing new scientific analyses of Achaemenid, Saka and Chinese gold and silverwares, and gold-leaf glass.

Interest and fascination in Achaemenid Persia has burgeoned in recent years. It is time for a major new appraisal of the glorious civilization founded by Cyrus the Great and continued by his successors, the Great Kings Darius I, Xerxes and Artaxerxes I. This volume offers precisely that: a sustained and comprehensive overview of the field of Achaemenid studies by leading scholars and experts. It discusses all aspects of Achaemenid history and archaeology between 550 BCE and 330 BCE, and embraces the whole vast territory of the Persian Empire from North Africa to India and from Central Asia to the Persian Gulf. Topics covered in this title include aspects of Achaemenid religion, administration, material culture, ethnicity, gender and the survival of Achaemenid traditions. The publication of the book is an event: it represents a watershed not only in better appreciation and understanding of the rich and complex cultural heritage established by Cyrus, but also of the lasting significance of the Achaemenid kings and the impact that their remarkable civilization has had on wider Persian and Middle Eastern history.

PART ONE: A CELEBRATION OF A.F.L. BEESTON (1911-1995): (Michael Macdonald) Introductory Remarks; (Geert Jan van Gelder) An experiment with Beeston, Labīd, and BaΊΊār: on translating Classical Arabic verse; (James E. Montgomery) Beeston and the singing-girls; (Clive Holes) The Arabic dialects of Arabia; (Janet Watson, Bonnie Glover Stalls, Khalid al-Razihi and Shelagh Weir) The language of Jabal RāziΉ: Arabic or something else?; (Christian Robin) L'institution monarchique en Arabie du Sud antique: les contributions fondatrices d'A.F.L. Beeston réexaminées à la lumière des découvertes les plus récentes; (Mohammed Maraqten) Legal documents recently discovered by the AFSM at MaΉram Bilqīs, near Mārib, Yemen; (Serguei A. Frantsouzoff) A Minaic inscription on the pedestal of an ibex figurine from the British Museum; (Alessandra Avanzini) Ancient South Arabian anthroponomastics: historical remarks; (Michael J. Zwettler) “Binding on the crown”; (Manfred Kropp) Burden and succession: a proposed Aramaicism in the inscription of Namāra, or the diadochs of the Arabs PART TWO: ADDITIONAL NEW RESEARCH ON ARABIA (Søren Fredslund Andersen and Mustafa Ibrahim Salman) The Tylos Burials in Bahrain; (Djamel Boussaa) A future to the past: the case of Fareej Al-Bastakia in Dubai, UAE; (Paolo M. Costa) Џank archaeological project: a preliminary report; (Rémy Crassard, Joy McCorriston, Eric Oches, ΚAbd Al-Aziz Bin ΚAqil, Julien Espagne and Mohammad Sinnah) Manayzah, early to mid-Holocene occupations in Wādī Сanā (ДaΡramawt, Yemen); (Roland de Beauclair, Sabah A. Jasim and Hans-Peter Uerpmann) New results on the Neolithic jewellery from al-Buhais 18, UAE; (Ronald W. Hawker) Tribe, house style and the town layout of Jazirat al-Hamra, Ras al-Khaimah, UAE; (Moawiyah Ibrahim) Report on the 2005 AFSM excavations in the Ovoid Precinct at MaΉram Bilqīs/Mārib: preliminary report; (Mutsuo Kawatoko and Risa Tokunaga) Arabic rock inscriptions of south Sinai; (M. Mouton, A. Benoist, J. Schiettecatte, M. Arbach and V. Bernard) Makaynūn, a South Arabian site in the ДaΡramawt; (Adrian Parker, Caroline Davies and Tony Wilkinson) The early to mid-Holocene moist period in Arabia: some recent evidence from lacustrine sequences in eastern and south-western Arabia; (T. Steimer-Herbet, G. Davtian and F. Braemer) Pastoralists’ tombs and settlement patterns in Wādī WashΚah during the Bronze Age (ДaΡramawt, Yemen); (Yosef Tobi) The Сubayrī Collection in the Harvard Peabody Museum and Harvard Semitic Museum; (Donatella Usai) A fourth-millennium BC Oman site and its context: Wadi Shab-GAS1; (Eric Vallet) Yemeni “oceanic policy” at the end of the thirteenth century.

Contents: 1) Coastal prehistory in the southern Red Sea Basin, underwater archaeology, and the Farasan Islands (Geoff Bailey, Abdullah AlSharekh, Nic Flemming, Kurt Lambeck, Garry Momber, Anthony Sinclair & Claudio Vita-Finzi); 2) Chronologie et evolution de l'architecture a Makaynun: la formation d'un centre urbain a l'epoque sudarabique dans le Hadramawt (A. Benoist, O. Lavigne, M. Mouton & J. Schiettecatte); 3) A preliminary study on the materials employed in ancient Yemeni mummification and burial practices (summary) (Stephen A. Buckley, Joann Fletcher, Khalid Al-Thour, Mohammed Basalama & Don R. Brothwell); 4) From Safer to Balhaf: rescue excavations along the Yemen LNG pipeline route (Remy Crassard & Holger Hitgen); 5) Pastoral nomadic communities of the Holocene climatic optimum: excavation and research at Kharimat Khor al-Manahil and Khor al-Manahil in the Rub al-Khali, Abu Dhabi (Richard Cuttler, Mark Beech, Heiko Kallweit, Anja Zander & Walid Yasin Al-Tikriti); 6) Flip the coin. Preliminary results of compositional EDX analyses on south-east Arabian coins from ed-Dur (Umm al-Qaiwain, UAE) (Parsival Delrue); 7) Spreading the Neolithic over the Arabian Peninsula (Philipp Drechsler); 8) Water and waste in mediaeval Zabid, Yemen (Ingrid Hehmeyer); 9) Tribal links between the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle Euphrates at the beginning of the second millennium BC (Christine Kepinski); 10) Rare photographs from the 1930s and 1940s by Yihye Haybi, a Yemenite Jew from Sana: historical reality and ethnographic deductions (Ester Muchawsky-Schnapper); 11) Stargazing in traditional water management: a case study in northern Oman (Harriet Nash); 12) Al Qisha: archaeological investigations at an Islamic period Yemeni village (Audrey Peli & Florian Tereygeol, Al-Radrad (al-Jabali): a Yemeni silver mine, first results of the French mission (2006) (Lynne S. Newton); 13) A biographical sketch of Britain's first Sabaeologist: Colonel W.F. Prideaux, CSI (Carl Phillips & St J. Simpson); 14) The Arabian Corridor Migration Model: archaeological evidence for hominin dispersals into Oman during the Middle and Upper Pleistocene (Jeffrey Rose); 15) Ceramic production in mediaeval Yemen: the Yadgat kiln site (Axelle Rougeulle); 16) The word slm/snm and some words for "statue, idol" in Arabian and other Semitic languages (Fiorella Scagliarini); 16) "Transformation processes in oasis settlements in Oman" 2005 archaeological survey at the oasis of Nizwa: a preliminary report (Juergen Schreiber); 17) Middle Palaeolithic — or what? New sites in Sharjah, UAE (Julie Scott-Jackson, William Scott-Jackson & Sabah Jasim); 18) Rites and funerary practices at Rawk during the fourth millennium BC (Wadi ‘Idim, Yemen) (T. Steimer-Herbet, J-F. Saliege, T. Sagory, O. Lavigne & A. as-Saqqaf, in collaboration with M. Mashkour & H. Guy); 19) The sources on the Fitna of Masud b. Amr al-Azdi and their uses for Basran tribal history (Brian Ulrich); 20) The beads of ed-Dur (Umm al-Qaiwain, UAE) (An De Waele); 21) Aspects of recent archaeological work at al-Balid (Íafar), Sultanate of Oman (Juris Zarins); 22) Towards a new theory: the state of Bani Mahdi, the fourth imamate in Yemen (Ahmad b. Umar al-Zaylai).