You can attend this presentation in person or via Zoom.
This general presentation is intended for a non-specialist audience, offering a broad synthesis of the Achaemenid Empire and its echoes in the local institution in Idumea. The focus will be on the imperial administrative apparatus, the languages in use across the empire, and the various networks that enabled the effective governance of such a vast and diverse territory. This introductory overview will lay the groundwork for a closer examination of a specific local corpus: the Aramaic ostraca from Idumea. The aim is to highlight the potential and relevance of such a corpus for understanding imperial structures at the local level. This presentation is given as part of an invitation from The Ohio State University and offers an opportunity to present the work currently being undertaken in collaboration with James Moore, while also reflecting on the academic value and outcomes of this research stay.
Dr. Mitchka Shahryari is a postdoctoral researcher within the WORK-IT Team. She is a visiting scholar in the NESA department this semester (Sp25). She specializes in the Persian Empire, focusing on the Idumean corpus, a collection of Aramaic ostraca.Her doctoral research was conducted in the field of History, Civilizations, Archaeology, and Art of the Ancient Medieval Worlds, where she concentrated on the administration and imperial structure of the Persian Empire in the Levant, particularly through archaeology, history, and epigraphy, with a focus on the Idumean corpus. Her postdoctoral work continues to investigate the Idumean corpus and focuses on the fiscal system of the Persian Empire, conducted in collaboration with the broader WORK-IT project.
You can attend this presentation in person or via Zoom.
