Thursday, April 12, 2007

Job Announcement: Persepolis Fortification Archives - Research Project Professionals

Job Announcement

Persepolis Fortification Archives
Research Project Professionals

The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago seeks to appoint two new staff members to make digital images of Aramaic texts and of seal impressions on tablets from the Persepolis Fortification archive.

Knowledge of Aramaic epigraphy and/or Achaemenid glyptic and/or the Persepolis Fortification archive is highly desirable. Comfort with digital technology, familiarity with computers and a variety of computer programs is essential. Graduate work in some area of ancient Near Eastern studies is required. Applicants with these qualifications who have completed PhDs in areas pertinent to research on Achaemenid texts and art, as well as applicants admitted to PhD candidacy in these areas, are encouraged to apply.

The successful applicants will receive training in large-format very high-resolution digital scanning and Polynomial Texture Mapping and in making, processing, and uploading images. They will then capture images of Aramaic texts and of seal impressions on clay tablets from Persepolis, under the supervision of the Persepolis Fortification Archives project team, and process the scans for uploading and editing.

The work is to begin on July 1, 2007 and continue through December 31, 2008. Salary for each post is $22,000 (July-December 2007) + $44,000 (January-December 2008), with benefits.

Funding for these positions is assured from July, 2007 through December, 2008. There is a possibility that additional funding will be obtained and that the positions can be extended.

To apply for this position, please apply online at the University of Chicago’s job posting website at (requisition # 075728 or 075622 - Research Project Professional)

Applications must be received by May 15th, 2007.

For additional information, please contact:
Matthew Stolper
Oriental Institute
University of Chicago
1155 East 58th Street
Chicago, Il., 690093
m-stolper@uchicago.edu

The University of Chicago is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer.

Iranian Persepolis Tablets & Controversy With Israel "What They Are & What They're Worth"

Iranian Persepolis Tablets & Controversy With Israel "What They Are & What They're Worth"

The University of Chicago along with the Governments of both Iran & the U.S. agree: current laws do not permit the sale of these tablets. So why then is US Courts and the Israeli Government/Interest Groups insistent on auctioning off these priceless artifacts?

Professor Matthew Stolper, from the OI, will be holding a talk on the significance of the Achaemenid Elamite tablets and the legal predicament they have been subject to by US courts, which are intent on seizing and auctioning them--for they deem them as integral part of Iranian assets--with the proceeds to be distributed among the victims of acts of terror perpetrated in the land of Israel.


The Program of Iranian Studies and the Musa Sabi Chair in Iranian Studies at UCLA announce:

The Persepolis Fortification Tablets:

What They Are, What They're Good For, What They're Worth.

A Lecture by Matthew W. Stolper, Professor of Assyriology and the John A. Wilson Professor of Oriental Studies at the Oriental Institute-University of Chicago

Friday, April 13, 2007
at 4:00 PM
Royce Hall 314

Saturday, April 07, 2007

Hallock's Persepolis Fortification Tablets is now available online

The Persepolis Fortification Archive Project, in conjunction with the Oriental Instistute Publications Office is pleased to announce the availability online free-of-charge, of:


Persepolis Fortification Tablets [n.b. This is a large file - more than 56MB, so plan on using a reasonably fast connection and be prepared to wait]

R. T. Hallock

Oriental Institute Publications 92

With over 2100 texts published, the Persepolis Fortification Texts in Elamite, transcribed, interpreted, and edited by the late Richard Hallock, already form the largest coherent body of material on Persian administration available to us; a comparable, but less legible, body of material remains unpublished, as does the smaller group of Aramaic texts from the same archive. Essentially, they deal with the movement and expenditure of food commodities in the region of Persepolis in the fifteen years down to 493. Firstly, they make it absolutely clear that everyone in the state sphere of the Persian economy was on a fixed ration-scale, or rather, since some of the rations are on a scale impossible for an individual to consume, a fixed salary expressed in terms of commodities. The payment of rations is very highly organized. Travelers along the road carried sealed documents issued by the king or officials of satrapal level stating the scale on which they were entitled to be fed. Tablets sealed by supplier and recipient went back to Persepolis as a record of the transaction. Apart from a few places in Babylonia for short periods, Persepolis is now the best-documented area in the Achaemenid empire. What generalizations or other insights this provides for other areas is perhaps likely to remain one of the main methodological problems for Achaemenid scholarship. [From an article by D. M. Lewis, "The Persepolis Fortification Texts," in Achaemenid History IV: Centre and Periphery, Proceedings of the Groningen 1986 Achaemenid History Workshop, edited by Heleen Sancisi-Weerdenburg and Amélie Kuhrt (Leiden: Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, 1990), pp. 2-6].

ISBN 0-226-62195-2 (cloth)
Published: 1969
9 x 11.75 in / 23 x 30 cm
Pp. x + 776
No Illustrations



  • OIP 92. Persepolis Fortification Tablets. is also available for purchase from David Brown Books / Oxbow Books, the diistributor of all publications of the Oriental Institute.