The Archaeology of Iran from the Palaeolithic to the Achaemenid Empire

Abstract

"The Archaeology of Iran from the Palaeolithic to the Achaemenid Empire" by Roger Matthews, Hassan Fazeli Nashli and Amy Richardson, Publisher:Taylor & Francis, 2022, stands as a monumental undertaking, offering a comprehensive and engaging journey through the vast expanse of Iranian history. Spanning from the first flickers of human habitation over a million years ago to the rise and fall of the Achaemenid Empire in 330 BC, this tome unravels the intricate tapestry of Iranian society, revealing its evolution, struggles, and triumphs across millennia. What distinguishes this work is its extraordinary breadth. It explores many facets of Iranian history, including as subsistence techniques, technical developments, social structure, belief systems, and relationships with the environment, and spans a chronological period of more than a million years. Painting a vivid picture of societal evolution, it painstakingly breaks down each epoch, from the hunter-gatherers of the Palaeolithic to the sophisticated urban cultures of the Achaemenid Empire.Such an enormous breadth demands a well-organized story. The twelve chapters that make up the book's structure each focus on a different time period or subject. Every chapter starts with a clear introduction that sets the scene and highlights the most important moments. The organisation of the material makes it simple for readers to explore the large quantity of content and go further into particular topics of interest.

Keywords

• book review
• iran
• archaeology