Monday, November 04, 2013

News: Iranian researcher renders inscriptions of Persepolis

Iranian researcher renders inscriptions of Persepolis
http://www.ibna.ir/images/docs/000184/n00184792-b.jpg
4 Nov 2013 14:19
Iran Book News Agency
Abdul Majid Arfaei, a professor of Ancient Near Eastern languages and cultures, has translated ‘The Inscriptions of Persepolis’ in four volumes which have been handed over to the Cultural Heritage Organization for publication. 
IBNA: Abdul Majid Arfaei said he has finished translating 647 tablets, related to the era of Darius the Great, which were read by Richard Treadwell Hallock. The works are included in the first volume of the series.

Richard Treadwell Hallock, Elamologist and Assyriologist, was a professor of Chicago University. The late professor, who read the bulk of the Persepolis Elamite tablets, died in 1980.

The Iranian researcher has also translated 2,586 clay Achaemenid tablets into Persian and English which were rendered by Hallock.

The work is also handed over to Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization (ICHHTO) for publication.

The three other books of the ‘The Inscriptions of Persepolis’ will be published in Iran gradually.

Arfaei, the renowned expert of Elamite, Avestan and Pahlavi languages, is the founder of the Inscriptions Hall of Iran’s National Museum and has written a number of books on Iranian history.

He is the only Iranian Elamologist who worked under the supervision of Professor Hallock.

Arfaei was the first person who translated the inscription of Cyrus Cylinder.

The Iranian expert has also translated more than 2,500 Persepolis inscriptions, which are housed at Chicago University.


Monday, October 21, 2013

Lecture: De Persépolis à l'Arachosie achéménide: à propos des fragments de tablettes élamites trouvés dans l'ancienne Kandahar

Matthew W. Stolper
De Persépolis à l'Arachosie achéménide: à propos des fragments de tablettes élamites trouvés dans l'ancienne Kandahar
Lundi 4 novembre 2013, 17h00
Collège de France, 11 place Marcelin-Berthelot, Paris 5e, salle 5.



Tuesday, September 10, 2013

News: CHTHO Chief in Pursuit of Iran’s Ancient Relics in New York Visit

CHTHO Chief in Pursuit of Iran’s Ancient Relics in New York Visit
Fars News Agency
Tue Sep 10, 2013 5:13
http://media.farsnews.com/media/Uploaded/Files/Images/1392/06/19/13920619000577_PhotoI.jpg
TEHRAN (FNA)- Vice-president and head of the Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Organization (CHTHO) Mohammad Ali Najafi vowed to follow up the case with returning Iran’s ancient tablets during his upcoming visit to New York.
 
“One of my programs during the visit to New York will be meeting with Chancellor of Chicago University to discuss the return of about 30,000 Achaemenid tablets which are now in New York to Iran …,” Najafi said, saying that his name has been included in the list of the delegation which will be accompanying Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in his upcoming visit to New York.

President Rouhani will participate in the 68th annual meeting of the UN General Assembly in New York due to open on 17 September, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif announced earlier.

In August, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon invited Iranian President Rouhani to participate in the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly in September.
The tablets were discovered by the University of Chicago archaeologists in 1933 while they were excavating in Persepolis, the site of a major Oriental Institute excavation.

The artifacts bear cuneiform script explaining administrative details of the Achaemenid Empire from about 500 BC. They are among a group of tens of thousands of tablets and tablet fragments that were loaned to the university's Oriental Institute in 1937 for study. A group of 179 complete tablets was returned in 1948, and another group of more than 37,000 tablet fragments was returned in 1951.

In spring 2006, US District Court Judge Blanche Manning ruled that a group of people injured by a 1997 bombing in Israel could seize the 300 clay tablets loaned to the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute and the university cannot protect Iran's ownership rights to the artifacts.

Following Iranian officials' protests against the ruling, the court was slated to reexamine the case on December 21, 2006, but the court session was postponed to January 19, 2007, allegedly due to the fact that Iran had not provided all the documents required by the court.
The court session was held on the above-mentioned date, but no verdict was issued.
Museum of London has voiced its support for the return of the collection of clay tablets to Iran as the owner of the artifacts.

The Oriental Institute holds 8000 to 10,000 intact and about 11,000 fragmented tablets, as estimated by Gil Stein, the director of the university's Oriental Institute.

Based on a bill approved by the Iranian parliament in 1930, foreign research institutes were allowed to conduct excavations at Iranian ancient sites exclusively or during joint projects with the Iranian government.

Foreigners were also given permission to share the artifacts discovered during the excavation projects with Iranian team members and to transfer their share to their country.
By the act, many Iranian artifacts were looted by foreign institutes working on Iranian ancient sites until the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979.




Monday, August 26, 2013

Cultural Heritage Lawyer Rick St. Hillaire reports on a motion for a summary judgement in Rubin vs. Iran

Cultural Heritage Lawyer Rick St. Hillaire reports on a motion for a summary judgement in Rubin vs. Iran

Chicago Museums Seek Summary Judgment in Rubin v. Iran
The Field Museum of Natural History and the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute filed a motion for summary judgment last week seeking to end a case that has pitted victims of a terrorist attack against two Illinois museums and Iran. The Chicago-based institutions argue that the plaintiffs' wish to take museum "property that Iran neither owns nor has ever claimed." And regarding Persian artifacts owned by Iran but on loan to the museums, the museums say that the plaintiffs cannot take title to these objects in order to satisfy a court judgment. American lawyers representing Iran filed their own motion in agreement [Read the rest]



Monday, August 19, 2013

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute grant to the Persepolis Fortification Archive Project


In March, 2013, Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute awarded a grant of $30,000 to the Persepolis Fortification Archive Project at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago to support summer work on the Project by six students, both from Chicago and from other universities.

roshan.jpg

Since late May these students have been working with Roshan support:  
  • Christina Chandler (undergraduate, Classics, University of Colorado)
  • Erin Daly (graduate student, Classics and Art History, Notre Dame)
  • Katherine Livingstone (undergraduate, Art History, University of Minnesota)
  • Tytus Mikołajczak (graduate student, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Chicago)
  • Emily Wilson (PhD Candidate, Classics, Chicago)
  • Seunghee Yie (PhD candidate, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago)


By supporting these student workers, Roshan is not only helping make available the daunting volume and variety of information that the Persepolis Fortification Archive offers, but also helping to prepare a new generation of scholars who can use the information with a full appreciation of its context and connections.

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Video: Persepolis and the Economy of Achemenid Persia



Dr. Matt Stolper of the Oriental Institute lectures on Persepolis and the Economy of Achemenid Persia as a part of the docent training miniseries.


 
 
The panel discussion wrapping up the Ancient Economy docent training miniseries.

Monday, May 13, 2013

Celebratory Conference on the Occasion of the 80th Anniversary of the Discovery of the Persepolis Fortification Archive

The Administration of the Achaemenid Empire – Tracing the Imperial Signature Celebratory Conference on the Occasion of the 80th Anniversary of the Discovery of the Persepolis Fortification Archive

Tuesday, May 14th - Friday, May 17th

Thursday, May 09, 2013

From Humban to Auramazda – Image and Text. A New Religious Landscape for the Early Persians

Vortrag: From Humban to Auramazda – Image and Text. A New Religious Landscape for the Early Persians

Wouter F. M. Henkelman and Mark B. Garrison
From Humban to Auramazda – Image and Text. A New Religious Landscape for the Early Persians

Montag, 13. Mai 2013, 15.00 Uhr

The Persepolis Fortification texts, a large economic archive of sealed claytablets written in Elamite cuneiform and Aramaic alphabetic script (ca. 500BCE), is rapidly becoming established as the most important primary source for the early Achaemenid Empire. The overwhelming richness of the glyptic imagery and the vast potential of its textual contents are unparalleled among other sources from the period. And though the preserved timespan (16 years) is rather short, the archive bears a relevance to a much longer period, notably the fundamental context of cultural encounters between Elamites and (Indo-)Iranians in centuries prior to the emergence of the empire. As such, the archive supports the view that, as in later periods of Iranian history, Persian identity at the time of the Achaemenids was rather inclusive. A telling example is that of the religious landscape: whereas the early Persians were previously viewed as the heralds of an enlightened new faith (Zoroastrianism) that was believed to have either emerged in a cultural void or have contrasted markedly with that of the ‘pagan’ Elamites, the Fortification archive now shows us an entirely different and much more interesting world. Replacing an almost colonist perspective of cultural dominance, it reveals a variegated divine and ritual imagery, as well as a surprisingly mixed pantheon served by priests with Elamite or Iranian titles performing sacrifices with Elamite or Iranian names. As such, the archive challenges the idea of religious, Zoroastrian or Mazdaic, orthodoxy and simultaneously forcefully underlines the importance of Elamite traditions alongside the Indo-Iranian heritage. In the end, then, the new evidence once more eloquently demonstrates what may be the most important trait of Persian culture: the ability to reach synthesis.
Mark B. Garrison is professor of Art and Art History, Art and Art History at Trinity Uni-versity (San Antonio, Texas) and an expert of Achaemenid glyptic art. Wouter F. M. Henkelman is Humboldt Research Fellow at the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut as well as assistant professor of Elamite and Achaemenid Culture at the École Pratique des Hautes Études (Paris). Garrison and Henkelman have been collaborating closely for almost ten years in the edition and study of the Persepolis Fortification archive.This will be a joined presentation in which the lecturers will speak alternately. The presentation will be in English, but it will be supported by a PowerPoint in German; the discussion will be in English and German.
The event will be followed by a wine reception.

Eventdate

2013-05-13

Eventlocation

Berlin, Topoi-Haus Dahlem, Hittorfstraße 18, 14195 Berlin

Monday, March 04, 2013

Eightieth Anniversary of the Discovery of the Persepolis Fortification Archive

March 4 2013 is the Eightieth Anniversary of the Discovery of the Persepolis Fortification Archive

The text of the telegram from Ernst Herzfeld to James Henry Breasted announcing the discovery of the Persepolis Fortification Archive, received 4 March 1933:

Hundreds Probably thousands business Tablets Elamite Discovered On Terrace Herzfeld
 See This Day in OI History on Facebook

Thursday, February 28, 2013

News: Rick St. Hilaire Comments on the First Circuit Ruling in Favor of MFA and Harvard

First Circuit Rules in Favor of MFA and Harvard in Rubin v. Iran
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Rick St. Hilaire on his blog
The First Circuit Court of Appeals on February 27, 2013 decided in favor of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) and Harvard’s museums in the case of Rubin v. Iran.

The case involves victims of a 1997 Iranian-backed terrorist bombing who seek to satisfy a multi-million dollar default court judgment awarded to them in 2003. Since 2005 the Rubin plaintiffs have argued that approximately 2000 reliefs, sculptures, and other archaeological objects located at the MFA and Harvard are the property of Iran that can be seized.  The cultural institutions have been contesting that claim, and yesterday the First Circuit agreed.

The appeals court decision extended its sympathies to the the plaintiffs, saying “we are mindful of the incident that gave rise to the judgment here and the difficulty the plaintiffs are having collecting on that judgment ….”  But the justices upheld “the general rule … that foreign sovereign property in the United States is immune from attachment and execution” because of the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act (FSIA). 28 U.S.C. § 1609.

The appeals court acknowledged that the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002 (TRIA) “carves out a narrow exception to that rule, applicable only to ‘blocked assets,’” but wrote that “the plaintiffs have failed to demonstrate that any of the antiquities in the Museums' possession fall within that exception.”

The MFA and Harvard argued in the lower federal district court that Iran does not own the cultural objects. Even if they were owned by Iran, the MFA and Harvard maintained that the FSIA makes the objects immune from attachment...

 
The ruling:
United States Court of Appeals For the First Circuit, No. 11-2144
JENNY RUBIN, ET AL., Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN, ET AL.,Defendants, HARVARD UNIVERSITY, ET AL., Trustees, Appellees.
APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS [Hon. George A. O'Toole, U.S. District Judge] Before Howard, Stahl, and Lipez, Circuit Judges.
February 27, 2013




See linked data for Persepolis via awld.js

News: U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit Rejects Bid to Seize Iranian Antiquities at Harvard

Federal Court Rejects Bid to Seize Iranian Antiquities at Harvard 
February 28, 2013 - 3:00am
Inside Higher Ed
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled Wednesday that people injured by a terrorist attack financed by Iran cannot make a claim on Iranian antiquities held in a Harvard University museum. Several Americans with claims against Iran have tried to collect money owed by that nation by going after antiquities at various American institutions. But the appeals court ruled -- as other courts have ruled -- that there are very limited circumstances in which artifacts can be seized as assets, and that this is not one of them. The legal challenges to ownership of these antiquities have worried many museum officials who have feared that they would be unable to obtain loans of art from other countries if that art might be seized.
The ruling:
United States Court of Appeals For the First Circuit, No. 11-2144
JENNY RUBIN, ET AL., Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN, ET AL.,Defendants, HARVARD UNIVERSITY, ET AL., Trustees, Appellees.
APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS [Hon. George A. O'Toole, U.S. District Judge] Before Howard, Stahl, and Lipez, Circuit Judges.
February 27, 2013




See linked data for Persepolis via awld.js