Aspects of Empire in Achaemenid Sardis

by Elspeth R. M. Dusinberre

Overview

The Achaemenid empire (ca. 550-330 B.C.) was the first world empire, founded by Cyrus II in Southwest Iran and lower Mesopotamia. Populated by peoples of different backgrounds, languages and cultures, the empire's challenge was to construct a system that would provide for the needs of all groups. Focusing on Sardis (a regional capital in western Anatolia), the book documents how the administration successfully annexed the region and its populace into the Persian Empire.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521009003
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	06/24/2010
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	342
Product dimensions:	7.40(w) x 9.70(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Elspeth R. M. Dusinberre (PhD, Michigan, 1997) is interested in cultural interactions in Anatolia, particularly in the ways in which the Achaemenid Empire affected local social structures and in the give-and-take between Achaemenid and other cultures. Aspects of Empire in Achaemenid Sardis (her first book) examines such issues from the vantage of the Lydian capital, while her third book, Empire, Authority, and Autonomy in Achaemenid Anatolia (Cambridge University Press, 2013) considers all of Anatolia. Her second book is a diachronic excavation monograph, Gordion Seals and Sealings: Individuals and Society (2005). She is currently studying the seal impressions on the Aramaic tablets of the Persepolis Fortification Archive (dating ca.500 BCE), and the cremation burials from Gordion. She has worked at Sardis, Gordion, and Kerkenes Dag in Turkey, as well as at sites elsewhere in the eastern Mediterranean. Professor Dusinberre teaches primarily Greek and Near Eastern archaeology. She has been awarded six University of Colorado teaching awards, the Chancellor's Faculty Recognition Award, and the Faculty Graduate Advisor Award.

Table of Contents

List of figures; Preface; List of abbreviations; 1. Sardis in the Achaemenid empire; 2. Textual sources and the effects of empire; 3. The urban structure of Achaemenid Sardis: monuments and meaning; 4. The urban structure of Achaemenid Sardis: sculpture and society; 5. Inscriptions: Sardians in their own words; 6. Mortuary evidence: dead and living societies; 7. Personal signifiers: Sealstones; 8. Achaemenid bowls: ceramic assemblages and the non-elite; 9. Conclusion: Imperialism and Achaemenid Sardis; Appendices; References; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"...this book brings together a diverse array of evidence and makes a significant contribution to the growing field of Achaemenid Anatolian studies, with an insightful and progressive theoretical approach." Journal of Field Archaelogy

"...Aspects of Empire in Achaemenid Sardis is carefully written, methodologically well informed and thoughtfully argued." BMCR

"...Dusinberre's book brings Sardis studies forward in a vital way." BMCR

From the Publisher