- University of California, Irvine
Department of Art History
2000 Humanities Gateway
Irvine, CA 92697-2785
- Institute for Advanced Study, School of Historical Studies, Department MemberThe Getty, Getty Research Institute, Department Memberadd
- Iranian Archaeology, Ancient Iranian Religion, History of Persian art and architecture, Art History of Ancient Iran, Sasanian Archaeology, Parthian Empire, and 61 moreHistory of the Hellenistic World (Focus: Seleucid Empire), Archaeology of Central Asia, Byzantine palaces, Seleucid kingdom, Archaeology of Ritual and Magic, Pre-Islamic Iran, Late Antiquity, Sogdian Archaeology, Ai Khanum (Ai Khanoum) (Archaeology), Kushan history, Sasanian History, Late Antique Archaeology, Kushan art and architecture, Hellenistic Palaces, Hellenistic Bactria, Bactria (Archaeology), Indo-Greek art, Seleucid Empire, Pontic Kingdom, Mithradates, Ctesiphon, archaeology, Seleucia on the Tigris, Topography of Ancient Rome (Archaeology), Hellenistic Monarchy, Roman Imperial Ideology, History, Archaeology of Central Asia in Parthian, Kushan and Sasanian times, Constantinople, Armenian Studies, Armenian History, Bandikhan, Collective Memory, Space and Place, Sense of Place, Extended Cognition, Extended Mind, Spatial Practices, Art History, Critical Theory, Nysa, Pharnakes I, Pontus, Hellenistic Court, Sogdian Culture, Commagene, Sasanian art, Sasanian Rock Reliefs, Sasanian Empire, Cappadocia Comana, Ancient Iran, Iranian Studies, Iranian art and archaeology, Arsacids, Persepolis Fortification and Treasury Archives, Persian Architecture, Pontos, South Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia) in Prehistory, Georgian Art and Architecture, Armenian architecture, Byzantine art, Byzantine Studies, and Roman Archaeologyedit
- Matthew Canepa (Ph.D. University of Chicago) is an historian of the art and archaeology of the ancient Iranian world,... moreMatthew Canepa (Ph.D. University of Chicago) is an historian of the art and archaeology of the ancient Iranian world, broadly conceived. His most recent book, and winner of the 2020 James R. Wiseman award from the Archaeological Institute of America, is: The Iranian Expanse (UC Press, 2018), which explores the transformation of Iranian identity through the natural and built environments. Previous publications include: Theorizing Cross-Cultural Interaction (Washington D.C. 2010) and The Two Eyes of the Earth: Art and Ritual of Kingship between Rome and Sasanian Iran (Berkeley 2009 [2010]), which was awarded the 2010 James Henry Breasted Prize from the American Historical Association for best book in any field of history prior to 1000 CE.edit
A cutting-edge analysis of 2,500 years of Persian visual, architectural, and material cultures of power and their role in connecting the world. With the rise of the Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BCE), Persian institutions of kingship... more
A cutting-edge analysis of 2,500 years of Persian visual, architectural, and material cultures of power and their role in connecting the world.
With the rise of the Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BCE), Persian institutions of kingship became the model for legitimacy, authority, and prestige across three continents. Despite enormous upheavals, Iranian visual and political cultures connected an ever-wider swath of Afro-Eurasia over the next two millennia, exerting influence at key historical junctures. This book provides the first critical exploration of the role Persian cultures played in articulating the myriad ways power was expressed across Afro-Eurasia between the sixth century BCE and the nineteenth century CE.
Exploring topics such as royal cosmologies, fashion, banqueting, manuscript cultures, sacred landscapes, and inscriptions, the volume’s essays analyze the intellectual and political exchanges of art, architecture, ritual, and luxury material within and beyond the Persian world. They show how Perso-Iranian cultures offered neighbors and competitors raw material with which to formulate their own imperial aspirations. Unique among studies of Persia and Iran, this volume explores issues of change, renovation, and interconnectivity in these cultures over the longue durée.
https://shop.getty.edu/products/persian-cultures-of-power-and-the-entanglement-of-the-afro-eurasian-world-978-1606068427?variant=43667352355008
With the rise of the Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BCE), Persian institutions of kingship became the model for legitimacy, authority, and prestige across three continents. Despite enormous upheavals, Iranian visual and political cultures connected an ever-wider swath of Afro-Eurasia over the next two millennia, exerting influence at key historical junctures. This book provides the first critical exploration of the role Persian cultures played in articulating the myriad ways power was expressed across Afro-Eurasia between the sixth century BCE and the nineteenth century CE.
Exploring topics such as royal cosmologies, fashion, banqueting, manuscript cultures, sacred landscapes, and inscriptions, the volume’s essays analyze the intellectual and political exchanges of art, architecture, ritual, and luxury material within and beyond the Persian world. They show how Perso-Iranian cultures offered neighbors and competitors raw material with which to formulate their own imperial aspirations. Unique among studies of Persia and Iran, this volume explores issues of change, renovation, and interconnectivity in these cultures over the longue durée.
https://shop.getty.edu/products/persian-cultures-of-power-and-the-entanglement-of-the-afro-eurasian-world-978-1606068427?variant=43667352355008
Research Interests: Archaeology, Art History, Architecture, Textiles, Iranian Studies, and 15 moreAfghanistan, Central Asia (History), Silk Road Studies, Islamic Studies, Indian Ocean World, Persian Culture, Achaemenid archaeology, Mughal India, Islamic Manuscripts, Epigraphy, Sasanian Archaeology, Deccan Sultanates, Parthian Archaeology, Persianate Culture in South Asia, and Mongol and Timurid Period In the History of Iran
The Iranian Expanse explores how kings in the ancient Iranian world utilized the built and natural environment—everything from royal cities and paradise gardens, to hunting enclosures and fire temples—to form and contest Iranian cultural... more
The Iranian Expanse explores how kings in the ancient Iranian world utilized the built and natural environment—everything from royal cities and paradise gardens, to hunting enclosures and fire temples—to form and contest Iranian cultural memory, royal identity, and sacred cosmologies over a thousand years of history. Although scholars have often noted startling continuities between the traditions of the Achaemenids and the art and architecture of medieval or Early Modern Islam, the tumultuous millennium between Alexander and Islam has routinely been downplayed or omitted. The Iranian Expanse delves into this fascinating period, examining royal culture and identity as something built and shaped by strategic changes to architectonic and urban spaces and the landscape of Western Asia. Canepa shows how the Seleucids, Arsacids, and Sasanians played a transformative role in developing a new Iranian royal culture that deeply influenced not only early Islam, but also the wider Persianate world of the Il-Khans, Safavids, Timurids, and Mughals.
Research Interests: Armenian Studies, Anatolian Archaeology, Iranian Archaeology, Rock Art (Archaeology), Zoroastrianism, and 25 moreIranian Studies, Cultural Landscapes, Urbanism, Cappadocians, Iranian Art History, Iranian History, Sasanian History, Landscape, Garden History, Ancient Iranian Religion, Seleucid Empire, Achaemenid History, Achaemenid archaeology, Seleucid kingdom, Parthian Empire, Sasanian Archaeology, Georgian Studies, Kingdom of Pontus, Persian Art, History of Persian art and architecture, Archaeology of Central Asia in Parthian, Kushan and Sasanian times, Parthian Archaeology, Iranian art and archaeology, Iranian Architecture, and Arsacids
A new art and archaeological history of Persia and the Ancient Iranian world, broadly conceived.
Research Interests: Ancient History, Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, Art History, Iranian Archaeology, and 14 moreIranian Studies, Achaemenid Persia, Ancient Near East, Sasanian History, Hellenistic and Roman Asia Minor, Kushan empire (Archaeology), Kushan art and architecture, Parthian Empire, Sasanian Archaeology, Ancient History, Asia Minor, Hellenistic Cappadocia, History of Persian art and architecture, Sasanian Rock Reliefs, Parthian/Arsacid history, and Parthian Archaeology
THE TWO EYES OF THE EARTH is the first sustained and theoretically rigorous study of the evolution of a supra-religious yet sacral cross-cultural language of kingship between the late Roman empire and Sasanian Iran (224-642 CE). It... more
THE TWO EYES OF THE EARTH is the first sustained and theoretically rigorous study of the evolution of a supra-religious yet sacral cross-cultural language of kingship between the late Roman empire and Sasanian Iran (224-642 CE). It investigates the shared ideal of sacred kingship that emerged in the late Roman and Persian empires. This shared ideal, while often generating conflict during the four centuries of the empires' coexistence (224-642), also drove exchange, especially the means and methods Roman and Persian sovereigns used to project their notions of universal rule: elaborate systems of ritual and their cultures' visual, architectural, and urban environments. Matthew Canepa explores the artistic, ritual, and ideological interactions between Rome and the Iranian world under the Sasanian dynasty, the last great Persian dynasty before Islam. He analyzes how these two hostile systems of sacred universal sovereignty not only coexisted, but fostered cross-cultural exchange and communication despite their undying rivalry. Bridging the traditional divide between classical and Iranian history, this book brings to life the dazzling courts of two global powers that deeply affected the cultures of medieval Europe, Byzantium, Islam, South Asia, and China.
http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520257276
http://books.google.com/books?id=57szORf0_B0C&lpg=PP1&dq=the%20two%20eyes%20of%20the%20earth&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false
http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520257276
http://books.google.com/books?id=57szORf0_B0C&lpg=PP1&dq=the%20two%20eyes%20of%20the%20earth&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false
Research Interests: History, Ancient History, Roman History, Art History, Textiles, and 47 moreMedieval Studies, Rock Art (Archaeology), Hybridity, Zoroastrianism, Late Antique Archaeology, Early Christianity, Roman Religion, Orthodox Theology, Colonialism, Early Medieval Archaeology, Early Medieval History, Medieval Archaeology, Byzantine Studies, Ancient Religion, Late Antiquity, Ancient Urban Planning, Visual Culture Of Cities, Topography of Ancient Rome (Archaeology), Historiography (in Art History), Ancient Near East, Ancient numismatics (Archaeology), Imperial Rome, Bactria (Archaeology), Ancient Persia, Knowledge and Power, Sasanian History, Ritual (Anthropology), Ritual Theory, Cross-cultural interaction (Archaeology), Early Medieval Art, Persian Culture, Archaeology of Central Asia, Empire, Ritual theory and practice (Archaeology), Pre-Islamic Iran, Principle of Distinction, Ancient Near East (Archaeology), Ancient Near Eastern Art, Archaeology of Ritual, Foreign Relations and Cross-Cultural contact, Constantinople, Ancient Near Eastern History, Imperialism, Roman Architecture, Roman Art, Byzantine art, and Roman Archaeology
SCHOLARSHIP ON THE VISUAL CULTURES of ancient and early medieval Eurasia has recently benefited from art history’s renewed interest in questions that transcend political and cultural boundaries.1 Issues of cross-cultural interaction,... more
SCHOLARSHIP ON THE VISUAL CULTURES of ancient and early medieval Eurasia has recently benefited from art history’s renewed interest in questions that transcend political and cultural boundaries.1 Issues of cross-cultural interaction, however, have not enjoyed from art historians working on the ancient and early medieval worlds a level of critical attention commensurate with the number of problems arising from the material. As a result, many of those who work in the arts and cultures of the Mediterranean, Near East, and Asia have found themselves drawn closer together, but without a common vocabulary or debate with which to engage.
The organizing goal of this volume is to highlight these theoretical considerations and provide a forum where art historians of the ancient and medieval worlds can explore these problems of cross-cultural interaction with greater rigor. It does not intend to provide a comprehensive theoretical overview or art historical survey of Eurasian artistic interchange, nor an overarching theory. Rather, it aims to contribute critical perspectives drawn from premodern visual cultures to the wider theoretical conversation. The papers contained herein critically evaluate some of the most important problems encountered in the material: the cross-continental movement and selective appropriation of objects and motifs through trade; the impact of new ways of seeing, being seen, and acting introduced by these objects; the role of art and ritual in negotiations of power among empires; and representations and self-portrayals of ethnicity and gender within and beyond dominant visual cultures.
To order: http://www.asia.si.edu/visitor/arsorientalisVolumeOrder.htm
The organizing goal of this volume is to highlight these theoretical considerations and provide a forum where art historians of the ancient and medieval worlds can explore these problems of cross-cultural interaction with greater rigor. It does not intend to provide a comprehensive theoretical overview or art historical survey of Eurasian artistic interchange, nor an overarching theory. Rather, it aims to contribute critical perspectives drawn from premodern visual cultures to the wider theoretical conversation. The papers contained herein critically evaluate some of the most important problems encountered in the material: the cross-continental movement and selective appropriation of objects and motifs through trade; the impact of new ways of seeing, being seen, and acting introduced by these objects; the role of art and ritual in negotiations of power among empires; and representations and self-portrayals of ethnicity and gender within and beyond dominant visual cultures.
To order: http://www.asia.si.edu/visitor/arsorientalisVolumeOrder.htm
Research Interests: Critical Theory, History, Social Theory, Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, and 66 moreRoman History, Near Eastern Studies, Power (social), Medieval Studies, Hybridity, Late Antique Archaeology, Archaeological Method & Theory, Silk Road, Systems Theory, Cross-Cultural Studies, Chinese Art, Islamic Art, Byzantine Studies, Roman East, Late Antiquity, Islamic Studies, History of the Mongol Empire, Pierre Bourdieu, Near Eastern Art History, Byzantine Archaeology, Late Byzantine history, Greek Archaeology, Ancient Persia, Turkic Speaking Peoples, Sasanian History, Late Roman Empire, Archaic Greek history, Medieval Art, Chinese archaeology, Chinese historical archaeology, Nomadic Peoples, Kurgans, Chinese history (History), Cross-cultural interaction (Archaeology), Early Medieval Art, Persian Culture, Archaeology of Central Asia, Early and Medieval Islamic Art and Architecture, Turco-Iranian World, Pre-Islamic Iran, Indo-Greek art, Samarkand Society 5th - 9th centuries, Sogdian Archaeology, Principle of Distinction, Sassanian Persia, Ancient Near Eastern Art, Ancient Greek and Roman Art, Il-qanate, Post-Structuralism, Sui-Tang China, Sogdian art, Pontic Steppe, Sasanian art, Nomadiic, Bactria, Constantinople, Mongol, Byzantine art, Frontier, Medieval Islamic, post-Mongol, Mongol world empire Seljuk, Ottoman Turkish historical writing, Ottoman Anatolia (1200-1500) Comparative empire, political culture Persian, and Roman Archaeology
This essay focuses on the Sasanian dynasty's efforts to create a coherent cosmology to support their imperial project and explores the ways in which Zoroastrian dualism and apocalyptic eschatology were suborned to serve among the... more
This essay focuses on the Sasanian dynasty's efforts to create a coherent cosmology to support their imperial project and explores the ways in which Zoroastrian dualism and apocalyptic eschatology were suborned to serve among the Sasanians’ key conceptual frameworks of empire. Compared with all other Iranian dynasties, the Sasanians are rivaled only by the Achaemenids in their obsession with framing and interpreting royal action and identity through the dualistic and eschatological lens of Iranian religion. Although separated by centuries, the commonalities between the royal discourse of the Achaemenid and Sasanian dynasties attest to a long tradition of Persian political dualism and apocalyptic eschatology, which were themselves in intense dialog with religious discourse. Nonetheless, the Sasanians’ strategic leveraging of dualism and eschatology as an imperial tool was a dynamic response to contemporary challenges. They incorporated these concepts into their contemporary political discourse and relied on them during key junctures to provide coherency to both internal conflicts and external threats.
Research Interests: Political Theory, Zoroastrianism, Iranian Studies, Eschatology and Apocalypticism, Apocalyptic Eschatology, and 12 moreAncient Near East, Sasanian History, Ancient Near East (Archaeology), Achaemenid History, Sasanian art, Religious Studies, Dualism, Achaemenid archaeology, Imperialism, Ancient Near Eastern Religions, Sasanian Archaeology, and Achaemenid Art and Archaeology
Essay and catalogue entries (marked MPC) for the catalogue of the exhibition Persia: Iran and the Classical World, eds. J. Spiers, T. Potts and S. Cole (Los Angeles: Getty, 2022)
Research Interests:
Catalogue essay from the Getty exhibition- Persia: Iran and the Classical World.
Research Interests: Near Eastern Archaeology, Iranian Studies, Iranian Art History, Kingship (Medieval History), Sasanian History, and 10 moreMedieval Art, Ancient Art, Seleucid Empire, Achaemenid History, History of the Hellenistic World (Focus: Seleucid Empire), Parthian Empire, Sasanian Archaeology, Achaemenid Art and Archaeology, History of Persian art and architecture, and Parthian Archaeology
(Essay and catalogue entries on Parthian silver from the exhibition catalogue Persia and the Classical World, Getty Villa) Canepa, Matthew P. “Parthian Silver.” Essay for the exhibition catalogue Persia: Iran and the Classical World.... more
(Essay and catalogue entries on Parthian silver from the exhibition catalogue Persia and the Classical World, Getty Villa)
Canepa, Matthew P. “Parthian Silver.” Essay for the exhibition catalogue Persia: Iran and the Classical World. Eds. J. Spier, T. Potts, and S. Cole. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2022.
Canepa, Matthew P. “Parthian Rhyta from the J. Paul Getty Museum Collection.” Essay for the exhibition catalogue Persia: Iran and the Classical World. Eds. J. Spier, T. Potts, and S. Cole. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2022.
Canepa, Matthew P. “Cat. 107: Bowl with an Anchor and a Dolphin.” Entry for the exhibition catalogue Persia: Iran and the Classical World. Eds. J. Spier, T. Potts, and S. Cole. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2022.
Canepa, Matthew P. “Cat. 108: Rhyton in the Form of a Lynx.” (86.AM.752.1) Entry for the exhibition catalogue Persia: Iran and the Classical World. Eds. J. Spier, T. Potts, and S. Cole. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2022.
Canepa, Matthew P. “Cat. 109: Rhyton in the Form of a Lynx.” (86.AM.752.2) Entry for the exhibition catalogue Persia: Iran and the Classical World. Eds. J. Spier, T. Potts, and S. Cole. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2022.
Canepa, Matthew P. “Cat. 110: Rhyton in the Form of a Lion.” Entry for the exhibition catalogue Persia: Iran and the Classical World. Eds. J. Spier, T. Potts, and S. Cole. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2022.
Canepa, Matthew P. “Cat. 111: Rhyton in the Form of a Stag.” Entry for the exhibition catalogue Persia: Iran and the Classical World. Eds. J. Spier, T. Potts, and S. Cole. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2022.
Canepa, Matthew P. “Parthian Silver.” Essay for the exhibition catalogue Persia: Iran and the Classical World. Eds. J. Spier, T. Potts, and S. Cole. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2022.
Canepa, Matthew P. “Parthian Rhyta from the J. Paul Getty Museum Collection.” Essay for the exhibition catalogue Persia: Iran and the Classical World. Eds. J. Spier, T. Potts, and S. Cole. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2022.
Canepa, Matthew P. “Cat. 107: Bowl with an Anchor and a Dolphin.” Entry for the exhibition catalogue Persia: Iran and the Classical World. Eds. J. Spier, T. Potts, and S. Cole. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2022.
Canepa, Matthew P. “Cat. 108: Rhyton in the Form of a Lynx.” (86.AM.752.1) Entry for the exhibition catalogue Persia: Iran and the Classical World. Eds. J. Spier, T. Potts, and S. Cole. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2022.
Canepa, Matthew P. “Cat. 109: Rhyton in the Form of a Lynx.” (86.AM.752.2) Entry for the exhibition catalogue Persia: Iran and the Classical World. Eds. J. Spier, T. Potts, and S. Cole. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2022.
Canepa, Matthew P. “Cat. 110: Rhyton in the Form of a Lion.” Entry for the exhibition catalogue Persia: Iran and the Classical World. Eds. J. Spier, T. Potts, and S. Cole. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2022.
Canepa, Matthew P. “Cat. 111: Rhyton in the Form of a Stag.” Entry for the exhibition catalogue Persia: Iran and the Classical World. Eds. J. Spier, T. Potts, and S. Cole. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2022.
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This chapter and the larger body of work on which it builds focuses on what I characterize as the environmental, spatial, and visual bases of Iranian iden- tity and royal power: that is, landscape, architecture, the built environment, and... more
This chapter and the larger body of work on which it builds focuses on what I characterize as the environmental, spatial, and visual bases of Iranian iden- tity and royal power: that is, landscape, architecture, the built environment, and the ritual activities they hosted. These, I argue, played a complementary, and no less central role in establishing and changing Iranian identity as that of textual or oral discourse. I have argued in several places that royal engage- ment with natural, urban and architectonic space was not merely a reflection or trapping of imperial power, but a fundamental tool by which sovereigns created and transformed royal identity and continually instantiated it with ritual practice.
Research Interests: Near Eastern Archaeology, Environmental Archaeology, Landscape Archaeology, Mesopotamian Archaeology, Iranian Archaeology, and 13 moreRock Art (Archaeology), Social and Collective Memory, Archaeology of Place, Phenomenology of Space and Place, Hellenistic and Roman Asia Minor, Seleucid Empire, Archaeology of Identity, Parthian Kingdoms, Achaemenid Art and Archaeology, archaeology in Iraq, Parthian Archaeology, Archaeology In Kurdistan, and Archaeology of Afghanistan
The Hellenistic kingdom of Commagene exerted an outsized influence on the volatile world of post-Seleucid Western Asia given its small size and relatively recent independence. While Commagene is now starting to find a place within the... more
The Hellenistic kingdom of Commagene exerted an outsized influence on the volatile world of post-Seleucid Western Asia given its small size and relatively recent independence. While Commagene is now starting to find a place within the Hellenistic Mediterranean, it is only beginning to be fully and meaningfully integrated into the history of the Iranian world. Building on recent work, this chapter thus offers an inquiry into the origins of Commagene’s Persian royal legacy and Iranian religious traditions under Antiochos I, and the cultural and geopolitical contexts that informed their development. Its primary goal is to provide historical nuance for the ‘Persian traditions’ that scholarship has frequently treated as a complete invention or the outgrowth of a monolithic and essentialized Zoroastrianism. It considers the extent to which these traditions grew from an Iranian constituency in place within Commagene since the Achaemenid period or, more likely, arose from a more restricted courtly or dynastic milieu. In so doing, it analyses the dynastic legacy of the Orontids of Sophene and Armenia and the techniques by which they crafted their royal identity and the nature of their impact on Commagene. In particular, it seeks to strike a balance between the epigraphic and archaeological evidence offered by the Antiochos I’s monuments, which
provide the most abundant evidence, and what we can descry about the region’s and the dynasty’s earlier traditions from the archaeological record and fragmentary textual sources.
provide the most abundant evidence, and what we can descry about the region’s and the dynasty’s earlier traditions from the archaeological record and fragmentary textual sources.
Research Interests: Archaeology, Roman History, Anatolian Studies, Landscape Archaeology, Space and Place, and 12 moreAnatolian Archaeology, Iranian Archaeology, Zoroastrianism, Armenian History, Social Memory, Hellenistic and Roman Asia Minor, Ancient Iranian Religion, Achaemenid archaeology, History of the Hellenistic World (Focus: Seleucid Empire), Parthian Empire, Commagene, and Hellenistic Sculpture
The Getty Villa holds one of the world’s largest collections of luxury silver vessels from the Parthian period of ancient Iran (ca. 238 BCE–ca. 224 CE). This article imparts several new insights into one of its most well-known objects:... more
The Getty Villa holds one of the world’s largest collections of luxury silver vessels from the Parthian period of ancient Iran (ca. 238 BCE–ca. 224 CE). This article imparts several new insights into one of its most well-known objects: the stag rhyton. Discoveries include a new inscription on the vessel, technical observations from the first endoscopic examination of its interior, and a new correct weight. The main inscription has heretofore never been integrated into art historical discussions. In addition to presenting a new transliteration, transcription, and translation for the main inscription, this article establishes a more precise date for the vessel. The stag rhyton has served as an important point of reference for dating silver vessels from Hellenistic and Parthian Iran in collections worldwide. In several cases, however, the rhyton’s previously accepted date conflicts with other assessments. The new date range presented here may resolve such discrepancies. In addition, the article presents new corrected technical information for the Getty's two lynx rhyta, whose weights were recorded incorrectly in previous publications.
Research Interests: Near Eastern Archaeology, Near Eastern Studies, Iranian Archaeology, Iranian Studies, Numismatics, and 10 moreMetalwork (Archaeology), Greek Archaeology, Toreutics, History of the Hellenistic World (Focus: Seleucid Empire), Parthian Empire, Seleucid coins, Archaeology of the Hellenistic East, Hellenistic Sculpture, Parthian Coins, and Parthian Archaeology
A popular piece written for the International arts magazine Apollo in conjunction with the V&A and Getty exhibitions on ancient Iran. https://www.apollo-magazine.com
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With the British, Soviet and American interventions establishing an interpretive leitmotif for studies of both premodern and contemporary periods, recent historiography of Afghanistan has often approached the region’s history through a... more
With the British, Soviet and American interventions establishing an interpretive leitmotif for studies of both premodern and contemporary periods, recent historiography of Afghanistan has often approached the region’s history through a paradigm of ceaseless re- bellion or resistance, not to mention one whose identity and dynamics are circumscribed by the borders and geography of the modern nation state . These portrayals characterize Afghanistan as remote, and culturally and politically disconnected from the larger world unless forcibly and briefly integrated. We begin this chapter with the observation that, de- spite dramatic moments of resistance, historically the lands encompassed by, and contig- uous to, the modern nation state played a pivotal role in the formation, maintenance and expansion of a long succession of premodern empires, either those with a center of gravity in Western or South Asia, or within the region itself . Shifting the focus to the arts of domination rather than resistance, this chapter analyzes both the spatial and conceptual armatures (including environmental, urban and architectural, discursive, and ritual tra- ditions) that these empires deployed to integrate their holdings into new imperial systems . After examining the regions’ most ancient and persistent identities, either as integrated into sacred cosmologies or political formulations, the chapter focuses on the Achae- menid, Seleucid, Greco-Bactrian and Kushan empires, and the techniques by which they reshaped and controlled the lands that were understood in antiquity to play a special role in the formation of Iranian identity and religion . It then considers, what I provisional- ly term, the transcultural imperial idioms that emerged from this process of contesting, appropriating or subsuming the architecture of empire . These visual, architectural and ritual traditions owed their formation and development to specific imperial interventions but cannot be located in any single empire discretely, which was the primary utility as a tool of empires who sought to wrest control of regions from their rivals and project power over a lands that were inflected equally by Western, Central and South Asian influences.
Research Interests: History, Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, Iranian Archaeology, Iranian Studies, and 15 moreAfghanistan, Central Asian Studies, History of Afghanistan, Seleucid Empire, Empire, Kushan art and architecture, Kushan history, Achaemenid History, Central Asian Archaeology, Achaemenid archaeology, History of the Hellenistic World (Focus: Seleucid Empire), Achaemenid Art and Archaeology, Greco-Bactrian History, Archaeology of Central Asia in Parthian, Kushan and Sasanian times, and Archaeology of Afghanistan
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Research Interests: Buddhism, Hellenistic History, Iranian Archaeology, Iranian Studies, South Asian Archaeology, and 12 moreSoutheast Asian Archaeology, Seleucid Empire, History of the Hellenistic World (Focus: Seleucid Empire), Parthian Empire, Mauryan Empire, Greco-Bactrian History, Indo-Scythians, Southeast Asian Art History, Parthian Archaeology, Arsacids, Hellenistic Iran, and Indo Greek Culture and History
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Research Interests: Near Eastern Archaeology, Armenian Studies, Hellenistic History, Anatolian Archaeology, Iranian Archaeology, and 19 moreIranian Studies, Iranian Art History, Armenian History, Ancient Near East, Ancient Iranian Religion, Ancient Near East (Archaeology), Achaemenid History, Ancient Near Eastern History, Achaemenid archaeology, Parthian Empire, Archaeology of the Hellenistic East, Pontic Kingdom, Mithradates, Achaemenid Art and Archaeology, Ancient History, Asia Minor, Hellenistic Cappadocia, Parthian Archaeology, Pontus, King Mithridates VI Eupator Dionysus of Pontus, Iranian art and archaeology, and Armenian Archaeology
Review of Bahrani, "The Infinite Image"
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Research Interests: Classical Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, Iranian Archaeology, Buddhist Art, History of Sculpture, and 9 moreGreek Archaeology, Ancient Near East, Ai Khanum (Ai Khanoum) (Archaeology), Ancient Greek and Roman Art, Parthian Empire, Hellenistic art, Archaeology of the Hellenistic East, Hellenistic and Roman Art, and Archaeology of Central Asia in Parthian, Kushan and Sasanian times
Italian trans. of "Bronze Sculpture in the Hellenistic East."
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Catalog entry for the Getty/Palazzo Strozzi exhibition, Power and Pathos
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Research Interests: Roman History, Late Antique and Byzantine Studies, Late Antique Archaeology, Late Antiquity, Byzantine History, and 14 moreByzantine Archaeology, Sasanian History, Roman Empire, Empire, Sasanian art, Constantinople, Sasanian Empire, Imperialism, Constantine, Justinian I, Emperor, Sasanian Archaeology, Byzantine art, Roman Archaeology, and Roman Religion and Ceremony
This stuy offers an approach to Iranian inscriptions that expands the focus beyond their basic vocations of preserving and disseminating a text. It presents a history of epigraphic practices in Iranian Western Asia from the rise of the... more
This stuy offers an approach to Iranian inscriptions that expands the focus beyond their basic vocations of preserving and disseminating a text. It presents a history of epigraphic practices in Iranian Western Asia from the rise of the Achaemenids to the coming of Islam, noting both ruptures and continuities, and examines the impact of inscriptions on their spatial, architectonic and ritual contexts.
Research Interests: Near Eastern Archaeology, Iranian Archaeology, Rock Art (Archaeology), Greek Epigraphy, Calligraphy in Islamic Architecture, and 15 moreAncient Near East, Sasanian History, Early Islamic Archaeology, Kushan art and architecture, Achaemenid History, Achaemenid archaeology, History of the Hellenistic World (Focus: Seleucid Empire), Parthian Empire, Epigraphy, Sasanian Archaeology, Achaemenid Art and Archaeology, Islamic art and architecture, Islamic Epigraphy, Archaeology of Central Asia in Parthian, Kushan and Sasanian times, and Arsacids
This study explores one the major new developments in Iranian culture that emerged during this chaotic yet creative period between Alexander and Islam. During this era, several Iranian-speaking or Iranian-influenced dynasties, from... more
This study explores one the major new developments in Iranian culture that emerged during this chaotic yet creative period between Alexander and Islam. During this era, several Iranian-speaking or Iranian-influenced dynasties, from Anatolia to South Asia, established sanctuaries that honoured the sovereign, his relatives and ancestors (both actual and mythological) in conjunction with cult rendered to the gods and, in some cases, funerary monuments. While it is useful to describe the phenomenon’s basic outlines, it is important methodologically to resist the temptation to posit and look for a uniformly replicated ‘system’ informed by the best-documented sites. The goal of this study, therefore, is comparative rather than reconstructive. Idiosyncratic local concerns, artistic and architectural technique, as well as non-Iranian global forces impacted the individual development of each sanctuary just as much as their patrons’ engagement with the developing forms of Middle Iranian kingship.
Research Interests: Ancient History, History of Religion, Hellenistic History, Iranian Archaeology, Ancient Near East, and 19 moreHellenistic Bactria, Hellenistic and Roman Asia Minor, Ancient Iranian Religion, Seleucid Empire, Archaeology of Central Asia, Kushan empire (Archaeology), Kushan art and architecture, Kushan history, Sasanian art, History of the Hellenistic World (Focus: Seleucid Empire), Parthian Empire, Commagene, Hellenistic art, Archaeology of the Hellenistic East, Sasanian Archaeology, Archaeology of Central Asia in Parthian, Kushan and Sasanian times, Parthian Archaeology, Parthia, Old Nisa, and Arsacids
Research Interests: Rock Art (Archaeology), History of Textiles, Silk Road Studies, Tang Dynasty, Byzantine Studies, and 16 moreLate Antiquity, Ancient Near East, Ancient Persia, Medieval Art, Early Medieval Art, Archaeology of Central Asia, Medieval Mediterranean Art and Architecture, Sasanian art, Central Asian wall paintings on the Silk Road, Ancient Iran, Ravenna, Sasanian Archaeology, Roman Art, Byzantine art, Sasanian Rock Reliefs, and Historical Clothing and Textiles
http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/sEs7KnPaYzUM5P2ZStnp/full This article proposes a new approach to three of the most persistent problems in the study of Iranian art and religion from the coming of Alexander to the fall of the... more
http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/sEs7KnPaYzUM5P2ZStnp/full
This article proposes a new approach to three of the most persistent problems in the study of Iranian art and religion from the coming of Alexander to the fall of the Sasanians: the development of Iranian sacred architecture, the legacy of the Achaemenids, and the development of the art and ritual of Iranian kingship after Alexander. Canepa explores the ways in which the Seleukids contributed basic and enduring elements of Iranian religious and royal culture that lasted throughout late antiquity. Beyond stressing simple continuities or breaks with the Babylonian, Achaemenid or Macedonian traditions, this article argues that the Seleukids selectively integrated a variety of cultural, architectural and religious traditions to forge what became the architectural vocabularies and religious expressions of the Middle Iranian era.
This article proposes a new approach to three of the most persistent problems in the study of Iranian art and religion from the coming of Alexander to the fall of the Sasanians: the development of Iranian sacred architecture, the legacy of the Achaemenids, and the development of the art and ritual of Iranian kingship after Alexander. Canepa explores the ways in which the Seleukids contributed basic and enduring elements of Iranian religious and royal culture that lasted throughout late antiquity. Beyond stressing simple continuities or breaks with the Babylonian, Achaemenid or Macedonian traditions, this article argues that the Seleukids selectively integrated a variety of cultural, architectural and religious traditions to forge what became the architectural vocabularies and religious expressions of the Middle Iranian era.
Research Interests: Near Eastern Archaeology, Art History, Hellenistic History, Iranian Archaeology, Zoroastrianism, and 21 moreBactria (Archaeology), Hellenistic Bactria, Hellenistic and Roman Asia Minor, Ancient Iranian Religion, Seleucid Empire, Kushan history, Sacred Landscape (Archaeology), Bactria, History of the Hellenistic World (Focus: Seleucid Empire), Ancient Iran, Parthian Empire, Seleucid coins, Bactria, Hellenism, Indo-Greeks, Hellenistic Ruler Cult, Sacred Space, Seleucia on the Tigris, Hellenistic history (focus: Bactria, Indo-Greeks), Greco-Bactrian History, Archaeology of Central Asia in Parthian, Kushan and Sasanian times, Parthian Archaeology, and Arsacids
Research Interests: Classical Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, Landscape Archaeology, Space and Place, Anatolian Archaeology, and 18 moreIranian Archaeology, Rock Art (Archaeology), Iranian Studies, Achaemenid Persia, Ancient Near East, Ancient Persia, Hellenistic and Roman Asia Minor, Ancient Iranian Religion, Seleucid Empire, Sasanian art, Ancient Iran, Commagene, Archaeology of the Hellenistic East, Sasanian Archaeology, Sacred and divine kingship, Sasanian Rock Reliefs, Parthian Archaeology, and Arsacids
Research Interests: Ancient History, Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, Art History, Historical Archaeology, and 62 moreNear Eastern Studies, Landscape Archaeology, Power (social), Pilgrimage, Iranian Archaeology, History and Memory, Zoroastrianism, Ancient Indo-European Languages, Late Antique Archaeology, Iranian Studies, History of Religions, Late Antiquity, Memory Studies, Cultural Memory, Iranian Art History, Collective Memory, Historiography (in Art History), Avestan (Languages And Linguistics), Iranian History, Ancient Near East, Ancient Persia, Sasanian History, Indo-Iranian Linguistics, Late Antique Art and Archaeology, Ancient Art, Pahlavi / Middle Persian (Religion), Antiquity and Late Antiquity, Persian Culture, Late Antique Hagiography, Late Antique Religion, Ancient Iranian Religions, Ancient Near East (Archaeology), Sassanian Persia, Indo-Iranian Languages, Ancient Near Eastern Art, Iranian Languages, Sassanid Empire, Old Iranian Languages, Sasanian art, History of Archaeology, Parthian Kingdoms, Parthian Empire, Sasanian Empire, Ancient Near Eastern Religions, History of Zoroastrianism, Sasanian Archaeology, Book of Kings, Sasanian Iran, Persian Art, Shahnameh, History of Persian art and architecture, Iranian Sudies, Sasanian Iran, Parthian Iran, Arsacid and Sasanian Iran, Archaeology of Central Asia in Parthian, Kushan and Sasanian times, Sasanian Zoroastrianism, Parthian/Arsacid history, Parthian Archaeology, Archaeology of Memory, Sasanian Fire Temple, Pre-zoroastrian Iranian art and culture, Arsacids, and Kayanid Tradition
Research Interests: Ancient History, Landscape Ecology, Archaeology, Art History, Historical Archaeology, and 28 moreArchitecture, Landscape Archaeology, Urban History, Iranian Archaeology, Rock Art (Archaeology), Iranian Studies, History of Iran, Networks, Urbanism, Ancient Near East, Sasanian History, Landscape, Ancient Iranian Religion, Sacred Landscape (Archaeology), Iran, Sasanian art, Rock Art, Cities, Ancient Iran, Sasanian Empire, Infrastructure, Sasanian Archaeology, Sasanian Army, Iranian Sudies, Sasanian Iran, Parthian Iran, Arsacid and Sasanian Iran, Archaeology of Central Asia in Parthian, Kushan and Sasanian times, Iranian art and archaeology, and Water In the City
Research Interests: Religion, Gnosticism, History, Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, and 156 moreGender Studies, Mythology, Art History, History of Religion, Literature, Propaganda, Anatolian Archaeology, Iranian Archaeology, Ritual, Zoroastrianism, Iranian Studies, Indo-European Studies, Afghanistan, Fascism, Nationalism, Khotanese, Anatolian History, Culture, Symbolism, Communism, Archaeology of Religion, Funerary Archaeology, History of Religions, Ancient Religion, National Identity, Cappadocians, Sufism, Shi'ism, Akkadian Language, Achaemenid Persia, Strabo, Cognitive archaeology, Avestan (Languages And Linguistics), Classical Near East, Ancient Near East, Alexander the Great, Bactria (Archaeology), Hellenistic Bactria, Ancient Persia, Sasanian History, Ancient Near Eastern Languages, Archaeology of Caucasus, Archaeology of Ritual and Magic, Pahlavi / Middle Persian (Religion), Zoroastrianism (History), Ancient Mesopotamian Religions, Aryanism, Hellenistic and Roman Asia Minor, Old Persian, Elamite, Ancient Iranian Religion, Persian Culture, Seleucid Empire, Kushan art and architecture, Kushan history, Manichaeism, Ancient Iranian Religions, Ai Khanum (Ai Khanoum) (Archaeology), Neo-Elamite period, Persepolis Fortification and Treasury Archives, Ancient Near East (Archaeology), Sassanian Persia, Ancient Near Eastern Art, Herodotus, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Post-Communism, Achaemenid History, BMAC Archaeology, Old Persian (Languages And Linguistics), Sogdian, Old Iranian Languages, Iran, Sasanian art, Nazi Germany, Identity, Central Asian Archaeology, Ancient Near Eastern History, Memory, Pausanias, Dura Europos, History and Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, Germany, Orientalism, Achaemenid archaeology, History of the Hellenistic World (Focus: Seleucid Empire), Hellenistic Babylonia, Antisemitism, Ancient Iran, Parthian Empire, Achaemenian Empire, Sasanian Empire, Drugs, Landscape Archaeology, Iran, Persepolis, Nazism, Commagene, Achaemenid Art, Black Sea, South Caucasus, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Babylonian Wisdom Literature, Akkadian Literature, History of Religious Concepts, Ancient Near Eastern Religions, History of Zoroastrianism, Sasanian Archaeology, Achaemenid Art and Archaeology, Indo-European, Kushan and Central Asian Studies, Nazi Archaeology, Old and Middle Iranian Languages, Medes, Elamite studies, Bactrian, Ghulat, Assyriology Sumerology Akkadian Sumerian Sumerian & Akkadian literature Sumerian Religion Mesopotamia History Ancient Mesopotamian Religions Cuneiform Ancient Near East Ancient Near Estern Languages Religious Studies, Achaemenid Empire, Mesopotamian temples, Persian Empire, Arsacid and Sasanian Iran, Ephedra, Middle Persian, Trebizond, Archaeology of Central Asia in Parthian, Kushan and Sasanian times, Soviet Archaeology, Medes and Persians in Transcaucasia, Pontos, Parthian Archaeology, Avestan, Soma, Antique, The visual culture of Babylonia, Iran & Bactria c.330-c.100 BC, Aryan, Trabzon, Pontus, Elamite civilization, Pasargadae, Weimar, Sasanian Fire Temple, Argead Macedonia, Haoma, History of 19th and 20th Century East Central Europe, Rescue and Resistance, özhan öztürk, Ancient and Middle Iranian Philology, Epigraphy and Literature, Ancient Mesopotamia (History, Manicheanism, Shaykhism, Jewish Mysticism/Kababalah, Achemenid, The Diadochs, Hellenistic Empires, Hellenistic Royal Women, Images of the Other, Late Roman Republic Especially Sulla and Sertorius, and Antiquity In European Art and Film
The purpose of this study is to investigate the global phenomenon of Manichaean magical practice. Studies of magic in the Classical, Semitic, Iranian and South Asian cultural spheres have, to a large extent, ignored the parallel... more
The purpose of this study is to investigate the global phenomenon of Manichaean magical practice. Studies of magic in the Classical, Semitic, Iranian and South Asian cultural spheres have, to a large extent, ignored the parallel traditions of Manichaean magic that grew up alongside these more dominant traditions. While an impressive body of literature has accumulated around pagan, Jewish, and Christian magic in the antique Mediterranean and Mesopotamia, since 1947 only a handful of articles have been published dealing with Manichaean magic. This is in part because of the small corpus of Manichaean magical texts that survive and because of the formidable challenges that the material’s array of languages and cultural influences presents. In this study I look globally at the different manifestations of magic in Manichaean communities from the earliest traces of evidence in late antique Egypt and Mesopotamia, to the last manifestations on the early Medieval Silk Road. In doing so I hope to understand what was a constant in Manichaean magic throughout this expanse of time and cultural and linguistic alterations and analyze how these cultural goods traveled and transformed across Eurasia
Research Interests: Mesopotamian Archaeology, Iranian Archaeology, Late Antique Archaeology, Iranian Studies, Magic, and 16 moreHistory of Iran, Cross-Cultural Studies, History of Religions, Coptic Studies, Late Antiquity, Mesopotamian Religions, Ancient Near East, Magic and the Occult (Anthropology Of Religion), Witchcraft, Religion and Magic, Archaeology of Ritual and Magic, Ancient Mesopotamian Religions, Ancient Iranian Religion, Archaeology of Central Asia, Manichaeism, Ancient Egyptian Magical Texts, and Turfan Texts
This article analyzes the techniques by which the kings of the early Sasanian dynasty engaged the past and shaped the experience of future generations. I concentrate on the innovations and legacy of the first two kings of kings of the... more
This article analyzes the techniques by which the kings of the early Sasanian dynasty engaged the past and shaped the experience of future generations. I concentrate on the innovations and legacy of the first two kings of kings of the dynasty, Ardashir I (r. 224–239/40 C.E.) and his son Shapur I (239/40–270/2 C.E.). These sovereigns fashioned a new and politically useful vision of the past to establish their dynasty's primacy in Persia and the wider Iranian world, eclipsing their Seleucid, Fratarakid, and Arsacid predecessors. I identify and examine the artistic, architectural, and ritual means by which the early Sasanians conformed the built and natural environment of their homeland to their grand new vision of the past. I argue that the Achaemenid patrimony of the province of Pars played an important role in these efforts, serving as inspirations and anchors for the Sasanians' new creations.
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In this study, dedicated to the memory of Zeev Rubin, I explore one important facet of Iranian kingship between Alexander and Islam: the art and ritual of Achaemenid and Seleucid funerary monuments and their impact on later Macedonian and... more
In this study, dedicated to the memory of Zeev Rubin, I explore one important facet of Iranian kingship between Alexander and Islam: the art and ritual of Achaemenid and Seleucid funerary monuments and their impact on later Macedonian and Middle Iranian kingship in Western and South Asia. The relationship of Achaemenid royal traditions to those of their Hellenistic and Iranian successors is one of the perennial problems of the Middle Iranian period, and impacts this topic as well. I explore to what extent – if at all – did Seleucid and Middle Iranian monumental and ritual practices engage the traditions of the Achaemenids, and to what extent were new royal practices created and 'Iranized,' with contemporary Macedonian, steppe nomadic or even South Asian royal traditions appropriated as raw material.
Research Interests:
This article analyzes the cultural processes of competitive interactions that unfolded among elites across Eurasia in late antiquity. I focus on the briefly interlocking empires of Rome, Sasanian Persia and Sui–Tang China and analyze the... more
This article analyzes the cultural processes of competitive interactions that unfolded among elites across Eurasia in late antiquity. I focus on the briefly interlocking empires of Rome, Sasanian Persia and Sui–Tang China and analyze the conditions that inspired emperors, client kings, and mercantile elites to incorporate aspects of another elite’s visual and ritual material. I consider three types of late antique elite exchange: The first deals with those rare instances where the elites of major powers engaged in a close, direct, and sustained interaction, for example, between Rome and Sasanian Iran. The second situation deals with the use of aristocratic visual cultures by relatively distant civilizations, often in new and unexpected ways, such as took place between Sasanian Iran and Sui–Tang China. Parallel to these grand imperial exchanges, I consider the situation of those peoples such as the Laz, Huns, or Sogdians who stood in between these great empires. I offer a theoretical terminology with which to analyze the dynamics behind the movement of ideas, motifs, and practices between elites who were fascinated as well as often disquieted by one another’s cultural material. I explore how this dialogue animated the appropriated material and eventually created new and increasingly intertwined visions of power across late antique military frontiers.