Publications so far
0
| 1. |  | Bernbeck, Reinhard; Eberhardt, Gisela; Pollock, Susan (Ed.): Coming to Terms with the Future. Concepts of Resilience for the Study of Early Iranian Societies. Sidestone Press, Leiden, 2023, ISBN: 9789464261462. (Type: Book | Abstract | Links | BibTeX)@book{nokey,The collection of essays in this book focuses on the highlands of Iran in pre-modern times, reaching from the Paleolithic to the medieval period. What holds the diverse contributions together is an issue that is closely related to debates in our own times: crises and how societies in the past dealt with them. We start from the premise that general circumstances in the fractured topographic structure of the Iranian highlands led to unique relations between ecological, social, economic and political conditions. In three sections entitled “Climate and palaeoenvironment”, “Settlement, subsistence and mobility” und “Political and economic institutions”, the authors ask what sorts of crises afflicted past societies in the Iranian highlands, to what extent they proved resilient, and especially what strategies they developed for enhancing the resilience of their ways of life. Looking for answers in paleoenvironmental proxy data, archaeological findings and written sources, the authors examine subsistence economies, political institutions, religious beliefs, everyday routines and economic specialization in different temporal, spatial and organizational scales. This book is the first volume of a series published by the German-Iranian research cooperation “The Iranian Highlands: Resiliences and Integration in Premodern Societies”. The goal of the research project is to shine a new light on communities and societies that populated the Iranian highlands and their more or less successful strategies to cope with the many vagaries, the constant changes and risks of their natural and humanly shaped environments. CONTENTS Climate and palaeoenvironment Holocene Paleoenvironmental Change and Phases of Drought in the Iranian Highlands. A Review Martin Kehl, Babak Rafiei-Alavi, Hamid Alizadeh Ketek Lahijani The Impact of Climate on Human Occupations in Iran from the Neolithic to the Early Iron Age: An Attempt to Link Archaeological and Paleoclimate Records Babak Rafiei-Alavi, Martin Kehl, Hamid Alizadeh Ketek Lahijani Evidence of Neanderthal Resilience from Forty-five to Thirty-nine Thousand Years Ago at the Bawa Yawan Rockshelter, Kermanshah, Zagros Highlands Saman Heydari-Guran, Nemat Hariri, Martin Kehl, Samran Asiabani, Faramarz Azizi, Elham Ghasidian Water Stress and Imperial Politics in the Southern Zagros Mountains: An Interdisciplinary Approach in Long-Term Perspective Andrea Ricci, Silvia Balatti, Elodie Brisset, Morteza Djamali, Abdolmajid Naderi Beni, Ahmad Azadi, Pejman Firoozbakhsh Settlement, subsistence and mobility Resilience in Practice: A View from the Kura-Araxes Cultural Tradition in Iran Sepideh Maziar Reaching the Breaking Point? Developments in the Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age Varamin Plain Susan Pollock, Morteza Hessari, Reinhard Bernbeck The Bronze and Iron Age of Mazandaran (3200–1000 BCE): Resilience and Cultural Adaptability Hassan Fazeli Nashli, Mojtaba Safari, Yunshi Huang, Zhenhua Deng, Hadi Davoudi, Xiaohong Wu The Environmental Limitations for the Pastoral-Nomadic Way of Life in the Karadagh Highlands of Northwestern Iran: Evidence from the Iron Age I-II and Modern Times Bahram Ajorloo Political and economic institutions Second-Year Cows for Manlari. Elamite State Investment in Cattle Husbandry in the Southern Zagros Mountains Azam Rayat and Walther Sallaberger Coping with Problems of Mining: Approaching Resilience Strategies through the Study of Resource-Scapes in the Iranian Highlands Thomas Stöllner Imperial Control and Highland Resilience in the Parthian Zagros Michael Brown and Shelir Amelirad Resilience in Centralized State Systems. The Persepolis Fortification Archive and Achaemenid Institutional Longevity Wouter F. M. Henkelman, Kai Kaniuth, Kourosh Mohammadkhani Prestigious Building and Urban Development in Ilkhanid Iran: The Rabʿ-i Rashīdī in Tabrīz as an Example of Resilience and Vulnerability in a Long-Term Perspective Birgitt Hoffmann, Lorenz Korn, Thomas Lorain, Jonas Elbers, Maryam Moeini Dynamics of Development and Resilience in Western Fars: The Bozpar Valley Stefan R. Hauser, Giuseppe Labisi, Elnaz Rashidian |
| 2. |  | Maziar, Sepideh: Evaluation of the Kura-Araxes migration: From a mono-factorial phantasm to a multi-dimensional phenomenon. In: Kosyan, Aram; Avetisyan, Pavel; Martirosyan-Olshansky, Kristine; Bobokhyan, Arsen; Grekyan, Yervand (Ed.): Paradise Lost. The Phenomenon of the Kura-Araxes Tradition along the Fertile Crescent Collection of papers honouring Ruben S. Badalyan on the occassion of his 65th birthday, Archaeopress, 2022. (Type: Book Chapter | Abstract | Links | BibTeX)@inbook{nokey,Many scholars concerned with the Kura-Araxes cultural tradition take many aspects of this complex phenomenon for granted. In most publications, the expansion of this tradition across a vast area is treated like the movement of people from point A to B, or in the best case, as the waves of movement between these points. In most of them, migration is considered a direct reaction of people to population growth, lack of pasture lands, environmental stresses, and the Kura-Araxes as environmental or conflict refugees that flee a threat. These perspectives in recent years terminated to some skeptics regarding considering the distribution of the Kura-Araxes material culture as a result of migration. On the other hand, turning to be once again a buzzword, ‘migration’ as an explanation, is considered anachronistic among some archaeologists. This article will reevaluate different scenarios related to the Kura-Araxes phenomenon to see where we stand and how we can overcome these shortcomings. It seems that the Kura-Araxes phenomenon at the current state of our understanding suffers different drawbacks at different levels. The migration scenario itself and the mechanism behind it are still vague, and the relationship between the core area and diaspora is rarely addressed. It is suggested that approaches such as ‘resilience theory’ and discussing the Kura- Araxes phenomenon and migration in the context of social resilience will be more promising for the topic at hand. |
| 3. |  | Heydari-Guran, Saman; Ghasidian, Elham: Consistency of the ‘MIS 5 Humid Corridor Model’ for the Dispersal of Early Homo Sapiens into the Iranian Plateau. In: Autor*innenkollektiv, (Ed.): Pearls, Politics and Pistachios: Essays in Anthropology and Memories on the Occasion of Susan Pollock’s 65th Birthday, pp. 219-237, Propyleum, Heidelberg, 2021. (Type: Book Chapter | Links | BibTeX)@inbook{nokey, |
| 4. |  | Franke, Kristina A.; Kouroshi, Yahya; Skowronek, Miriam; Stöllner, Thomas (Ed.): DFG-SPP 2176: The Iranian Highlands – Resiliences and Integration in Premodern Societies. Accompanying Booklet to the Special Exhibition. 2021. (Type: Booklet | Abstract | Links | BibTeX)@booklet{nokey,The DFG Priority Programme 2176 “The Iranian Highlands: Resilience and Integration in Premodern Societies” consists of 11 individual projects and a coordination programme. Our common goal is to explore early societies of the Iranian highlands and their resilience strategies. International cooperation of a large number of diff erent institutions in Europe and Iran is the basis for the research endeavour. In addition, there is intensive exchange with the “Patrimonies Project” and the project “Documentation and Historical Dialectology of Lori”, two associated projects that focus on current living conditions, the protection of cultural heritage and the study of dialects in the Iranian highlands. |
| 5. |  | Maziar, Sepideh: Resilience and Migration: Time for Changing the Paradigm for Archaeologists?. 2021, visited: 30.11.2020. (Type: Online | Abstract | Links | BibTeX)@online{nokey,In the social sciences, there are different narratives of migration. In archaeology, however, this theme is conventionally tackled in many cases from within an old-fashioned traditional framework. Accordingly, some scholars consider it a mono-factorial approach that overlooks the complexity and diversity of other factors at play. Others ignore it, not wishing to be regarded as anachronistic scholars or as being trapped in culture-historical or diffusionist paradigms. In this short essay, I discuss migration in the context of social resilience by adopting approaches from human geography, such as translocality. I argue that this approach will be more promising in the context of migration in anthropological archaeology. |
| 6. |  | Stöllner, Thomas; Aali, Abolfazl; Kashani, Natascha Bagherpour (Ed.): Tod im Salz. Eine archäologische Ermittlung in Persien. Nünnerich-Asmus Verlag & Media GmbH, 2020, ISBN: 978-3-96176-141-8. (Type: Book | Abstract | Links | BibTeX)@book{nokey,Since the first discoveries in 1993 bodies or body-parts of eight humans have been discovered at the salt-mine of Douzlākh at Chehrābād. These bodies allow a reconstruction of their lives as workers during the different operation periods. By involving many different scientific fields, it became possible to investigate their palaeo-medical aspects, their diet and their health status as well the causes of their death and their involvement into different aspects of the mining operation and logistics of the mine. It is possible not only to reconstruct three different catastrophes during the Achaemenid, the early and the late Sasanian times but also to understand the social aspects of the working people. The Achaemenid miners certainly came from abroad but already stayed a while in the region, apart from the young miner no. 4 who seems to have arrived shortly before the catastrophe. This group of migrants possibly were sent within a “bandaka”, an Achaemenid labour duty. The Sassanian miners partly came from a “regional” background but also came shortly before their deaths. Saltman 1 is interesting as he is an older individual who possibly had a special role within the miners. Mining at Douzlakh was predominantly operated in periods of strong centralized political systems when governmental activities could be organized over longer distances. |
| 7. |  | Maziar, Sepideh; Zalaghi, Ali: Exploring Beyond the River and Inside the Valleys: Settlement Development and Cultural Landscape of the Araxes River Basin Through Time. In: Iran, iss. 59, pp. 36–56, 2020. (Type: Journal Article | Abstract | Links | BibTeX)@article{nokey,Geographical landmarks, especially rivers, have always played an important role in forming or hampering interplay between societies. In some cases, they act as a “communication route” and in some others as “obstacles”. In north-western Iran, it is possible that the Araxes River played such a decisive role by sculpting its surroundings. While our studies are not yet sufficiently adequate to understand the exact role of this river in different time spans, we can begin in some way to conceptualise its role in different periods. The Araxes Valley Archaeological Project (AVAP) was developed with the general aim of investigating settlement development from the fifth to the third millennium BC. Furthermore, studying the possible and probable routes of interaction, both inter- and intra-regional, between the Jolfa and Khoda Afarin plains and the southern Caucasus and north-western Iran, networks of contacts and exchange, and gaining a better understanding of the geographical characteristics of this area and its landscape were among our aims. In this article, the general history of occupation along this river is given to provide a preliminary database to understand the geographical and socio-political potential of this part in order to pursue more comprehensive studies in the future. |
| 8. |  | Garrison, Mark B.; Henkelman, Wouter F. M.: Sigillophobe suppliers and Idiosyncratic Scribes: Local Information Handling in Achaemenid Pārsa. In: The art of empire in Achaemenid Persia: Studies in honour of Margaret Cool Root, pp. 167–286, Leiden, 2020. (Type: Book Chapter | Abstract | Links | BibTeX)@inbook{nokey,Greek sources, starting with Herodotus, marvelled about the Persian royal roads and the speed of travel and communication they permitted within the vast Achaemenid expanse. Much has been written about this vital network, the spine of empire: about the degree of connectivity it afforded, about the courses of the roads, the people who travelled on it, and the advantages that Alexander and his armies drew from it. The same Greek sources were much less interested in the logistic operation behind the network, with the notable exception of a passage in Pseudo-Aristotle’s Oeconomica, where Antimenes, a high administrator and Alexander appointee, is said to have bidden “the satraps replenish, in accordance with the law of the country, the storehouses/granaries (θησαυροὺς) along the royal roads.” Though offering little detail, this statement opens a view on the efforts necessary to maintain the way stations with sufficient supplies in flour, wine (or beer), fodder and, in the case of halting places for express messengers, fresh horses. |
2023 |
|
| Bernbeck, Reinhard; Eberhardt, Gisela; Pollock, Susan (Ed.): Coming to Terms with the Future. Concepts of Resilience for the Study of Early Iranian Societies. Sidestone Press, Leiden, 2023, ISBN: 9789464261462. (Type: Book | Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Administration, Economy, Environmental conditions, Institutions, Integration, Mobility, Resilience, Resources, Settlement and subsistance systems, Structure development)@book{nokey,The collection of essays in this book focuses on the highlands of Iran in pre-modern times, reaching from the Paleolithic to the medieval period. What holds the diverse contributions together is an issue that is closely related to debates in our own times: crises and how societies in the past dealt with them. We start from the premise that general circumstances in the fractured topographic structure of the Iranian highlands led to unique relations between ecological, social, economic and political conditions. In three sections entitled “Climate and palaeoenvironment”, “Settlement, subsistence and mobility” und “Political and economic institutions”, the authors ask what sorts of crises afflicted past societies in the Iranian highlands, to what extent they proved resilient, and especially what strategies they developed for enhancing the resilience of their ways of life. Looking for answers in paleoenvironmental proxy data, archaeological findings and written sources, the authors examine subsistence economies, political institutions, religious beliefs, everyday routines and economic specialization in different temporal, spatial and organizational scales. This book is the first volume of a series published by the German-Iranian research cooperation “The Iranian Highlands: Resiliences and Integration in Premodern Societies”. The goal of the research project is to shine a new light on communities and societies that populated the Iranian highlands and their more or less successful strategies to cope with the many vagaries, the constant changes and risks of their natural and humanly shaped environments. CONTENTS Climate and palaeoenvironment Holocene Paleoenvironmental Change and Phases of Drought in the Iranian Highlands. A Review Martin Kehl, Babak Rafiei-Alavi, Hamid Alizadeh Ketek Lahijani The Impact of Climate on Human Occupations in Iran from the Neolithic to the Early Iron Age: An Attempt to Link Archaeological and Paleoclimate Records Babak Rafiei-Alavi, Martin Kehl, Hamid Alizadeh Ketek Lahijani Evidence of Neanderthal Resilience from Forty-five to Thirty-nine Thousand Years Ago at the Bawa Yawan Rockshelter, Kermanshah, Zagros Highlands Saman Heydari-Guran, Nemat Hariri, Martin Kehl, Samran Asiabani, Faramarz Azizi, Elham Ghasidian Water Stress and Imperial Politics in the Southern Zagros Mountains: An Interdisciplinary Approach in Long-Term Perspective Andrea Ricci, Silvia Balatti, Elodie Brisset, Morteza Djamali, Abdolmajid Naderi Beni, Ahmad Azadi, Pejman Firoozbakhsh Settlement, subsistence and mobility Resilience in Practice: A View from the Kura-Araxes Cultural Tradition in Iran Sepideh Maziar Reaching the Breaking Point? Developments in the Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age Varamin Plain Susan Pollock, Morteza Hessari, Reinhard Bernbeck The Bronze and Iron Age of Mazandaran (3200–1000 BCE): Resilience and Cultural Adaptability Hassan Fazeli Nashli, Mojtaba Safari, Yunshi Huang, Zhenhua Deng, Hadi Davoudi, Xiaohong Wu The Environmental Limitations for the Pastoral-Nomadic Way of Life in the Karadagh Highlands of Northwestern Iran: Evidence from the Iron Age I-II and Modern Times Bahram Ajorloo Political and economic institutions Second-Year Cows for Manlari. Elamite State Investment in Cattle Husbandry in the Southern Zagros Mountains Azam Rayat and Walther Sallaberger Coping with Problems of Mining: Approaching Resilience Strategies through the Study of Resource-Scapes in the Iranian Highlands Thomas Stöllner Imperial Control and Highland Resilience in the Parthian Zagros Michael Brown and Shelir Amelirad Resilience in Centralized State Systems. The Persepolis Fortification Archive and Achaemenid Institutional Longevity Wouter F. M. Henkelman, Kai Kaniuth, Kourosh Mohammadkhani Prestigious Building and Urban Development in Ilkhanid Iran: The Rabʿ-i Rashīdī in Tabrīz as an Example of Resilience and Vulnerability in a Long-Term Perspective Birgitt Hoffmann, Lorenz Korn, Thomas Lorain, Jonas Elbers, Maryam Moeini Dynamics of Development and Resilience in Western Fars: The Bozpar Valley Stefan R. Hauser, Giuseppe Labisi, Elnaz Rashidian |
2022 |
|
| Maziar, Sepideh: Evaluation of the Kura-Araxes migration: From a mono-factorial phantasm to a multi-dimensional phenomenon. In: Kosyan, Aram; Avetisyan, Pavel; Martirosyan-Olshansky, Kristine; Bobokhyan, Arsen; Grekyan, Yervand (Ed.): Paradise Lost. The Phenomenon of the Kura-Araxes Tradition along the Fertile Crescent Collection of papers honouring Ruben S. Badalyan on the occassion of his 65th birthday, Archaeopress, 2022. (Type: Book Chapter | Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Bronze Age, Kura-Araxes, Mobility, Resilience, Translocality)@inbook{nokey,Many scholars concerned with the Kura-Araxes cultural tradition take many aspects of this complex phenomenon for granted. In most publications, the expansion of this tradition across a vast area is treated like the movement of people from point A to B, or in the best case, as the waves of movement between these points. In most of them, migration is considered a direct reaction of people to population growth, lack of pasture lands, environmental stresses, and the Kura-Araxes as environmental or conflict refugees that flee a threat. These perspectives in recent years terminated to some skeptics regarding considering the distribution of the Kura-Araxes material culture as a result of migration. On the other hand, turning to be once again a buzzword, ‘migration’ as an explanation, is considered anachronistic among some archaeologists. This article will reevaluate different scenarios related to the Kura-Araxes phenomenon to see where we stand and how we can overcome these shortcomings. It seems that the Kura-Araxes phenomenon at the current state of our understanding suffers different drawbacks at different levels. The migration scenario itself and the mechanism behind it are still vague, and the relationship between the core area and diaspora is rarely addressed. It is suggested that approaches such as ‘resilience theory’ and discussing the Kura- Araxes phenomenon and migration in the context of social resilience will be more promising for the topic at hand. |
2021 |
|
| Heydari-Guran, Saman; Ghasidian, Elham: Consistency of the ‘MIS 5 Humid Corridor Model’ for the Dispersal of Early Homo Sapiens into the Iranian Plateau. In: Autor*innenkollektiv, (Ed.): Pearls, Politics and Pistachios: Essays in Anthropology and Memories on the Occasion of Susan Pollock’s 65th Birthday, pp. 219-237, Propyleum, Heidelberg, 2021. (Type: Book Chapter | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Mobility, Nomadism)@inbook{nokey, |
| Franke, Kristina A.; Kouroshi, Yahya; Skowronek, Miriam; Stöllner, Thomas (Ed.): DFG-SPP 2176: The Iranian Highlands – Resiliences and Integration in Premodern Societies. Accompanying Booklet to the Special Exhibition. 2021. (Type: Booklet | Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Administration, Institutions, Integration, Landscape, Mobility, Resilience, Resources)@booklet{nokey,The DFG Priority Programme 2176 “The Iranian Highlands: Resilience and Integration in Premodern Societies” consists of 11 individual projects and a coordination programme. Our common goal is to explore early societies of the Iranian highlands and their resilience strategies. International cooperation of a large number of diff erent institutions in Europe and Iran is the basis for the research endeavour. In addition, there is intensive exchange with the “Patrimonies Project” and the project “Documentation and Historical Dialectology of Lori”, two associated projects that focus on current living conditions, the protection of cultural heritage and the study of dialects in the Iranian highlands. |
| Maziar, Sepideh: Resilience and Migration: Time for Changing the Paradigm for Archaeologists?. 2021, visited: 30.11.2020. (Type: Online | Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Mobility, Resilience)@online{nokey,In the social sciences, there are different narratives of migration. In archaeology, however, this theme is conventionally tackled in many cases from within an old-fashioned traditional framework. Accordingly, some scholars consider it a mono-factorial approach that overlooks the complexity and diversity of other factors at play. Others ignore it, not wishing to be regarded as anachronistic scholars or as being trapped in culture-historical or diffusionist paradigms. In this short essay, I discuss migration in the context of social resilience by adopting approaches from human geography, such as translocality. I argue that this approach will be more promising in the context of migration in anthropological archaeology. |
2020 |
|
| Stöllner, Thomas; Aali, Abolfazl; Kashani, Natascha Bagherpour (Ed.): Tod im Salz. Eine archäologische Ermittlung in Persien. Nünnerich-Asmus Verlag & Media GmbH, 2020, ISBN: 978-3-96176-141-8. (Type: Book | Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Achaemenid, Administration, Bronze Age, Chalcolithic, Institutions, Iron Age, Islamic era, Minerals, Mining, Mobility, Neolithic, Salt, Sasanian, Zanjan)@book{nokey,Since the first discoveries in 1993 bodies or body-parts of eight humans have been discovered at the salt-mine of Douzlākh at Chehrābād. These bodies allow a reconstruction of their lives as workers during the different operation periods. By involving many different scientific fields, it became possible to investigate their palaeo-medical aspects, their diet and their health status as well the causes of their death and their involvement into different aspects of the mining operation and logistics of the mine. It is possible not only to reconstruct three different catastrophes during the Achaemenid, the early and the late Sasanian times but also to understand the social aspects of the working people. The Achaemenid miners certainly came from abroad but already stayed a while in the region, apart from the young miner no. 4 who seems to have arrived shortly before the catastrophe. This group of migrants possibly were sent within a “bandaka”, an Achaemenid labour duty. The Sassanian miners partly came from a “regional” background but also came shortly before their deaths. Saltman 1 is interesting as he is an older individual who possibly had a special role within the miners. Mining at Douzlakh was predominantly operated in periods of strong centralized political systems when governmental activities could be organized over longer distances. |
| Maziar, Sepideh; Zalaghi, Ali: Exploring Beyond the River and Inside the Valleys: Settlement Development and Cultural Landscape of the Araxes River Basin Through Time. In: Iran, iss. 59, pp. 36–56, 2020. (Type: Journal Article | Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bronze Age, Caucasus, Chalcolithic, Georgia, Iron Age, Kura-Araxes, Landscape, Mobility, Neolithic, Settlement and subsistance systems, Settlement mobility, Settlement structure, Structure development)@article{nokey,Geographical landmarks, especially rivers, have always played an important role in forming or hampering interplay between societies. In some cases, they act as a “communication route” and in some others as “obstacles”. In north-western Iran, it is possible that the Araxes River played such a decisive role by sculpting its surroundings. While our studies are not yet sufficiently adequate to understand the exact role of this river in different time spans, we can begin in some way to conceptualise its role in different periods. The Araxes Valley Archaeological Project (AVAP) was developed with the general aim of investigating settlement development from the fifth to the third millennium BC. Furthermore, studying the possible and probable routes of interaction, both inter- and intra-regional, between the Jolfa and Khoda Afarin plains and the southern Caucasus and north-western Iran, networks of contacts and exchange, and gaining a better understanding of the geographical characteristics of this area and its landscape were among our aims. In this article, the general history of occupation along this river is given to provide a preliminary database to understand the geographical and socio-political potential of this part in order to pursue more comprehensive studies in the future. |
| Garrison, Mark B.; Henkelman, Wouter F. M.: Sigillophobe suppliers and Idiosyncratic Scribes: Local Information Handling in Achaemenid Pārsa. In: The art of empire in Achaemenid Persia: Studies in honour of Margaret Cool Root, pp. 167–286, Leiden, 2020. (Type: Book Chapter | Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Achaemenid, Administration, Institutions, Mobility, Structure development, Textual sources)@inbook{nokey,Greek sources, starting with Herodotus, marvelled about the Persian royal roads and the speed of travel and communication they permitted within the vast Achaemenid expanse. Much has been written about this vital network, the spine of empire: about the degree of connectivity it afforded, about the courses of the roads, the people who travelled on it, and the advantages that Alexander and his armies drew from it. The same Greek sources were much less interested in the logistic operation behind the network, with the notable exception of a passage in Pseudo-Aristotle’s Oeconomica, where Antimenes, a high administrator and Alexander appointee, is said to have bidden “the satraps replenish, in accordance with the law of the country, the storehouses/granaries (θησαυροὺς) along the royal roads.” Though offering little detail, this statement opens a view on the efforts necessary to maintain the way stations with sufficient supplies in flour, wine (or beer), fodder and, in the case of halting places for express messengers, fresh horses. |