The Archaeology of Elam: Formation and Transformation of an Ancient Iranian State (Cambridge World Archaeology) [Hardcover]

D. T. Potts (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521563585 | ISBN-13: 978-0521563581 | Publication Date: August 13, 1999 0

Few of the major peoples of the ancient Near East have been as little studied as the Elamites, a disparate collection of people living in what is today southwestern Iran, and yet few had such an impact on the course of history from c. 2600 BC to the first centuries AD. As the first synthesis of Elamite archaeology to appear in English in over fifteen years, this volume will serve as a major resource for all scholars, students and laypeople interested in the ancient Near East.

Editorial Reviews

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"...a very valuable study." Choice

Book Description

Few of the major peoples of the ancient Near East have been as little studied as the Elamites, a disparate collection of people living in what is today southwestern Iran, and yet few had such an impact on the course of history from c. 2600 BC to the first centuries AD. As the first synthesis of Elamite archaeology to appear in English in over fifteen years, this volume will serve as a major resource for all scholars, students and laymen interested in the ancient Near East.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 520 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (August 13, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521563585
• ISBN-13: 978-0521563581
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 7.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,351,087 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

D.T. Potts is the Edwin Cuthbert Hall Professor of Middle Eastern Archaeology at the University of Sydney. He is a specialist in the archaeology and early history of Iran, Mesopotamia and the Arabian peninsula. Educated at Harvard, he has taught at the Free University of Berlin (1981-1986), the Univ. of Copenhagen (1980-1981, 1986-1991) and the Univ. of Sydney (since 1991). He is the founding editor of the journal Arabian Archaeology & Epigraphy; a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and the Society of Antiquaries of London; and a Corresponding Member of the German Archaeological Institute. He has excavated at sites in Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and is currently co-director, with Lloyd Weeks (Nottingham) and Cameron Petrie (Cambridge) of a joint Iranian-Australian archaeological project in the Mamasani district of western Fars Province, investigating the prehistory and early history of the area at Tol-e Nurabad, Tol-e Spid and Qaleh Kali.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ancient Elam becomes More Intelligible, November 17, 2000

By 

Mr John Lindsay (Victoria, 3150 Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Archaeology of Elam: Formation and Transformation of an Ancient Iranian State (Cambridge World Archaeology) (Paperback)

This is a well designed and well produced textbook, which seems to have been organised with students and teachers in mind. Potts has given us a cohesive and logically developed narrative; a big advance on the two chapters by the late René Labat in the 3rd edition of the Cambridge Ancient History. Pott's aim has been "to provide a cogent, readable synthesis of Elam" (p. xxi). And he has achieved this admirably. Features of the text of the book are the summaries at the beginning of each chapter (`text boxes'), the clear site maps for each chapter, and the chronological outlines. All very useful.

The book is cultural and historical as well as archaeological in character and in its emphasis. The contents deal with pottery, seals, sculpture, glyptic art, rock reliefs, the texts of clay documents, inscriptions, architecture, site plans, ivories, coins, figurines, burials and grave goods. Comprehensiveness and scope are notable marks of this book, in the search for the origins and the influence of Elam. It covers its pre-history (c. late fifth millennium B.C.) and continues all the way to the eighth century A.D.

In this volume, Elam and the Elamites are dealt with as a polity in their own right, and not merely seen as a troublesome heterogeneous nation in relation to its neighbours, the Assyrians, Babylonians and Persians. Potts stresses the chameleon-like character ("transformations") of Elam over the centuries, as viewed through the lens of contrasting if not conflicting sources of evidence. He argues that courte durée, rather than longue durée, is the historical concept which best helps to account for the periodic changes which characterised the history Elam.

Despite the incompleteness of the data, Potts has succeeded in bringing Elam and its people into sharper focus than has hitherto been the case. It is a worthy successor to Carter and Stolper's Elam: Surveys of Political History and Archaeology (1984), which was probably the best synthesis of that land and its culture before the advent of the present volume. Professor Potts is to be congratulated on his achievement. Particularly on his desire to communicate the results of his research to his readers in a format and language which strive to make the significance of these results clear and intelligible. This new work should become a standard text in the hands of teaching staff and students alike in tertiary institutions for some time to come.

The illustrations and plates are clear, relevant and help to elucidate the text and its interpretation. A copious 35 page bibliography and a generally adequate index round off the volume.

2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful book, January 8, 2006

By 

M. Wahedi (The Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Archaeology of Elam: Formation and Transformation of an Ancient Iranian State (Cambridge World Archaeology) (Paperback)

While Elam civilization looks as not important or as a minor one for many other historians, Mr. Potts created a great book about these forgotten ancient Iranian people. I enjoyed reading the book a lot. Thank you for your great courage.
I hope you will continue this great job by writing a book about the Medes. That is also a forgotton civilization.