A persepolis fortification seal on the tablet MDP 11 308 (Louvre Sb 13078)

Journal of Near Eastern Studies

Volumn 55, Issue 1, 1996, Pages 15-35

  Garrison, Mark B ^a  

^a TRINITY UNIVERSITY   (United States)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 66249132353     PISSN: 00222968     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1086/373782     Document Type: Article

References (119)

1. MDP 11 308 text, first published in V. Scheil, Textes élamites-anzanites, Quatrième Série, MDP 11 (Paris, 1911), pp. 89, 101, no. 308, with a description of the seal impression.
2. The seal impression was first published in photograph in L. Delaporte, Musée du Louvre, Catalogue des cylindres, cachets et pierres gravées de style oriental, vol. 1, Fouilles et missions (Paris, 1920), pl. 48 (no. S.569).
3. The tablet was recently included in the Susa exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; P. O. Harper, J. Aruz, and F. Tallon, The Royal City of Susa: Ancient Near Eastern Treasures in the Louvre (New York, 1992), p. 273, no. 191
4. (entry written by Matthew \V. Stolper). Scheil, Textes élamites-anzanites, MDP 11, nos. 299-309.
5. See, for example, P. Amiet, "La glyptique de la fin de l'Elam," Arts asiatiques 28 (1973): 3-32, esp. pp.4-6.
6. For the Neo-Elamite tablets of known provenance, see the summary in my article "Seals and the Elite at Persepolis: Some Observations on Early Achaemenid Persian Art," Ars Orientalis 21 (1991): 1-29 (n. 31 for the summary);
7. M. W. Stolper, "Cuneiform Texts from Susa," in Harper, Aruz, Tallon, The Royal City of Susa, pp. 259-60, 267-69 (nos. 187-88).
8. There are a few known legal texts (written in Akkadian) of Achaemenid date from Susa: M. Rutten, "Tablette no. 4," in R. Ghirshman, Village perseachéménide, MDP 36 (Paris, 1954), pp. 83-85;
9. F. Joannés, "Contrats de manage d'époque récente," Revue d'assyrìologie (RA) 78 (1984): 71-81;
10. idem, "Textes babyloniens de Suse d'époque achéménide," in F. Vallat, ed., Contribution à l'histoire de l'Iran: Mélanges offerts à Jean Perrot (Paris, 1990), pp. 173-80.
11. The texts from the Fortification archive indicate that there are numerous administrative, political, and religious centers lying between Persepolis and Susa; see, for example, H. Koch, Verwaltung und Wirtschaft im persischen Kernland zur Zeit der Achämeniden, Beihefte zum Tübinger Atlas des Vorderen Orients 19 (Wiesbaden, 1990).
12. As a reading of the catalogue entries in Harper, Aruz, Tallon, The Royal City of Susa, quickly reveals.
13. B. André-Salvini, Conservateur at the Département des Antiquités Orientales at the Louvre, has informed me (personal communication, 31 July 1992) that, in her opinion, if Scheil had any doubts concerning the provenance of MDP 11 308, he would have published the tablet in RA, rather than in MDP. She adds that Scheil would have been present at the excavation most of the time from 1903 on, that he followed the discoveries very closely, and that he would have been aware of the purchase or import of an object by the mission from outside.
14. As can be reconstructed from textual evidence (for example, geographical names, movements of officials, etc.) preserved in the texts from the Fortification archive; Koch, Vemaltung und Wirtschafi, passim, recognizes six administrative regions represented in the Fortification archive: Persepolis (I), Shiraz (II), Southastern Region (III), Southwestern Region (IV), North-western Region (V), and Elam (VI). Texts mentioning commodities delivered at Susa: PF 88, 90-92, 136, 318, and 737 (see n. 75 below for more discussion on the context of this text).
15. Darius clearly recognized the political and symbolic significance of Susa. He fortified the site, started a grandiose building program, and made it his lowland capital. He built on the so-called tell de l'Apadana a palace, an Apadana, and a m'onumental gateway. A royal treasure was also kept on the site (Herodotus 5:49;
16. Diodorus 17.66.1). The date of Darius's building activity at Susa cannot be determined with precision. Some have argued for a date very early in Darius's reign, 521-520 B.C. and so a few years before Darius began to build at Persepolis (the construction date of which is also uncertain); for a brief summary with bibliography, see O. W. Muscarella in Harper, Aruz, Tallon, The Royal City of Susa, pp. 216-19.
17. P. de Miroschedji, "Susa," in D. N. Freedman et al., eds., The Anchor Bible Dictionary, vol. 6 (New York, 1992), pp. 242-45, nicely summarizes the layout of the Persian city and the major buildings.
18. Standard English edition of DSf Old Persian text: R. G. Kent, Old Persian: Grammar, Texts, Lexicon, AOS 33 (New Haven, 1953), pp. 142-44 (DSf);
19. with additions in M.-J. Steve, "Inscriptions des Achéménides à Suse (suite)," Studia Iranica 3 (1974): 135-61 (pp. 145-47, for the Old Persian)
20. and idem, Nouveaux mélanges épigraphiqites: Inscriptions royales de Suse et de la Susiane, MDAI53 (Nice, 1987), pp. 64-71 (no. 29).
21. Standard editions of the Akkadian version: idem, "Inscriptions des Achéménides à Suse," pp. 155-61;
22. idem, Nouveaux mélanges épigraphiques, pp. 72-77 (no. 29).
23. Standard editions of the Elamite version: F. Vallat, "Deux inscriptions élamites de Darius ler (DSf et DSz)," Studio Iranica 1 (1972): 8-11.
24. Closely similar to DSf are DSz (Elamite version) and DSaa (Akkadian version); see idem, "Deux inscriptions élamites de Darius Ier (DSf et DSz)"; Steve, Nouveaux mélanges épigraphiques, pp. 79-82 (no. 32), gives an edition of the DSz Old Persian version and a fragmentary exemplar of the DSz Elamite version;
25. Vallat, "Table accadienne de Darius Ier (DSaa)" in L. de Meyer, H. Gasche, and F. Vallat, eds., Fragmenta Historiae Elamicae: Melanges offerts à M. J. Steve (Paris, 1986), pp. 277-83, for an edition of DSaa and comments on its relationship to DSf;
26. Margaret Cool Root, The King and Kingship in Achaemenid Art: Essays on the Creation of an Iconography of Empire, Acta Iranica 19 (Leiden, 1979), pp. 7-10, for caveats concerning the propagandistic overtones of the foundation charter.
27. Amiet, Glyptique susienne des origines à l'e'poque des Perses achéménides: Cachets, sceaux. cylindres et empreintes antiques découverts à Suse de 1913 à 1967, MDAI 43 (Paris, 1972), no. 2203. The tablet carries the impression of only one seal and is roughly similar to thousands of anepigraphic sealed tablets found in the Persepolis Fortification archive (almost half of the Fortification archive consists of anepigraphic documents which carry only seal impressions;
28. only one of these documents has ever been published: C. G. Starr, "A Sixth Century Athenian Tetradrachm Used to Seal a Clay Tablet from Persepolis," Numismatic Chronicle 136 [1976]: 219-22).
29. Note the comments of Stolper, "Cuneiform Texts from Susa," in Harper, Aruz, Tallon, The Royal City of Susa, pp. 256-60.
30. The seven legal texts found under the Palace of Darius (Scheil, Textes élamites-anzanites, MDP 11, nos. 301-7) and the 299 administrative texts found near the temple built by Shutruk-Nahunte II on the "tell de l'Acropole" (idem, Textes élamitesanzanites, MDP 9) establish the existence of recordkeeping in Elamite in the period preceding Achaemenid rule at Susa. The administrative texts also use a number of phrases and features found in the Fortification archive and were apparently written at Susa (the majority of them at least) and also at other places, including points as far east as Hidali (see the summary in Stolper, "Cuneiform Texts from Susa," pp. 259-60, and the catalogue entries nos. 187 and 188 in Harper, Aruz, Tallon, The Royal City of Susa). The exact dating of these two sets of tablets in the Neo-Elamite II period cannot be fixed;
31. see Amiet, "La glyptique de la fin de l'Elam," pp. 3-32;
32. P. de Miroschedji, "Notes sur la glyptique de la fin de l'Elam," RA 76 (1982): 51-63;
33. idem, "La fin du royaume d'Anšan et de Suse et la naissance de l'empire perse," Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 75 (1985): 265-306;
34. Steve, "La fin de l'Elam: à propos d'une empreinte de sceau-cylindre," Studia Iranica 15 (1986): 7-21;
35. E. Carter and M. W. Stolper, Elam: Surveys of Political History and Archaeology, University of California Publications, Near Eastern Studies 25 (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1984), pp. 44-56;
36. W. Hinz, "Elams Übergang ins Perserreich," in Transition Periods in Iranian History, Studia Iranica, Cahier 5 (Paris and Louvain, 1987), pp. 125-34;
37. J. Bollweg, "Protoachämenidische Siegelbilder," Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Iran (AMI) 21 (1988): 53-63;
38. see my article "Seals and the Elite at Persepolis," pp. 3-4.
39. Hallock, Persepolis Fortification Tablets, p. 25. Charles Jones has kindly reedited the text from photographs provided by the Louvre.
40. Two large administrative archives of Achaemenid date have been found at Persepolis: the Persepolis Fortification tablets and the Persepolis Treasury tablets. The readable Treasury tablets, numbering 129, document the payment of silver in lieu of foodstuffs to work groups in the Persepolis area during the years 492 to 458 B.C. For the texts, see G. G. Cameron, Persepolis Treasury Tablets, OIP 65 (Chicago, 1948);
41. idem, "Persepolis Treasury Tablets Old and New," JNES 17 (1958): 161-76;
42. idem, "New Tablets from the Persepolis Treasury," JNES 24 (1965): 167-92;
43. W. Hinz, review of Cameron, Persepolis Treasury Tablets, in ZA 40 (1950): 347-53;
44. idem, "Zu den Persepolis-Täfelchen," ZDMG 110 (1960): 236-51;
45. Hallock, "New Light from Persepolis," JNES 9 (1950): 237-552;
46. idem, "A New Look at the Persepolis Treasury Tablets," JNES 19 (1960):-90-100.
47. For the seal impressions, see Schmidt, Persepolis, vol. 2, pp. 4-41 and pls. 1-14;
48. Edith Porada, review of Schmidt, Persepolis, vol. 2, in JNES 20 (1961): 66-71;
49. see my "Seal Workshops and Artists in Persepolis," pp. 172-78.
50. Both the Treasury and Fortification archive were recorded almost exclusively in Elamite. The Fortification archive contains in addition one tablet in Greek (J. M. Balcer, review of J. Hofstetter, Die Griechen in Persien, in Biblotheca Ori. entalis 36 [1979]: 276-80) and approximately 700 monolingual Aramaic texts.
51. Found with the Fortification tablets were a tablet inscribed in Phrygian (J. Friedrich, "Ein phryg?schen Siegel und ein phrygischen Tontä-felchen," Kadmos 4 [1965]: 154-56;
52. O. Haas, "Die phrygischen Sprachdenkmäler," Balkansko Ezikoznie 10 [1965]: 176)
53. and one in Babylonian (Stolper, "The Neo-BabyIonian Text from the Persepolis Fortification," JNES 43 [1984]: 299-310). The Babylonian and Phrygian texts do rot seem to be part of the same administrative archive represented by the Elamite and Aramaic texts from the Fortification archive. See n. 15 above for the anepigraphic tablets in the Fortification archive.
54. Some tablets written in Elamite similar to those from Persepolis have recently been identified in Freiburg (Switzerland) (F. Vallat, "Deux tablettes élamites de l'Université de Fribourg," JNES 53 [1994]: 263-74)
55. and in the Yale Babylonian Collection (Jones and Stolper, "Two Late Elamite Tablets at Yale," in L. de Meyer, H. Gasche, and F. Vallat, eds., Fragmenta Historiae Elamicae, pp. 246-54). Jones and Stolper will soon publish another tablet (now housed in the British Museum) which is similar to those from Persepolis (personal communication).
56. Hallock, Persepolis Fortification Tablets, published 2087 texts (texts preceded with the prefix PF); Hallock, "Selected Fortification Texts," Cahiers de la Délégation Archéologique Française en Iran 8 (1978): 109-36, added another 33 texts (preceded with the prefix PFa). Hallock had read and transliterated another 2,586 texts (these texts and the PFa texts are now preceded with the prefix PFNN; most of the PFNN texts are referenced in Hinz and Koch, Elamisches Wörterbuch, AMI Ergänzungsband 17 [Berlin, 1987]). The Fortification archive has been the focus of several specialized studies; for a brief overview
57. see D. M. Lewis, "The Fortification Texts," in H. Sancisi-Weerdenburg and A. Kuhrt, eds., Achaemenid History IV: Center and Periphery (Leiden, 1990), pp. 1-6;
58. Garrison, Seal Workshops and Artists in Persepolis, pp. 161-72;
59. see my "Seals and the Elite at Persepolis," passim. Koch, Verwaitung und Wirtschafi, examines in detail the administrative organization and the duties of officials in the Fortification archive. See also idem, Es kündet Dareios der König...: Vom Leben im persischen Grossreich, Kulturgeschichte der Antiken Welt 55 (Mainz, 1992), esp. pp. 29-67, drawing heavily upon the evidence of the Fortification tablets.
60. (see Hallock, "The Persepolis Fortification Archive," Orientalia, n.s., 42 [1973]: 320-23, esp. p. 321, n. 5).
61. Halmi can mean both a seal and a sealed document. Clearly, in the Fortification texts the term denotes a document (probably sealed with the royal seal) which individuals carry, and not the actual seal of the king. Halmi is an Elamite word; its Old Persian equivalent, miyatukka, sometimes occurs in its place (see Lewis, "The Persepolis Tablets: Speech, Seal and Script," in A. K. Bowman and G. Woolf, eds., Literacy and Power in the Ancient World [Cambridge, 1994], pp. 17-32 [p. 27 for halmi and miyatukka]).
62. Hallock, "Evidence of the Persepolis Tablets," pp. 598 and 608, corrected the earlier identification of Irtašduna with a daughter of Darius;
63. Hallock, "Use of Seals," p. 128;
64. Hallock, "Selected Fortification Texts," pp. 110, 113, and 121;
65. Hinz, "Achämenidische Hofverwaltung," ZA 61 (1971): 261-311 (esp. pp. 298-99);
66. Lewis, Sparta and Persia (Leiden, 1977), p. 22;
67. idem, "Postscript," in A. R. Bum, Persia and the Greeks (London, 1984), pp. 587-612 (pp. 599-600, for Irtašduna);
68. Koch, Verwaltung und Wirtschaft, pp. 16, 21, 29, 82, 94, 106, 144, 148, 150-51, 154, 178, 199, 204, 226, 291;
69. M. Brosius, "Royal and Non-Royal Women in Achaemenid Persia (559-331 B.C.)" (D. Phil, thesis, University of Oxford, 1991), pp. 29-31, 42, 62-69, 103-4, 131-34, 197-98;
70. Koch, Es kündet Dareios der König, pp. 236-38.
71. idem, "Select Fortification Texts," p. 113;
72. Hinz, "Achämenidische Hofverwaltung," pp. 298-99;
73. Koch, " ?ofschatzwarte' und 'Schatz- häuser' in der Persis," ZA 71 (1981): 232-47 (p. 234. Irdabama identified as a wife of Darius);
74. idem, "Zu den Lohnverhältnissen der Dareioszeit in Persien," in H. Koch and D. N. Mackenzie, eds., Kunst, Kultur und Geschichte der Achämenidenzeit und ihr Fortleben, AMI Ergänzungsband 10 (Berlin, 1983), pp. 19-35 (p. 30, queen);
75. Brosius, "Royal and Non-Royal Women," pp. 134-52 and 198-99, concludes that Irdabama was certainly highly placed but that her exact position in the royal family is unknown.
76. Hallock, "The Use of Seals on the Persepolis Fortification Tablets," in M. Gibson and R. Biggs, eds., Seals and Sealing in the Ancient Near East, Bibliotheca Mesopotamia 6 (Malibu, 1977), pp. 127-33 (pp. 127-28, pl. E[3], for PFS 7);
77. Root, Crowning Glories: Persian Kingship and the Power of Creative Continuity (Ann Arbor, 1990), pp. 36-37;
78. Root, "The Persian Archer at Persepolis: Aspects of Chronology, Style and Symbolism," in R. Descat, ed., L?r perse et Ghistoire grecque, Revue des études anciennes 91 (Paris, 1989), pp. 33-50 (esp. pp. 40-42, figs. 2-3);
79. idem, "Seals and the Elite at Persepolis," pp. 13-21;
80. Harper Aruz, Tallon, The Royal City of Susa, p. 273, no. 191;
81. Lewis, "The Persepolis Tablets," pp. 30-31;
82. my "The Identification of Artists and Workshops in Sealed Archival Contexts: The Evidence from Persepolis," in M.-F. Boussac and A. Invemizzi, eds., Proceedings of the Congress Archives, Sealings and Seals in the Hellenistic World (Turin, in press);
83. Root and Garrison, with an appendix by C. Jones, "Royal Name Seals in the Persian Empire" (in preparation). The drawing (fig. 7 here) is collated from 31 impressions of PFs 7 studied to date. Estimated original height of the cylinder seal: 3.00 cm.; estimated original diameter: 1.70 cm.
84. The inscription on PFS 7 has been known for some time. It has most recently been published, with previous bibliography, in R. Schmitt, Altpersische Siegel-Inschrifien, Sitzungsberichte der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Phil.-Hist. Kl. 381 (Vienna, 1981), p. 22, sub SDe;
85. see also M. Mayrhofer, Supplement zur Sammlung der altpersischen inschriften, Sitzungsberichte der Österreiuchischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Phil.-Hist. Kl. 328 (Vienna, 1978), p. 16, sub 3.11.1, for only the Old Persian. Known as SDe, the inscription on PFS 7 is one of the standard trilingual (Old Persian, Elamite, Akkadian) inscriptions of Darius I. The visible portions of the inscription SDe are identical to the inscription on the famous London Darius cylinder (SDa). Each line of SDe is, however, enclosed in a panel, and the signs seem to be slightly taller compared to the length of each line than in SDa. The inscription occurs with variations also on the PTS 1 (SDb), PTS 2 (SDe), PTS 3 (SDd), PFS 11 (SDf), PFS 113 /PTS 4 (SDg), and PFS 1683 (unpublished);
86. for all the inscriptions see Schmitt, Altpersische Siegel-Inschrifien, pp. 19-24, s.vv.
87. see the discussion in M. Roaf, Sculptures and Sculptors at Persepolis, Iran 21 (London, 1983), pp. 133-38.
88. J. Boardman, Greek Gems and Finger Rings (New York, 1970), p. 305, first coined the term "Court Style" to describe a special class of Achaemenid Persian seals which, in his opinion, show close connections, especially iconographically, to architectural sculpture at Persepolis. Broadman did not go into a detailed stylistic analysis of the Court Style. I have articulated some of the specific stylistic attributes of the Court Style, as well as its stylistic connections to other glyptic traditions of the first millennium B.C.
89. idem, "Seals and the Elite at Persepolis," pp. 13-21). The Court Style, in its earliest phases as found in the seal impressions preserved on the Fortification tablets, does seem closely connected to the court of the Persian king, but by the mid-fifth century B.C., seals cut in the Court Style seem to have a very wide distribution.
90. On the preparations surrounding the arrival of the Persian King, see Briant, "Le nomadisme du Grand Roi," Iranica Ant?qua 23 (1988): 253-73. Note also the remark of Herodotus (7.32) on preparations for the king's arrival.
91. Koch, Vemaltung und Wirtschaft, p. 88
92. Occurrences of PFS 66: PF 699-704; the seal also occurs on seven unpublished PFNN tablets. Hallock, "Use of Seals on the Persepolis Tablets," p. 127, suggested that PFS 66 represented the office of the royal miller. The seal, in fact, occurs in two versions on the Persepolis tablets; the original seal (PFS 66a) was replaced by a new seal (PFS 66b) copying the same style and imagery (see my "Seals and the Elite at Persepolis," pp. 10-12). Both seals carry the same Aramaic inscription, which seems to read: "[m]n vtptp."
93. The second word seems to be a personal name, but no known parallels exist in either Aramaic or Elamite (comments courtesy C. Jones; see again my "Seals and the Elite," p. 26, n. 68).
94. Root, King and Kingship, pp. 27 and 120;
95. Amiet, "La glyptique de la fin de l'Elam" no. 28;
96. Bollweg, "Protoachämenidische Siegelbilder," pp. 53-58 (no. 1), pl. 30 (1-3);
97. Root, "From the Heart: Powerful Persianisms in the Art of the Western Empire," in A. Kuhrt and H. Sancisi-Weerdenburg, eds., Achaemenid History VI, Asia Minor and Egypt: Old Cultures in a New Empire (Leiden, 1991), pp. 1-29 (esp. pp. 21-22);
98. Porada, "Cylinder Seals" in Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. 5.5, pp. 479-505 (p. 500, pl. 47.9 for the Cyrus cylinder);
99. Root, Garrison, and Jones, "Royal Name Seals" (in preparation). Occurrences of PFS 93: PF 692-95, 2033;
100. See Koch's comments in "Die achämenidische Poststrasse von Persepolis nach Susa," AMI 19 (1986): 133-47 (esp. pp. 145-46, for rations of meat to travelers).
101. See Garrison, "Seals and the Elite at Persepolis," passim, for more detail.
102. The place is Šursunkiri in Elam. This is the only cattle transaction located outside of Koch's southeastern Region (III); this may account for Irtuppiya's actions here. Note also that the text says halmi lrtuppiya(na), "seal (or sealed document)
103. There are clearly many gaps in our documentation. We do not know exactly how or where the documents were produced or how they came to be deposited in the fortification wall at Persepolis. The fact that dated texts are unevenly distributed in both the J texts and the archive as a whole cannot be explained satisfactorily (for example, we do not have any J texts for the Years 13-18,20,23,26, and 28, and it seems highly unlikely that no transactions of this type took place). The uneven distribution might reflect record-purging procedures, the actual fluctuations in economic and accounting activity or the fluctuations in recording and filing of that activity. Alternatively, the uneven distribution of dated texts might reflect gaps owing to modern recovery, preservation, and selective publication of the texts. (We should remember that the published texts represent perhaps less than a third of the total number of preserved texts. Future editions of the texts may help to fill the lacunae which currently exist.) In addition, the exact nature of the find-spot of the Fortification tablets is unclear. Surprisingly, little information was provided by Herzfeld on the archaeological context of the tablets. Herzfeld referred to the find-spot of the tablets as "two little archive chambers in the fortification wall," implying a primary context (E. Herzfeld, "Recent Discoveries at Persepolis," JRAS [1934]: 231;
104. Hallock said, however, that the tablets had been redeposited in the fortification wall as fill ("Persepolis Fortification Archive," p. 320).
105. (Persepolis Fortification Tablets, p. 74).
106. Koch, "Die achämenidische Poststrasse von Persepolis nach Susa," passim.
107. Cf. the famous Aramaic text of Aršam, a Persian governor and a prince of the royal house (G. R. Driver, Aramaic Documents of the Fifth Century B.C. [Oxford, 1957], no. 8;
108. for a new copy and edition including translation and commentary, see B. Porten and A. Yardeni, Textbook of Aramaic Documents from Ancient Egypt, 2 vols. (Jerusalem, 1986-), vol. l.A.6.10.
109. See also the comments on p. 32 above. For a recent summary of the long-standing and complex relationships between Susiana and Fars, see Amiet "An Introduction to the History of Art in Iran," in Harper, Aruz, and Tallon, The Royal City of Susa, pp. 2-15;
110. Amiet, "Sur l'histoire élamite," Iranica Antigua 27 (1992): 75-94.
111. See the comments and references in Jones and Stolper, "Two Late Elamite Tablets at Yale," p. 248, noting the discovery of the Achaemenid Elamite administrative tablets at Kandahar, Chogha Mish, and Qasr-i Abu Nasr.
112. e s. av. n. è.) [Paris, 1984], pp. 59-61).
113. I. M. Diakonoff and N. B. Jankowska, "An Elamite Gilgameš Text from Argištihenele, Urartu (Armavirblur, 8th Century B.C.)," ZA 80 (1990): 102-23, published an Elamite tablet found in excavations in Armenia, interpreting it as a new version of the Gilgamesh story.
114. Koch has recently published an article in which she argues that this text is actually a Persepolis-like administrative document (see "Elamisches Gilgameš-Epos oder doch Verwal-tungstäfelchen," ZA 83 [1993]: 219-36).
115. Glimpses of other possible archives are provided by the texts cited in n. 70 above. In this context, the "inscribed bullae" from Daskyleion could conceivably also represent another archive concerned with food distribution (see recently D. Kaptap-Bayburtluoǧlu, "A Group of Seal Impressions on the Bullae from Ergili/ Daskyleion," Epigraphica Anatolica 16 [1990]: 15-27). The documents mentioned or illustrated to date are generally described as part of the satrapal or palace records, although the evidence for this statement seems to rest chiefly on the fact that they were discovered at Daskyleion, a satrapal city. From descriptions and illustrations of the "inscribed bullae," they seem to be anepigraphic bullae, some of which have been sealed with inscribed seals. Although they do seem to have been attached to papyrus or parchment rolls, their exact administrative function is unknown.
116. Cf. Briant's remarks in Rots, tributs et paysans (Paris, 1982), pp. 207-11, and chap. 11 in his De Cyrus à Alexandre: Une histoire de l'empire achéminide (Leiden, in press).
117. Compare the discrepancy between Herodotus's list of tax-paying districts (3.89-96) versus what is known of the boundaries of political provinces of the time; see A. T. Olmstead, History of the Persian Empire (Chicago, 1948), pp. 291-97;
118. J. M. Cook, The Persian Empire (New York, 1983), pp. 77-90. Most scholars have preferred not to identify Persis as a satrapy, although the issue is by no means settled;
119. see, for example, Lewis, Sparta and Persia, pp. 8-9 (my thanks to P. Briant for this reference).