Aramaic Ritual Texts from Persepolis

We now have Raymond Bowman’s long awaited edition of the Aramaic texts from Persepolis, unearthed during the expedition by the University of Chicago under Erich F. Schmidt between 1936 and 1938. Bowman has assembled important data on the chronology of Persepolis during the first half of the fifth century B.C. from the personal names and official titles listed in the Aramaic texts. He shows acumen in attacking certain textual problems, and his commentary and introduction provide the scholar with information necessary for a proper understanding of this corpus of some two hundred brief, formulaic inscriptions written on various stone implements-mortars and pestles, plates and trays-found in the treasury at Persepolis. [From an article by Baruch A. Levine in the Journal of the American Oriental Society 92 (1972) 70-79].