D. T. Potts is Professor of Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology and History at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University.

• ContributorsAcknowledgementsList of abbreviationsIntroductionPart I. Background and beginnings1. The history of archaeological research in Iran: A brief survey Ali Mousavi2. Key questions regarding the palaeoenvironment of Iran Matthew D. Jones3. The Paleolithic of Iran Nicholas J. Conard, Elham Ghasidian and Saman Heydari-Guran4. The development and expansion of a Neolithic way of life Lloyd R. WeeksPart II. The Chalcolithic period 5. The Chalcolithic of northern Iran Barbara Helwing6. The Chalcolithic in the central Zagros Abbas Moghaddam and Ardashir Javanmardzadeh7. The Later Village (Chalcolithic) period in Khuzestan Abbas Moghaddam8. The Chalcolithic in southern Iran Cameron A. PetriePart III. The Bronze Age9. The Early Bronze Age in northwestern Iran Geoffrey D. Summers10. The Bronze Age in northeastern Iran Christopher P. Thornton11. Luristan and the central Zagros in the Bronze Age D. T. Potts12. Khuzestan in the Bronze Age Javier Álvarez-Mon13. Early writing in Iran J.L. Dahl14. The use of Akkadian in Iran Katrien De Graef15. Bronze Age Fars Bernadette McCall16. Eastern Iran in the Early Bronze Age Holly PittmanPart IV. The Iron Age17. The Late Bronze and Early Iron Age in northwestern Iran Michael D. Danti18. Luristan during the Iron Age Bruno Overlaet19. The central Alborz region in the Iron Age Ali Mousavi20. Linguistic groups in Iran Ran Zadok21. Iranian migration M. Witzel22. Assyria and the Medes Karen Radner23. Elam in the Iron Age Javier Álvarez-Mon24. Elam, Assyria, and Babylonia in the early 1st millennium BC Matt Waters25. Iron Age southeastern Iran Peter MageePart V. The Achaemenid period26. Southwestern Iran in the Achaemenid period Rémy Boucharlat27. Administrative realities: The Persepolis Archives and the archaeology of the Achaemenid heartland Wouter F.M. Henkelman28. Avesta and Zoroastrianism under the Achaemenids and early Sasanians P.O. Skjærvø29. Royal Achaemenid iconography Mark B. Garrison30. Color and gilding in Achaemenid architecture and sculpture Alexander Nagel31. Eastern Iran in the Achaemenid period Bruno Genito32. Old Persian Jan Tavernier33. Greek sources on Achaemenid Iran Maria BrosiusVI. Seleucid, post-Achaemenid and Arsacid archaeology and history34. Alexander the Great and the Seleucids in Iran Paul Kosmin35. Media, Khuzestan and Fars between the end of the Achaemenids and the rise of the Sasanians Pierfrancesco Callieri and Alireza Askari Chaverdi36. Fratarak? and Seleucids Josef Wiesehöfer37. The Arsacids (Parthians) Stefan R. Hauser38. Parthian and Elymaean rock reliefs Trudy S. Kawami39. Arsacid, Elymaean and Persid coinage Khodadad Rezakhani40. Aramaic, Parthian and Middle Persian Seiro Haruta41. The use of Greek in pre-Sasanian Iran Georges RougemontVII. The Sasanian period42. Sasanian political ideology M. Rahim Shayegan43. Sasanian coinage Nikolaus Schindel44. Sasanian interactions with Rome and Byzantium P. Edwell45. Sasanian rock reliefs Matthew P. Canepa46. Kuh-e Khwaja and the religious architecture of Sasanian Iran Soroor Ghanimati47. Sasanian administation and sealing practices Negin Miri48. Luxury silver vessels of the Sasanian period Kate Masia-Radford49. Sasanian textiles Carol Bier50. Pre-Islamic Iranian calendrical systems in the context of Iranian religious and scientific history Antonio Panaino51. The Islamic conquest of Sasanian Iran Michael Morony

The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Iran commendably achieves its goal of providing an authoritative, up-to-date, multidisciplinary overview of this region for all periods up to the Islamic conquest, thanks in large part to the meticulous oversight of its editor D. T. Potts. ... This is a volume in which experts in history, archaeology, numismatics, linguistics, and other fields have been brought together to give a rich, multifaceted picture. ... The volume is sweeping, ambitious, and exemplary. Classicists will find within these thousand pages many nuggets of scholarly gold.