Cyrus the Elamite-Anshanite or Cyrus the Persian? A New Look at Elamite-Anshanite Identityof Cyrus II

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Authors

1 Associate Professor in History, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

2 Assistant Professor in Ancient Culture and Languages, Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies

3 M.A. in Ancient History of Iran, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

Abstract

The arrival and settlement of Persians in Parsa/Anshan and their strong relations with the Elamite inhabitants of south-western Iran brought the Achaemenid culture and civilization under the influence of the Elamite culture and civilization, in particular during Cyrus II and Cambyses II. Furthermore, Cyrus II, in his famous Cylinder in Babylonian language, introduces himself and his ancestors as kings of Anshan and makes no mention of Parsa or Achaemenids at all. This has caused a number of scholars of ancient Iran to question the identity of Cyrus as Persian and identify him as Elamite-Anshanite. Although this hypothesis has been disputed by other scholars, the problem lingers on.
This article uses historical method to examine various claims in this subject, in particular Daniel Potts’s theory on Cyrus’s Elamite-Anshanite identity, on the basis of archaeological data, ancient Mesopotamian-Elamite documents, Persian inscriptions, Elamite tablets, and Greeks texts.

Keywords

Historical Studies
Volume 4, Issue 1 - Serial Number 1
September 2013
Pages 27-43

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