Yeki bud, yeki nabud: Essays on the Archaeology of Iran in Honor of William M. Sumner.

• Author: Waters, Matthew
• Position: Book review

Yeki bud, yeki nabud: Essays on the Archaeology of Iran in Honor of William M. Sumner. Edited by NAOMI F. MILLER and KAMYAR ABDI. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, Monograph vol. 28. Los Angeles: COTSEN INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, Los ANGELES, 2003. Pp. xi + 340, illus. $50.

This volume is a major contribution to the history (broadly defined) of ancient Iran, a testament to Bill Sumner's wide-ranging influence and the high regard in which he is held by students and colleagues. The twenty-seven articles constitute an eclectic mix, on the surface at least, but are bound together by the focal point of Sumner's own contributions to the field of Iranian studies, primarily through his important work at Anshan (Malyan). These contributions, by the foremost scholars working on ancient Iran, are deserving of a careful read, as they provide a "state-of-the-field" overview, along with several topics of related interest. Contributions range chronologically from prehistoric Iran to modern nomadic pastoralism and across the disciplines of archaeology, archaeobotany, history, art history, philology, and metallurgy.

Of particular note is P. de Miroschedji's important article "Susa and the Highlands: Major Trends in the History of Elamite Civilization" (pp. 17-38). Miroschedji offers an incisive synthesis of Elamite history within a framework of the longue duree. Among other matters, Miroschedji differentiates the bipolarity of Anshan and Susa as only relevant through the Old Elamite period; places mid-third millennium Susa firmly within a Mesopotamian context; and reasserts the three capitals thesis (Susa, Madaktu, and Hidalu) for the Neo-Elamite period (his "Late Elamite [Susa X]"). The distinction between the so-called "Irano-Mesopotamian System" and the "Elamite System" is of use, despite the potential confusion of the adjective "Irano-" (in the geographic sense, i.e., the Iranian Plateau, as Miroschedji explains) applied to historical periods preceding the arrival of Iranians.

Miroschedji also tackles the transition from Late Elamite to Achaemenid Fars, a topic broached in a number of other contributions as well, notably chapters 22-24 (articles by T. Cuyler-Young Jr., D. Stronach, and R. Boucharlat, respectively). These endeavors revisit the ongoing, stubborn problem of tracking the earliest Iranian (i.e., Persian) migrations into Fars and their assimilation there, frequently called the "ethnogenesis of the Persians."...