bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Teppir
Authors: Tavernier Jan M.
Published: October 2021

In the Elamite civilization, theteppirwas an official who held a high position in the judicial system during the Old and Middle Elamite periods. In the Neo‐Elamite and certainly the Achaemenid periods, the word became the indication for a scribe writing in non‐cuneiform writing systems (alphabetic and hieroglyphic scripts). The lexeme is a derivation from the Elamite roottep(i)‐ “to form.”
Inshushinak
Authors: Tavernier Jan M.
Published: October 2021

Inshushinak (“Lord of Susa”) was the tutelary god of the city of Susa and would become one of the principal deities of the Elamite pantheon. During the Old Elamite period, his main function was to protect Susa and its king. In the Middle Elamite period, he became, together with Napirisha, the principal divinity of the Elamite kingdom of Susa and Anshan. He also had authority in the domain of justice, an authority that extended to the netherworld where his task was to judge the newly arrived inhabitants. His main temples were in Susa and Chogha Zanbil.
Ishme‐Karab
Authors: Tavernier Jan M.
Published: October 2021

Ishme‐karab was a Mesopotamian–Elamite divinity of justice. Probably originating from East Mesopotamia, he rapidly became popular in Susiana, the region around the city of Susa, to the east of Mesopotamia. In the Old Babylonian period, he occurs in oath formulas and in some royal inscriptions. Ishme‐karab enjoyed his greatest popularity in the Middle Elamite period, when various kings constructed/restored a temple for him, e.g., in Chogha Zanbil. As god of justice, Ishme‐karab had judicial tasks in the Susian netherworld, where he and Lagamal accompanied the dead to Inshushinak, who then proclaimed the judgment. He was also popular with some citizens of Susa. This is clearly demonstrated by the large group of personal names which contain this element. In these names, Ishme‐karab is almost exclusively the first element.

Most source material on Ishme‐karab comes from Susiana. His appearance in Mesopotamia is very limited. He occurs three times in an Assyrian text (Old to Middle/Late Assyrian period) and just once in a Babylonian text (the god‐list An = Anum).

After the Middle Elamite period, Ishme‐karab completely disappears from the corpus of written sources.
Sar‐e Pol‐e Zahab Relief (Anubanini)
Authors: Tavernier Jan M.
Published: October 2021

Near the modern town of Sar‐e Pol‐e Zahab, in northwestern Iran, traces of five reliefs are still visible in the rocks on the left and right bank of the Alvand River. Four of them date to the Old Babylonian period. The fifth is more recent, having been engraved in the rocks in the first century
ce
.

Unfortunately, the majority of the reliefs are in poor condition, the best preserved one being a relief of a local king, Anubanini, king of Lullubi. This relief is without doubt a major piece of art in this region, situated to the northeast of Mesopotamia.
Manichaeism
Authors: BeDuhn Jason
Published: October 2021

Manichaeism is an extinct religion, a branch of the Judeo‐Christian tradition that had a presence in Asia and North Africa from the third to fourteenth centuries, with some traces surviving in China up to modern times. Its dualist understanding of the cosmos and human condition provided the rationale for a system of personal discipline and community ritual life, with two distinct levels of commitment structuring adherent expectations and duties. Previously known primarily from the polemical reports of other religions, Manichaeism now has much better documentation, due to the recovery of significant quantities of the religion's literature and art in the twentieth and twenty‐first centuries. This material permits the reconstruction of the religion's history and regional variation, stretching from Algeria and Tunisia, through Egypt, Iraq, and Iran, into Central Asia, and on to China.
Kul‐e Farah Reliefs
Authors: Wicks Yasmina
Published: October 2021

Between the ninth and sixth centuries
bce
, a series of six Elamite rock reliefs depicting ritual ceremonies centered on one or two large‐scale figures were carved in the mouth of Kul‐e Farah, a gorge opening out into the highland valley of Izeh around 7 kilometers from the modern township of Izeh in Khuzestan, southwest Iran. The author of only one of the reliefs at the Kul‐e Farah open‐air sanctuary is known: a certain Hanni of Ayapir, whose relief (Kul‐e Farah I) is the most recently carved at the site. Hanni of Ayapir left a long inscription across his image in which he nominates himself as a vassal of the Elamite king Shutur‐Nahhunte, son of Indada, who ruled sometime in the late seventh to early sixth century
bce
. The earliest two reliefs at the open‐air sanctuary, namely, Kul‐e Farah IV and Kul‐e Farah III, depict large ritual ceremonies involving around 140 and 200 participants respectively. Both emphasize an ideal of community with a well‐defined internal social order. The later reliefs, Kul‐e Farah VI, II, V, and Hanni of Ayapir's relief, lose interest in the communal aspect of the event, reducing the ritual scene to the essential participants. Although the political circumstances of the last few centuries of Elamite history remain shadowy, particularly in the highlands, the reliefs inform us that the rulers who commissioned reliefs at Kul‐e Farah felt an imperative to assert their control over this significant cultic site in the strategically important Izeh Valley.
Arjan Bowl
Authors: Wicks Yasmina
Published: October 2021

One of the most distinctive and unique pieces of metalwork surviving from ancient Elam is the bronze Arjan bowl. The large bowl was deposited in the early sixth century
bce
in the tomb of an elite man near the modern town of Behbahan in Khuzestan province, Iran. According to its name inscription, it belonged to Kidin‐Hutran, son of Kurlush; probably the man buried in the tomb inside a bronze “bathtub”‐style coffin. The bowl is decorated on its interior with registers of narrative scenes centered on a ruler, possibly the Kidin‐Hutran, son of Kurlush named in the inscription. The ruler is depicted as a participant in various activities progressing from the mountainous wilderness (a hunting party, a drinking ceremony outside a yurt), to the periphery of a city (battle, date harvesting, fishing), to the interior of the city (a tribute ceremony, feasting). The narrative scenes encircle a register of lions and bulls running around a central rosette. The bronze bowl was amongst several items of metalwork (bronze, silver, and gold) in the Arjan tomb assemblage attesting to both the skill of the artisans producing metalwork for Elam's elite at the time and the range of foreign artistic influences integrated into their repertoire.
Al Untash‐Napirisha (Chogha Zanbil)
Authors: Carlson Evan
Published: October 2021

Al Untash‐Napirisha (modern Chogha Zanbil) was a short‐lived Elamite city commissioned
de novo
in the late second millennium
bce
by its eponymous founder king Untash‐Napirisha (c. 1340–1300
bce
). Located in the alluvial plains of Khuzistan, Iran, the city's excavations and surveys have revealed a full spectrum of urban life, including a ziggurat (possibly the largest of its time), temples, palaces, industrial areas, waterworks, and residential neighborhoods. The large body of archaeological data from the site yields crucial evidence for Elamite art, architecture, seals, weapons, glass and glazing technologies, metallurgy, funerary customs, and the internal structure and construction of mudbrick buildings. Al Untash‐Napirisha is not only important for understanding Elamite urban form and art but also language and religion, since the site has yielded over 5000 inscribed bricks, the vast majority of which are written in the Elamite language and use many otherwise unknown Elamite religious terms. The city's short‐lived nature further yields an unobstructed view of late second‐millennium Elamite urbanism and the processes involved in constructing an ancient mudbrick city.
“Malamir” Texts
Authors: Glassner Jean‐Jacques
Published: October 2021

This entry provides an overview of the archaeology of an Iranian area to the east of Susa (second to first millennium
bce
).
Achaemenid Army
Authors: Hyland John O.
Published: October 2021

Military institutions and operations were a critical component of Achaemenid Persian imperial power. The Achaemenid armed forces constituted a heterogeneous mixture of standing palace armies and garrisons alongside temporary forces called up through a variety of methods, and at certain periods, fleets of trireme warships maintained in select Mediterranean ports.
Chogha Gavaneh
Authors: Abdi Kamyar
Published: October 2021

Choga Gavaneh is the largest mounded site in the Central Western Zagros Mountains in Iran. It covers a sequence of occupation from the early Neolithic to the late Bronze Age. The main occupation at the site seems to have been from the Middle Chalcolithic to the Middle Bronze Age (ca. 5000 to 2000
bce
). The upper deposits with remains of later occupations have been leveled off over the course of the last fifty years. The site has been excavated a number of times, most recently in 1998.
Shravanabelagola
Authors: Owen Lisa N.
Published: October 2021

The site of Shravanabelagola in the southern state of Karnataka is a popular pilgrimage and tourist destination. In addition to the well‐known colossal sculpture of the Jain figure Bāhubali, the site features a significant number of Jain structural temples, monasteries, rock carvings, stone memorials, and inscriptions that span the history of the site from as early as the seventh centuryceto the present day. Early medieval inscriptions document Jain monastic and lay activities at the site (including the ritual fasting to death known assallekhana) and make reference to an earlier transmission of Jainism to south India.
Bardiya
Authors: Ruffing Kai
Published: October 2021

Bardiya (Greek: Smerdis) was Cyrus the Great's younger son. According to the Behistun (Bisotun) Inscription of Darius I Bardiya was killed by Cambyses, before the latter commenced a campaign in Egypt. According to Herodotus, Bardiya initially accompanied Cambyses during his campaign, was later sent back to Persia, and then murdered by order of Cambyses. According to both traditions the death of Cambyses and Bardiya gave room for the usurpation of Gaumata or the false Smerdis. The historicity of this usurpation is the subject of lively discussion in modern research. It remains possible that Bardiya was killed by Darius I when he usurped the kingship of the Persian realm.
Gaumata
Authors: Ruffing Kai
Published: October 2021

Gaumata is the name of a magus who, according to the self‐staging of Darius I, was a usurper who pretended to be Cyrus' II son Bardiya. Gaumata was removed and executed after Darius' own successful bid for power. Herodotus tells an elaborate story in which the false Smerdis – the Greek translation of the name Bardiya – is a doppelganger of the real Bardiya who was killed by Cambyses. The story can be found in the works of other classical authors as well, but different names are used. Modern scholarly research regards Gaumata either as an individual invented by Darius in order to disguise his
coup d'état
or as a historical person who was a puppet king installed by Cambyses. Both schools of thought have their own pros and cons.
Darius I
Authors: Ruffing Kai
Published: October 2021

Darius I was the first king of the Achaemenid Dynasty, which ruled over the Persian Empire until it was defeated by Alexander III of Macedon. For a reconstruction of the events of his reign, as well as details of the structure of the Persian Empire, one has to rely on sources originating in the territory of the Persian realm and on the work of Herodotus, who gives quite an idiosyncratic account of both. Darius came to the throne after overcoming a usurper, which is how he became heir to the Teispid Dynasty. The expansion of his realm into Thrace and Hellas, as well as the Ionian revolt, which he crushed, marked the beginning of the Persian–Greek War, which assured Darius a place in western cultural memory, where he is styled as a threat to Greek and thus western freedom. This is especially true for the famous battle of Marathon in 490
bce.
Darius is certainly the king who established and shaped the structure of the Persian Empire to the greatest extent. He created a form of self‐staging which had as its intended audience not only the traditional elites of the empire but also, through the translation of crucial texts, the local elites. Darius established the administrative structures of the Persian Empire which endured until the Macedonian takeover.
Bessus
Authors: Hyland John O.
Published: October 2021

Bessus (?–329
bce
) was the satrap of Bactria responsible for the regicide of Darius III, the last Achaemenid monarch, during the Macedonian conquest of Persia. His bid for power under the throne name Artaxerxes (V) ended in capture and death at the hands of Alexander.
Royal Road
Authors: Hyland John O.
Published: October 2021

The Royal Road refers to a network of imperial highways that linked the disparate regions of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, facilitating high‐speed communication between center and periphery as well as the movement of soldiers and travelers with government authorization. Herodotus describes the section that connected Sardis with Susa, but road branches connected all of the Achaemenid satrapies.
Funerary Practices, Pre‐Islamic Religions
Authors: Choksy Jamsheed K.
Published: October 2021

This entry examines the last rites, customs, and underlying beliefs pertaining to death, disposal of human corpses, and notions of the afterlife between 2200
bce
and 1000
ce
among societies and confessional communities of Iran, its neighboring regions, and Central Asia.
Kanaganahalli (or Sannathi)
Authors: Arlt Robert , Zin Monica
Published: October 2021

The Kanaganahalli Stupa is part of a ruined Buddhist establishment on the banks of the river Bhima in northern Karnataka. It was excavated from 1993 to 2001. Nearby archaeological sites have been findspots of Aśokan edicts and Sātavāhana inscriptions. The shape of the
stupa
and the nature of its decor are similar to those found in Andhra, like the Amaravati Stupa. However, the uniformity of sculptural decor at the Kanaganahalli Stupa is unique. Although the structure is probably older by at least a century, the reliefs can be dated to between the first century
bce
and the third century
ce
. A number of inscriptions mention the ruler and the regnal year during which certain carvings were added to the
stupa
. These rulers all belong to the Sātavāhana Dynasty which at the time controlled various territories in India.

The sculptural decor consists mainly of reliefs carved into limestone panels covering the dome of the
stupa
and the drum beneath it. Themes taken on by the sculptors of the dome panels are primarily
jātaka
s, events from the life of the Buddha and representations of Sātavāhana kings. The drum panels included, among others, representations of important Buddhist sites. Apart from Buddha statues, which were added to the
stupa
when it was almost finished, and a few later carvings, the image of the Buddha was absent. Representatives of at least two Buddhist schools have left their mark at the site.
Old Persian
Authors: Skjærvø Prods Oktor
Published: October 2021

Old Persian is the Old Iranian language in which the Achaemenid inscriptions were composed, is closely related to Avestan, and is the ancestor of Middle Persian and modern Persian (Farsi).
Daivadana Inscription
Authors: Skjærvø Prods Oktor
Published: October 2021

The word
daivadana
, which means “place in which there are
daiva
s,” is found in an Old Persian inscription by Xerxes located at Persepolis.
Ghurids
Authors: Thomas David C.
Published: October 2021

The Ghurids (1148–1215
ce
) rose to prominence under the Shansabanid Dynasty when their armies torched Ghazna and Laskar‐e Bazar, the capitals of their neighbors and predecessors, the Ghaznavids, in 1150–1. After breaking free from Saljuq dominion and consolidating control of their mountainous heartland in what is now Afghanistan, the Ghurids seized an empire which at its peak stretched from eastern Iran and Khurasan to Bengal in India. Their rapid imperial expansion, however, was short‐lived, as they succumbed to the Khwarazm‐Shah (a militaristic dynasty from the north) in 1215 and then the Mongols in 1222. Although traditionally seasonal nomads, recent archaeological work has revealed the Ghurids invested significant amounts of tribute and loot in monumental and more quotidian domestic architecture at their urban centers. The best known of these is the UNESCO World Heritage‐listed site of Jam in central Afghanistan, which is thought to be the Ghurid summer capital of Firuzkuh. Jam/Firuzkuh is famous for its magnificent, 65‐meter‐high minaret but was also home to an established Jewish community, documented in the historical sources, and archaeological and epigraphic evidence.

Despite their transitory lifestyle, the short duration of their empire and the remote location of their heartland, the Ghurids made a lasting, albeit indirect, contribution to the region's history when their
ghulam
s (slave soldiers) established the Delhi Sultanate (1206–90
ce
) in India.
Middle Persian/Pahlavi
Authors: Skjærvø Prods Oktor
Published: October 2021

Middle Persian/Pahlavi is the language spoken in Persia, descended from Old Persian and the predecessor of modern Persian (Farsi). It has a large literature, including the Zoroastrian books.
Yasna
Authors: Skjærvø Prods Oktor
Published: October 2021

TheYasna, lit. “sacrifice,” is a long liturgical text in Young and Old Avestan recited during a ritual also calledyasna.
Zarathustra/Zoroaster
Authors: Ognibene Paolo
Published: October 2021

The name Zarathustra refers to a prophet or religious reformer of ancient Iran. He is believed to be the author of the
Gathas
, the linguistically oldest part of the Avestan corpus. Information relating to his life is extremely scarce: mentions in the sources are contradictory and there is no agreement among the scholars on the time in which he lived or the place where he was active. Some scholars believe that he was a mythical figure and never really existed. Even his name is problematic from a linguistic point of view and there is still no generally accepted etymology. He is a figure who had a deep impact both on the Classical world (particularly ancient Greece) and in the Middle Ages and in modern and contemporary Europe.
Cambyses II
Authors: Degen Julian , Rollinger Robert
Published: October 2021

This entry deals with Cambyses II, son of Cyrus the Great.
Bhaja
Authors: DeCaroli Robert
Published: October 2021

The Bhaja Caves located near Mumbai, India, are among the oldest examples of South Asian Buddhist rock‐cut architecture. This monastery complex includes several residences (
vihāra
s) and a large central hall containing a
stupa
. Of particular note is cave XIX, which is decorated with extensive relief sculptures that may depict Vedic deities.
Kāñcīpuram
Authors: Gillet Valérie
Published: October 2021

The city of Kāñcīpuram, located in the north of the modern state of Tamil Nadu, was an important center from the first centuries
bce
. The dynasty of the Pallavas chose it as their capital from the beginning of their reign in the third century
ce
until their fall at the end of the ninth century. Apart from its political importance, it was a bustling religious center, where Buddhism, Jainism, and Hinduism flourished during the first millennium. Hardly any Buddhist remains survived, but a Jaina temple active in the sixth century and nine structural stone temples from the eighth century are still standing, all located in the northern part of the present‐day city. Most of these Brahmanical stone temples were patronized by the Pallava kings, as indicated in the inscriptions engraved on few of the shrines themselves, and were adorned with a profuse and highly innovative iconography, Śaiva as well as Vaiṣṇava. Kāñcīpuram remained an important commercial, political, and religious center after the fall of the Pallavas.
Khurasan 600–1500
Authors: Rante Rocco
Published: October 2021

“Khurasan,” meaning the country of the “rising sun,” had a much wider designation in pre‐ and early Islamic times. From the sixth century, Khurasan seems to have been constituted of an original nucleus, or “Khurasan Proper,” which has been tentatively located within the Marv Oasis, Herat, and Zuzan, following the eastern border of the Iranian Deserts to the southeastern corner of the Caspian Sea, including the province of Gorgan following the line of the Great Wall, which in the light of recent research is dated to the fifth to sixth centuries. Arab troops penetrated as early as 651, but its complete control only occurred after the victory of al‐Maʿmun against his brother ʿAmin in the beginning of the ninth century. The Tahirids were the greatest dynasty controlling the whole of Khurasan, which later under the Samanids became as vast as the whole eastern Islamic Empire. Afterward, Khurasan did not recover its previous politic centrality, although it retained its crucial strategic role, in which its capitals continued to be main cultural and economic centers.
Sistan 600–1500
Authors: Rante Rocco
Published: October 2021

Sistan is a region of eastern Iran bounded to the north by Khurasan and to the south by Baluchistan. Its eastern frontier borders Afghanistan. The origin of the name “Sakastan” reflects the occupation of this land by Indo‐European Scythian populations, the Saka, from the end of the first millenniumbce. A border zone, where living conditions were difficult, Sistan recovered its earlier importance under the Saffarids, moving from being a peripheral and “unimportant” region to one which was the center of a vast emirate that competed with the Abbasids and Tahirids. TheTarikh‐e Sistanis the main historical source for this region, presenting its history from a local perspective.
Anahita
Authors: Farridnejad Shervin
Published: October 2021

Anahita, the Old Iranian female deity, is the goddess of heavenly river and fertility in the Zoroastrian pantheon. In the Avesta, she is partly described as the source river for all the waters on the earth and partly as a richly dressed royal woman. She is mentioned for the first time by Artaxerxes II (404–358
bce
) in his Achaemenid royal inscriptions, who has introduced her cult images into the empire's major centers.
Baghdad 600–1500
Authors: Van Renterghem Vanessa
Published: October 2021

Founded in 762
ce
, Baghdad was for five centuries the imperial capital of the Abbasid caliphs. The city was conquered by the Mongols in 1258. It was ruled by Mongol then Turkmen dynasties before falling into the hands of Ottoman rulers. An active and cosmopolitan city, Baghdad was an important intellectual center for many centuries, exerting a wide influence inside the Muslim world.
Behistun
Authors: Daneshmand Parsa
Published: October 2021

The Behistun Inscription is a relief carved on a cliff‐face in Kermanshah province, western Iran. The sculpture on the rock depicts the victory of Darius I and his companions over nine rebels. The relief is accompanied by a long trilingual text in Old Persian, Elamite, and Akkadian that narrates Darius' wars and his triumph over those who opposed his rise to power. The importance of deciphering the Behistun Inscription, in Assyriology, is comparable to the essential role of decoding the Rosetta Stone in Egyptology.
Achaemenid Administration
Authors: Hyland John O.
Published: October 2021

The Achaemenid Persian Empire employed a complex administrative system that included the management of the itinerant royal household and the separate but interconnected bureaucratic institutions of the satrapal provinces. The mechanics of administration are richly attested in the Persepolis Fortification Archive (509–493
bce
), an extensive corpus of documentation from the central province of Persia in the reign of Darius I. Similarities between the Persepolis material and later evidence from the provinces of Egypt and Bactria point to the extension of a common administrative framework across the length and breadth of the empire.
Hubanid Dynasty
Authors: Gorris Elynn
Published: October 2021

In scholarly literature, the Hubanid Dynasty is often used as a collective name for the kings ruling the Neo‐Elamite kingdom before the Sack of Susa (646
bce
). However, far more plausible is the existence of two Neo‐Elamite royal dynasties. The second Neo‐Elamite royal dynasty, starting with the reign of Huban‐haltash I and ending with king Tammaritu, can therefore be named the Hubanid Dynasty (688–647
bce
). During the era of the Hubanid Dynasty Elam faced growing Assyrian hostilities and interference in Elamite politics, resulting on a domestic level in court intrigues and a rapid succession of Elamite kings. Consequently, the power base of the Hubanid kings diminished, which provided a window of opportunity for a group of rebel kings (650–645
bce
) to seize power.
Igihalkid Dynasty
Authors: Daneshmand Parsa
Published: October 2021

The beginning of the Middle Elamite period was accompanied by a gradual tendency toward political independence from Mesopotamia, aspects of which are reflected in the evolution of Elamite literature and the monopoly of writing royal inscriptions in the Elamite language. This fundamental change, which began from the time of Shimashkian kings and the Sukkalmah Dynasty, was continued by a new group of elites who dominated politics and the education system between years ca. 1400 and 1210bce. This elite group, which was able to maintain the kingdom in its family for about two centuries, were rulers whose common ancestor was a man named Igi‐halki. During the time of the Igihalkids a vast program of infrastructure and construction projects was carried out, including building and rebuilding the ziggurats and temples, and founding new cities. These projects, along with a peaceful policy through diplomatic marriages with the Babylonian aristocracy, marked a stable period in Elamite history. In fact, by adopting such policies, the Igihalkids joined the pact of brotherhood (Akkadian:aḫḫūtu) that was common among the powers of the region at that time. However, with the gradual rise to power of the Assyrian rulers in northern Mesopotamia, the military and political balance of the region was lost. The end of the Igihalkids has remained obscure as a result of various regional conflicts and the lack of sufficient written sources.
Te‐uman
Authors: Gorris Elynn
Published: October 2021

Te‐uman (664–653
bce
) or Tepti‐Huban‐Inshushinak I was a Neo‐Elamite king of the Hubanid Dynasty. His reign is known for its anti‐Assyrian policy, which led to one of the best‐documented military confrontations between Assyria and Elam in the first millennium
bce
, the battle of Til‐Tuba (563
bce
).
Shilhak‐Inshushinak II
Authors: Gorris Elynn
Published: October 2021

Shilhak‐Inshushinak II, a late Neo‐Elamite ruler, left us a dedicatory inscription on an ornament, found on the Susa Acropolis. The limited sources on Shilhak‐Inshushinak make it difficult to position the reign of this ruler within the relative chronology of the late Neo‐Elamite period.
Nahhunte
Authors: Tavernier Jan M.
Published: October 2021

In the Elamite religion, Nahhunte was the solar god and, accordingly, the bringer of life. In addition, he was the divinity of justice, making him the exact Elamite equivalent of the Mesopotamian Shamash. His name and etymology are still unclear, but his name is also the Elamite word for “sun.”

Contrary to what might be expected of a solar god who is at the same time responsible for justice, an important domain in human life, Nahhunte does not appear abundantly in the textual source material. He appears sometimes in Akkadian and Elamite royal inscriptions and documentary texts from Susiana. He is also mentioned in some Mesopotamian religious/medical texts. Other than that, a small number of personal names (especially royal names) have Nahhunte as an element, mostly in the second position.

His oldest attestations can be found in the so‐called Treaty of Naram‐Sin (ca. 2250
bce
). His latest known attestation is in a documentary text from the Achaemenid period. Nahhunte was remarkably active in Elamite curse formulas, where he appears as the sun and as the divinity who must carry out the curse. This may have a connection with his role as guarantor of justice. His role as divine witness in legal texts must be placed in the same context.
Achaemenes
Authors: Safaee Yazdan
Published: October 2021

Basic information on the eponymous founder of the house of Achaemenids is mainly gleaned from genealogies recorded in the Achaemenid royal inscriptions and Greek sources. Darius provides details of a linear list of Achaemenid kings in his Behistun Inscription, where he marks Achaemenes as the father of Teispes.
Teispes
Authors: Safaee Yazdan
Published: October 2021

Teispes is known as the ancestor of Cyrus II, the founder of Persian Empire. Although the historical sources pointing to this figure are scattered, he remains a crucial persona in understanding of the history of the early Persians.
Arsames
Authors: Safaee Yazdan
Published: October 2021

Three major Achaemenid figures have the name Arsames in the historical record: the grandfather of Darius I; the son of Darius and the queen Artystone; and the satrap of Egypt.
Terrace Complexes at Haft Tappeh
Authors: Mofidi‐Nasrabadi Behzad
Published: October 2021

Two terraces made of mudbrick were excavated at Haft Tappeh from the early Middle Elamite period which, with their adjacent halls and courtyards, were part of monumental building complexes.
Christianity, Ethiopian
Authors: Krebs Verena
Published: October 2021

The origins of Christianity in Ethiopia date back to the first half of the fourth century, when the Aksumite king Ezana converted to the religion, together with his court. By the sixth century, Christian Aksum had become a major power in the Red Sea region, leading military campaigns against the Jewish kingdom of Himyar on the Arabian Peninsula to stop the persecution of local Christians. Owing to its inception in the fourth century, the Ethiopian Church was officially a bishopric of the Coptic Church, albeit with its own ecclesiastical language, literature, and traditions.
Dotawo, Nubian Kingdom of
Authors: Ruffini Giovanni R.
Published: October 2021

Dotawo was the indigenous name of Nubia's central state in the later Christian period. It was the political culmination of the unification of smaller states emerging from the collapse of ancient Meroe and is best known through documentary evidence in northern Nubia in the twelfth century. Dynastic instability and Egyptian interference led to its gradual decline and disappearance in the late 1400s.
Houses, Housing, Household Formation, Pharaonic Egypt
Authors: Müller Miriam
Published: October 2021

The perspective on urbanism, households, and daily life in ancient Egypt has changed considerably during the first two decades of the twenty‐first century. Sites such as Elephantine, Tell el‐Dabʿa, and settlements in the Nubian territory have revealed an abundance of material evidence that alters the picture presented in previous publications. The results stemming from those recent efforts have triggered a number of studies exploring agency and behavior in the archaeological record that have elucidated social patterns such as the composition of households, family sizes, household lifecycles, economic strategies, social mobility, neighborhood interactions, creation of identity, and social memory – in other words microhistories of everyday life.
Magic, Egypt
Authors: van der Vliet Jacques
Published: October 2021

This entry reviews the predominantly textual evidence for ancient Egyptian magic in its historical and cultural context. On the basis of the nature of the evidence, three chronological periods are distinguished: the Pharaonic (third to first millenniumbce), the Greco‐Roman (first to fourth centuryce), and the Christian (from the fourth century onward). The first period is characterized by the embedding of magic in the scholarly world of the traditional temples; the second, by religious, linguistic, and cultural variety, and the interaction of foreign and Egyptian traditions; the third by a deliberate and profound process of Christianization.
Monasticism, Nile Valley
Authors: Wipszycka‐Bravo Ewa , Obłuski Artur
Published: October 2021

The following entry offers an overview of the monastic movement in the Nile Valley. It examines Egypt, the cradle of monasticism, and Nubia, a territory considered peripheral to the Christian world despite being Egypt's neighbor. It offers a synopsis of the historical development of monasteries in Egypt as well as general information on their organization. Nubian monasticism is more obscure since the sources, particularly written, are scarce. Nevertheless, the entry contains information about various types of monasticism and ascetic life that existed in the Middle Nile Valley with focus on cenobia, and their spatial and social organization.
Napata
Authors: Kendall Timothy
Published: October 2021

This entry provides an overview of the geography and history of the ancient Nubian city of Napata, in northern Sudan, from its foundation early in the Egyptian New Kingdom to the late Meroitic period (ca. 1500bce–300ce). It also explains how the religious significance attributed to the town's major landmark, Jebel Barkal, gave rise to a royal myth that initially allowed the pharaohs to justify their rule of Nubia (Kush) but centuries later, allowed a native Kushite dynasty to emerge at Napata and to justify its rule of Egypt as its 25th Dynasty. The same beliefs would drive the Meroitic kingship of Kush in Sudan for almost another millennium.
Nubia, Medieval
Authors: Ruffini Giovanni R.
Published: October 2021

Medieval Nubia is a problematic term which is used to describe the Christian period of Nubia's history, after the collapse of the ancient Meroitic kingdom in the fourth century
ce
and before the collapse of the Nubian central state a thousand years later. Politically, it is a period of consolidation of ties and even unity between Nobadia in the north, Makouria in the center, and Alodia or Alwa in the south. For most of the period, the central state governed Nubia from Dongola, the capital of Makouria. Foreign relations were defined by a long period of peace with Muslim Nubia under the terms of the
baqt
treaty, and then a shorter but much more damaging period of conflict with Egypt from the time of Saladin on. In this period, Egypt took sides in the internal Nubian dynastic squabbles which eventually tore the central state apart. Nubian Christianity took form in a church subordinate to the miaphysite Egyptian patriarchs and found expression in highly heterodox Old Nubian forms praising the powers of the archangels, saints, and other celestial powers. Linguistically, medieval Nubia was polyglot. Its documentary and literary record includes texts in Old Nubian, Greek, Coptic, and Arabic. Economically, the material record shows that Nubia mediated the trade which took place between Africa and the Mediterranean. Archaeological indications that it had no currency are complicated by documentary records detailing private sales and other transactions in gold and silver coin. The processes through which medieval Nubia transformed, including the rise of Islam in Nubia, remain poorly understood.
Juyan
Authors: Foster Christopher J.
Published: October 2021

Juyan is a region that spans the lower reaches of the Edsen‐Gol river system, located between the modern‐day provinces of Gansu and Inner Mongolia. It is situated in the northern part of the Hexi Corridor, a land route which connects China's interior to the Tarim Basin and Central Asia. Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty sought to colonize the Hexi Corridor, exacerbating ongoing wars with the Xiongnu and other peoples of the Western regions. As part of these conflicts, the Han fortified Juyan with garrisons and watchtowers. Recent archaeological surveys have unearthed the remains of the Juyan defense‐lines, which entailed the chief commandery areas of both Juyan (to the north) and Jianshui (to the south). Large caches of wooden strips bearing writing were discovered among the remains, numbering in the tens of thousands of pieces altogether. These manuscripts document the administration of the military complex and life on the frontier, providing an unprecedented glimpse into aspects of Han society not detailed in traditional sources.
Dunhuang
Authors: Lebovitz David J.
Published: October 2021

Dunhuang, originally a commandery established at the Han dynasty's northwest frontier, was China's westernmost settlement and trade hub on the overland Silk Road. Its remote, arid geography has preserved a great wealth of ruins and artifacts, and it is home to some of China's most important archaeological discoveries. These include an abundance of manuscripts, written mostly on slips of wood and bamboo, and excavated from watchtower ruins and other sites distributed throughout the region, such as Yumenguan and Xuanquanzhi. The Mogao Caves complex preserves Buddhist temple caves and murals from the mid‐fourth through fourteenth centuries
ce
. A huge trove of paper manuscripts, written in Chinese, Tibetan, Uyghur, and other languages from the fifth century
ce
onwards, was sealed in one of the caves in the eleventh century. The manuscripts shed substantial light on ancient textual philology as well as many aspects of premodern Chinese arts and letters, religion, and society. Because of Dunhuang's key location, function, and significance, the term “Dunhuang studies” has come to encompass not only the art historical, social, and textual realms on which these discoveries shed the most direct light, it has also become metonymic for the broader study of China's interactions with Central Asia as seen at nearby sites such as Turfan, Juyan, Gaochang, and others throughout modern China's northwest. Dunhuang may thus represent not only a location, but also a web of cultural interactions and an archaeological time‐capsule.
Xuanquanzhi
Authors: Foster Christopher J.
Published: October 2021

Xuanquanzhi was a relay station established during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty. It is located near Dunhuang, Gansu, in the western part of the Hexi Corridor, a land route which connects China's interior to the Tarim Basin and Central Asia. The station's name, “Hanging Spring Post,” likely derives from a nearby natural spring. Xuanquanzhi hosted Han officials and foreign envoys, and was an important hub for mail delivery. Archaeological excavations, primarily from 1990 to 1992, made a number of noteworthy discoveries at this site, including the recovery of thousands of Han period manuscripts, mostly written on wood strips.
Zhongshan
Authors: Daniels Benjamin
Published: October 2021

Zhongshan

was a small state that flourished during the Warring States period (475–221
bce
), founded by the Baidi

(White Di) peoples, traditionally viewed as barbarian pastoralists by the writers of the Central States. Scarcely mentioned in early texts, the kingdom was relatively unknown until the discovery of the tomb of King Cuo (d. ca. 310
bce
), a figure unknown in transmitted literature. Although the tomb was looted in antiquity, the grave robbers overlooked two storerooms that were unconnected to the main burial chamber. In the storerooms, archaeologists discovered hundreds of artifacts and bronzes, many with inscriptions, making this the best‐preserved royal tomb from the later fourth century
bce
. In the burial chamber, archaeologists found an engraved bronze plate, inlaid with gold and silver, showing the plan for the royal mausoleum. This map is the earliest known architectural drawing from China. The east storeroom had bronze animal figurines with gold and silver inlay, such as a beautiful pair of winged felines, and a tiger devouring a deer. The west storeroom yielded three significant bronze vessels with long inscriptions, including a
ding
‐tripod, with a 469‐character inscription, the longest extant inscription from the Eastern Zhou period (770–221
bce
). These inscriptions commemorate Zhongshan's victory over Yan, an event known from received histories. The language of these texts is especially interesting to researchers in early Chinese thought as it closely parallels Warring States rhetoric as seen in the received literature.
Baoshan
Authors: Poli Maddalena
Published: October 2021

The Baoshan cemetery (located in modern Hubei, not to be confused with the Baoshan tombs in Inner Mongolia) was discovered accidentally at the end of the 1980s. It comprises nine tombs, one of which is of particular importance for the study of early Chinese archeology: the structure and content of tomb no. 2 have been preserved extremely well, allowing scholars to understand what the original setting of a tomb must have looked like. The tombs have been dated to the end of the third centurybcethrough comparison with the architectural structures of other tombs located nearby. At the time, the area belonged to the state of Chu. The tombs contained ritual objects, weapons, pottery, and several manuscripts. The latter have been divided by scholars into three categories: divination and ritual manuscripts; legal texts; and administrative documents. All have been instrumental toward a better understanding of the culture and language of Chu.
Xiangtangshan
Authors: Tsiang Katherine Renhe
Published: October 2021

The Buddhist cave temples of Xiangtangshan were largely created during the Northern Qi dynasty (550–577
ce
), in the early medieval period of Chinese history. Begun with imperial sponsorship of large‐scale cave construction at the Northern Xiangtangshan site, where there are three principal cave shrines, they continued at other sites, including Southern Xiangtangshan, with the support of other less elite lay patrons and the participation of Buddhist monks and nuns. Buddhism was widely adopted in the early medieval period, when large parts of China were controlled by non‐Han Chinese rulers and large parts of the population converted to religious Buddhism introduced from India. Among the practices transmitted across Asia into China was the construction of large‐scale Buddhist cave temples. The multicultural character of the Northern Qi period was a contributing factor to the high level of artistic skills that emerged in this very brief period, as is evident in the Buddhist sculptures from the Xiangtangshan cave temples that can be seen today in many museums around the world.
Silk Road
Authors: Cho Yong
Published: October 2021

Eurasia has seen remarkable cross‐cultural contact since ancient times. Travelers and migrants – such as monks, merchants, refugees, slaves, envoys, and soldiers – facilitated vibrant exchanges of objects and ideas along the so‐called Silk Road. Artistic motifs, religions, and knowledge about different materials spread from one part of the world to another. This circulation of people, arts, and ideas had a lasting impact on the development of visual and material cultures across the continent. It allowed seemingly disparate and disconnected parts of the world to share a common vocabulary of arts, while at the same time encouraging local communities to creatively adapt the transregional artistic idioms to better align with their own customs and needs.
Donors, Buddhist Art
Authors: Lingley Kate A.
Published: October 2021

Donors in Buddhist art commissioned Buddhist images and monuments as part of a larger network of merit‐making practices. The practice of patronage in Chinese Buddhist art dates at least from the early fourth century
ce
and probably somewhat earlier. Acting alone or in organized groups, donors hired artisans to produce images and monuments to be installed in public places, to serve as the focus for devotion among the faithful, to spread the knowledge of Buddhism, and in the hope of garnering religious merit for themselves or their loved ones toward a better rebirth in the next life. Donors came from a range of social backgrounds, and the corpus of surviving images provides an interesting window into the social history of the first millennium in China.
A Biomimetic Self‐Shield Interface for Flexible Perovskite Solar Cells with Negligible Lead Leakage
Authors: Meng Xiangchuan , Hu Xiaotian , Zhang Yanyan , Huang Zengqi , Xing Zhi , Gong Chenxiang , Rao Li , Wang Hongyu , Wang Fuyi , Hu Ting , Tan Licheng , Song Yanlin , Chen Yiwang
Published: October 2021

Although outstanding power conversion efficiency (PCE) has been achieved in flexible perovskite solar cells, unsatisfactory operational stability and toxicity caused by the moisture transmittance of polymer packaging are still the bottleneck challenges that limit their applications. Herein, inspired by the non‐selective permeability of inactivated cell membrane, the diphosphatidyl‐glycerol (Di‐g) is tactfully introduced as a self‐shield interface upon the perovskite layer. 96% of lead leakage is suppressed because the amphipathic Di‐g can simultaneously bind tightly to the divalent lead ion and afford an interfacial water‐resistance. More importantly, the gradient distribution of lattice residual stress perpendicular to the substrate are optimized. The resultant flexible devices achieve a PCE of 20.29% and 15.01% at effective areas of 1.01 and 21.82 cm2 respectively, yielding excellent environmental and mechanical stability. This strategy exhibits the feasibility of developing interfacial encapsulation to stabilize scalable PSCs with negligible lead leakage.
Printable Tough Adhesive for Instant Fatigue‐Resistant Bonding of Diverse Surfaces
Authors: Liu Jupen , Zhang Ping , Wei Hongqiu , Lu Zhe , Yu You
Published: October 2021

Adhesives can stably hold adherent components together. However, a simple design of a high‐performance printable tough adhesive (PTA) with instant fatigue‐resistant adhesion on various substrates is still a significant challenge. Here, the authors report a rapid design to meet this requirement that enables one‐step adhesion of PTA on wet and dry, porous, and nonporous surfaces low as 5 s. This design gives an interfacial toughness of ≈3000 J m−2 and comparable mechanical and fatigue‐resistant properties. The adhesive precursor can be used as an adhesive paint for bonding materials even underwater and maintains strong adhesion under several thousand cycles of large deformation or in a wide temperature range. Moreover, the PTA precursor is chemically stable and controllable, thus benefiting the printing of heterogeneous, 4D shape‐memory composites and a wearable electroluminescent sensor. It is anticipated that this rapid one‐step design of PTA opens new horizons to tough adhesion of diverse surfaces.
MOF‐Based Sustainable Memory Devices
Authors: Kulachenkov Nikita , Haar Quentin , Shipilovskikh Sergei , Yankin Andrei , Pierson Jean‐François , Nominé Alexandre , Milichko Valentin A.
Published: October 2021

Data storage, processing, and communications are the backbone of the digital world and focus the innovation efforts of the microelectronics industry. Recent raw material shortages, however, have revealed the danger of sourcing for the digital industry. At a time of a significant increase in demand for data storage systems, it is urgent to consider the sustainability of the resources used for devices. By diluting inorganic elements in an organic matrix, metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are of substantial interest for sustainable technologies. Moreover, they have shown great potential as active materials for electronic, optical, and magnetic memory devices, paving the way to accessible, sustainable, and recyclable microelectronic devices. Based on the number of fundamental studies of the bistability of MOFs, their scalability, recyclability, and low energy consumption, MOFs are highlighted as sustainable materials for a new generation of memristive devices. Finally, considering the “green” chemistry of specific MOF, their flexibility, as well as the market of microelectronics and mineral consumption, the future development of MOF‐based memory devices and socio‐economic profits from their utilization is predicted.