Wednesday, October 20, 2010

News: Talk at Illinois Wesleyan University

Professor Studying Embattled Tablets Being Returned to Iran to Speak for Ides of November
Oct. 26, 2010
Illinois Wesleyan News
BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan University will welcome Professor of Assyriology Matthew Stolper on Monday, November 15 at 4 p.m. in Beckman Auditorium of The Ames Library (1 Ames Plaza, Bloomington). His talk, titled “Shattered Window on the Persian Empire: Rescuing the Persepolis Fortification Archive,” is sponsored by the Greek & Roman Studies Department, Eta Sigma Phi and the Classics Club, and is part of the Ides Lecture & Performance Series.

The director of the Persepolis Fortification Archive Project at the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute, Stolper studies clay tablets discovered in the ancient ruins of Persepolis in the 1930s by a University of Chicago expedition. Stolper is hoping to make the tens of thousands of the Persepolis clay tablets, which recorded the daily rule of Achemenid Persian kings from 550-330 B.C., available online. American survivors of terrorist bombings are asking Federal courts to award them possession of the Persepolis Fortification tablets to satisfy punitive judgments against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
“There is only one Persepolis Fortification Archive,” Stolper said. “It’s the richest, densest, most complex source of information on the languages, society, institutions, and art of the Achaemenid Persian Empire.  Breaking it up or losing it entirely without harvesting all of this information would leave a tragic wound in the history of civilization.”

For additional information about the speaker or the Ides series, contact the Greek and Roman Studies Department at (309) 556-3173.
Contact: Rachel Hatch, (309) 556-3960

Go to the chronicle of news on Persepolis.

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Tuesday, October 05, 2010

Persepolis sequence from The Human Adventure (again)

In June I posted a link to an online version of the Persepolis sequence from The Human Adventure.  Shortly thereafter the OI asserted its copyright and the clip was removed.  Yesterday the Oriental Institute launched its own Youtube Channel.  It's first public offering is the complete film.


This 1935 film, produced by the Oriental Institute of the University of  Chicago under the supervision of Dr. James Henry Breasted was written  and told by his son, Charles Breasted.  Though we no longer think about  archaeology in the same way, this film gives us insight into the early  days of the field.      



Data (minimal) on the Human adventure is at IMDb, and at Turner Classic Movies.

And see a Review of a Review of The Human Adventure.

The Iranian sequence begins at 48:10


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Sunday, October 03, 2010

Online review of L’archive des Fortifications de Persépolis

 AJA Online Publications: Book Reviews

L’archive des Fortifications de Persépolis: État des questions et perspectives de recherches. Actes du colloque organisé au Collège de France, 3–4 novembre 2006
Edited by Pierre Briant, Wouter F.M. Henkelman, and Matthew W. Stolper (Persika 12). Pp. 574, figs. 126, pls. 11, charts 8, tables 28, plans 2, map 1. De Boccard, Paris 2008. €117. ISBN 978-7018-0249-7 (paper).

Reviewed by Bruno Jacobs

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