Provides a clear overview of the archaeological evidence for Achaemenid Egypt, including temples, tombs, irrigation works, statues, stelae, seals and coins
Demonstrates how different types of evidence, both textual and archaeological – including material of uncertain provenance – can be used to address a single historical question
Offers critical discussion of the dating criteria used by archaeologists for Egyptian Late Period material
Elucidates strategies used by the Persians to establish and maintain control of Egypt
Examines how these strategies may have affected the lives of people living in Egypt during the 27th Dynasty
Creates a new explanatory model for the introduction of coinage to ancient Egypt
Previous studies have characterised Achaemenid rule of Egypt either as ephemeral and weak or oppressive and harsh. These characterisations, however, are based on the perceived lack of evidence for this period, filtered through ancient and modern preconceptions about the Persians. Henry Colburn challenges these views by assembling and analyzing the archaeological remains from this period, including temples, tombs, irrigation works, statues, stelae, sealings, drinking vessels and coins. By looking at the decisions made about material culture - by Egyptians, Persians and others - it becomes possible to see both how the Persians integrated Egypt into their empire and the full range of experiences people had as a result.
This accessible new academic treatment sets out to challenge the prejudices of earlier commentators (starting with the ancient Greeks), and illustrates very effectively the ways in which scholarship is as prone to bias as any other aspect of human activity.
It will be widely read by students of Achaemenid Egypt, of the Achaemenid empire in general (which as a discipline as well as a historical reality is nothing if not the assemblage of its diverse parts), and of the wider world of later pre-Hellenistic history.
Written lucidly for a broad readership, Colburn’s book masterfully recovers a critical era of Egyptian history until now muted by traditional hegemonies of periodization. This is a must-read for Egyptologists, Classicists, and Achaemenid studies specialists, as well as for empire theorists and art historians/archaeologists concerned with projections of identity in the cross-hairs of globalization.
Henry Colburn is Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Fellow in Ancient Near Eastern Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He is the author of numerous essays on the art and archaeology of the Achaemenid Empire. This is his first book, based on his PhD which he received in 2014.
