Achaemenid History V: The Roots of the European Tradition, Proceedings of the 1987Groningen Achaemenid History Workshop by H. Sancisi-Weerdenburg; J. W. DrijversReview by: R. H. S.Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 112, No. 1 (Jan. - Mar., 1992), pp. 161-162Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/604619 .

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Brief Reviews of Books 161

available archaeological data do not give a clear answer to the question of how the imperial structure looked, nor do they resolve the dilemma of whether the Achaemenid empire was a monolithic state or a loosely connected and fragmented entity."

Of all of the volumes of proceedings from the Groningen conferences that have appeared, this is clearly the most impor- tant. The scope of the inquiries included here is extremely broad-from an overview of the Persepolis excavations and the written evidence found there to the relations between the Greeks and the Persians in later times. Of particular value are the studies of Arabia with its epigraphic sources, Wilhelm Vo- gelsgang's overview of what we know (or don't know) of India in Achaemenid times, and Stern and Ackroyd's commentaries on Palestine in Persian times. Although Kuhrt's article on Achaemenid Babylonia has now been largely preempted by Dandamaev's recently published, superb monograph concern- ing the same subject, it nevertheless provides a nice overview of the area and the sources for it. As such, it is a valuable component of the study.

Despite the positive aspects, one problem surfaces through- out the whole volume. Instead of concentrating on the ques- tion of whether Persian influence was extensive or limited in the center and periphery of the empire, several contributors (and, certainly, the editors) seem preoccupied with finding evidence of those elements that are uniquely Persian. This can be seen particularly in the questions raised concerning govern- mental organization and territorial administration. While there can be no question that the Achaemenids exerted important influence on the areas they conquered, there is, as of now, very little evidence of dramatic change. This was also true fol- lowing Alexander's conquest of the Persians in 331 B.C., since only a veneer of hellenism coated cultures and institutions that were a part of the Persian empire. Indeed, much of the evi- dence examined to date suggests continuity with the past rather than the emergence of an entity that represented an im- portant break with it. While I certainly applaud the attempts made to explore the question, "was there ever a Persian Em- pire?" by several contributors to this volume, perhaps the evi- dence discussed and analyzed here already provides us with an adequate answer that needs little further elaboration.

In sum, this book is a valuable research tool, since it pro- vides us with an excellent overview of the current state of our knowledge of the Achaemenid kingdom. In addition, it ex- poses areas in which our knowledge is pitifully weak and sug- gests approaches to guide further research into the nature of the fringe areas of the Empire. It is for this that we must be very grateful.

RONALD H. SACK

NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY

Achaemenid History V: The Roots of the European Tradition, Proceedings of the 1987 Groningen Achaemenid History Workshop. Edited by H. SANCISI-WEERDENBURG and J. W. DRIJVERS. Leiden: NEDERLANDS INSTITUT VOOR HET NABIJE

OOSTEN, 1990. Pp. xii + 170.

The volume under review contains the proceedings of the 1987 Groningen Achaemenid History Workshop. Like other volumes published in the same series, it contains articles cov- ering a wide variety of topics that are related to a specific theme, in this instance the "roots of the European tradition." The introduction offered by Drijvers and Sancisi-Weerdenburg emphasizes concentration on an historiographic analysis of the oriental and hellenocentric images of the Achaemenid Persian empire that have developed over the past two millennia and the reasons for their development. The editors confidently as- sert that the undertaking of an historiographic study of this magnitude was "no frivilous cultural exercise" and "was thus aimed not only at a critical investigation of traditional con- cepts, ideological biases and critical prejudices but also at try- ing to initiate the collection of documentation on Ancient Iran as a crucial image in Europe's cultural development" (p. x).

There can be no question that an undertaking of this nature is very worthwhile and valuable. I also feel that historio- graphic investigations have taken a back seat to other more popular approaches to the study of the civilizations of the ancient Near East. Several of the articles included here offer fresh interpretations of source material and emphasis on the development of images of Cyrus and his Achaemenid dynasty that are as important as the actual deeds of the Persian mon- archs. Ackroyd's study of the Biblical material is especially good. Far too much has been said or written about the "favor- able" characterization of the Achaemenids in the Old Testa- ment without the benefit of a critical historiographic analysis of the sources upon which that impression has been based. The same can be said of the very interesting study of Heleen Sancisi-Weerdenburg related to the image of Cyrus as it de- veloped in Italy in the Renaissance. I certainly hope that more such studies related to other periods in ancient Near East his- tory will be done in the future.

While my impressions of this volume are generally favor- able, there are, nevertheless, some problems. I do not feel that, overall, the articles presented here measure up to the quality found in volume IV. In fact, I find it hard to see very much that is new in Geert Harmanny's study of Annius of Viterbo. Much of what is presented here was already noted by Bosan- quet and Boscawen over a century ago. Also, I fail to see the relationship of Kuhrt's article on "Alexander and Babylon" to the general theme of the volume. The author states that it is a "short note" (p. 121)-indeed, it is far too short. Also, consid- ering the subject, it is totally out of place here. It probably would have been better had it been included in a previous

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162 Journal of the American Oriental Society 112.1 (1992)

volume which Dr. Kuhrt co-edited, namely, "Hellenism in the East," which I reviewed earlier for this journal (JAOS 110 [1990]: 117-18). While I repeat that I find most of the articles published here to be very useful, the inclusion of essentially unrelated material raises serious questions about what vol- umes containing the proceedings of conferences may be used for. Considering the cost of books nowadays, I believe it is important that editors of such collections of articles include only those studies that relate to the general theme of the vol- ume, thus excluding extraneous material.

R. H. S.

Published Material from the Cambridge Genizah Collections:

A Bibliography, 1896-1980. Edited by STEFAN C. REIF. Cam-

bridge University Library, Genizah Series, vol. 6. Cam- bridge: CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1988. Pp. xiv + 608. $125.

A goal of the Cambridge Genizah Series is to make the 140,000 Genizah fragments in the Library's collections more

accessible to an international community of Judaic, Hebraic, and Semitics scholars. The stated purpose of Published Mate- rial, the fourth work to appear so far in this series, is to supply

scholars with an exhaustive bibliography of all works that cite

these fragments, published between 1896, when Genizah frag- ments first reached Solomon Schechter at Cambridge, and

1980. The scale of this undertaking is truly enormous. Over fifty

thousand entries were processed, computerized and repeatedly edited to produce this volume, which is divided into three

sections: material arranged in order of classmark; material arranged alphabetically by author; list of works cited, incorpo- rating short title index. In the first section, comprising almost

three quarters of the volume, the fragments are arranged in or-

der of their classmarks within the various Genizah collections.

The bibliographic citations found under each classmark list au-

thor, abbreviated title, volume, and page references. The bib- liographic data are followed by codes indicating whether a brief, partial, or complete rendering of the text and/or a trans- lation appear, and whether plates of the fragment are included.

Incomplete and incorrect classmark citations made by the au-

thor are also noted. In the case of fragments that have been ex-

tensively discussed, other published bibliographies are cited. The second section presents an alphabetical list of authors,

subdivided by the abbreviated title of their work(s), then fur-

ther subdivided by volume and page references. The class- marks of the fragments cited by the author are listed under each

page reference. Because of this arrangement, an author's work

which refers to the Genizah collections without actually citing a numbered fragment is not included in this bibliography.

The third section provides a key to the abbreviated titles used in the first two sections. All are published works, with the exception of S. D. Goitein's as yet unpublished India Book, which refers to hundreds of fragments and which ultimately is certain to be published, as well as a number of dissertations widely available in various formats.

The value of the work to the larger scholarly community would have been enhanced greatly by the inclusion of subject indices. The editor's assertion "that there are surely few schol- ars who are unaware of which authors, books and articles are the most relevant to their subjects (p. viii)" can only apply to those scholars who are already well conversant with specific texts or topics within these collections. Subject indices, which were included in two other published volumes in this series, Hebrew Bible Manuscripts in the Cambridge Genizah Collec- tions (1978-80) and Vocalised Talmudic Manuscripts in the Cambridge Genizah Collections (1988), provide many helpful points of access to the fragments. While the editor is correct in maintaining that "many of our classmarks cover particular areas" (p. viii), the potential user may actually have to consult several works to discover which areas a classmark covers.

Scholars will certainly benefit from having these compre- hensive and meticulously edited bibliographical data gathered in one place. The rectification of incorrect and incomplete ci- tations to Genizah collection classmarks within the published scholarly literature is of great benefit to potential users of the collection, especially to those requesting copies of the frag- ments from afar. It must surely become an indispensable tool to anyone contemplating research within this field. The publi- cation of a second volume covering books and articles pub- lished after 1980, with addenda and corrigenda to the current volume, is projected. Perhaps it will be possible to include

subject indices in the forthcoming volume.

DAVID JONATHAN GILNER

HEBREW UNION COLLEGE

Her Price is Beyond Rubies: The Jewish Woman in Graeco- Roman Palestine. By LEONIE J. ARCHER. JSOT Supplement

Series, 19. Sheffield: JSOT PRESS, 1990. Pp. 335. ?27.50, $46.50.

This work expands on the author's doctoral thesis (Univer-

sity of London, 1983) with a new chapter on death ritual and

some additional material found in supplementary notes. Ar- cher's goal is to discover the changes in the social and legal

position of Jewish women living in Palestine during the inter-

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