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On Cultural Boundaries and Languages in Western Iran: The Case of the Zagros Gates

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Archaeology of Iran in the Historical Period

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Abstract

This study examines the nature and history of the cultural, political and linguistic boundary that runs along the western side of the Iranian region, through the Zagros mountains. A long-term evaluation of that boundary, from antiquity through the modern era, shows how the boundary between the Zagrosian and Assyro-Babylonian worlds, and between later states, such as Safavid and Qajar Iran, and the Ottoman empire, has undergone change, such that sites and towns commonly thought of as being in one cultural sphere were, at times, in another. The significance of boundary zones, as opposed to clear-cut boundary lines, is examined.

Hic erat ex Assyria in Mediam transitus (Katancsich 1825 : 380)

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  1. Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University, New York, USA

    D. T. Potts

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  1. Department of Archaeology, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

    Kamal-Aldin Niknami

  2. Department of Archaeology, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

    Ali Hozhabri

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Potts, D.T. (2020). On Cultural Boundaries and Languages in Western Iran: The Case of the Zagros Gates. In: Niknami, KA., Hozhabri, A. (eds) Archaeology of Iran in the Historical Period. University of Tehran Science and Humanities Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41776-5_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41776-5_5

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