The first event of the summer took place in June at Uppsala University, where the team attended the Annual European Association of Biblical Studies (EABS) Conference.
This conference marked the first time our group presented together at a conference. The presentation outlined the WORK-IT’s overall aims, the nature of the sources, and the interdisciplinary methodologies that are employed. The response from Uppsala highlighted the relevance of the research and emphasized the importance of us approaching the topic from an interdisciplinary point of view.
The conference program was weighted toward theology and biblical studies and members of our group found that this disciplinary orientation encouraged new insights. The conference enabled meaningful cross-disciplinary exchange and created valuable opportunities for networking with colleagues from across Europe.
In August, the group took part in the 25th meeting of the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament (IOSOT), which was held in Berlin.
The team presented two papers in the panel entitled Labor as an Approach to the Persian Empire in the Southern Levant, which was chaired by Jason M. Silverman. The papers presented were SOURCE-IT: Forced Labour and Indirect Taxation in the Southern Levant, presented by Lucia Cerullo, Filippo Pedron, Mitchka Shahryari and Daniele Soares and Towards Rethinking Economy and Society in the Persian Levant through Informal Taxation and Bourdieu, presented by Jeremy Land and Jason Silverman. Both of these papers received responses from Odette Boivin and Rhyne King, who provided critical and constructive comments. Unlike in Uppsala, in Berlin our team presented a dedicated panel on the project. The responses received for the presentations were helpful in giving specified feedback and pointing the team toward future directions with, for example, comparisons with Babylonia.
In the panel The State of Archaeology and Inscriptions in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Persian Period, chaired by James D. Moore, Mitchka Shahryari presented a paper titled The Aramaic Idumean Corpus in its Imperial Context. This paper has sought to situate the Idumean material within its administrative, fiscal, and imperial context, while presenting preliminary results. Most notably the identification of a key term associating the Idumean corpus with a policy of land management bearing fiscal implications.
The Berlin conference stood out for its breadth of content. In contrast to Uppsala, IOSOT included numerous sessions broader in fields, which offered additional perspectives for members of the team. While the range of panels made it impossible to attend every presentation of interest, the conference nonetheless proved highly productive in facilitating new scholarly exchanges.
The summer concluded in Turku, Finland, where the team participated first in the End of Empire Symposium (August 18–19) and then in the ANEE Annual Meeting (August 20–22), both hosted in the Ruissalo area.
At the Symposium, two papers were presented: Nabonidus as the Last Assyrian and the First Teispid? Shifting allegiances between Edomites and Arabs, Gutium and Media, Belshazzar and Cambyses presented by Jason M. Silverman and Achaemenid Empire and Greek Domination: a local transition study in the Idumean Corpus, presented by Mitchka Shahryari.
Immediately following the symposium, the ANEE Annual Meeting provided an even broader platform for multidisciplinary exchange. The meeting gathered scholars from archaeology, philology, history, and related disciplines, creating an environment where conversations easily crossed disciplinary boundaries. This atmosphere was particularly valuable, as the ANEE framework aligns closely with the group’s own cross-disciplinary orientation. In a seminar held in the meeting, our team held two presentations: Filippo Pedron’s The status of gŗda- workers in the Achaemenid Empire, and Daniele Soares’ Rebuilding Jerusalem's Temple: A Religious, Social and Economical Analysis.
Across Uppsala, Berlin, and Turku, the summer’s conferences highlighted the breadth of the project’s interdisciplinary scope. The combination of presenting as a team, engaging with formal responses, and participating in multidisciplinary seminars advanced both the conceptual framework and the source-based aspects of the research.
The team returns from the summer season with refined arguments, broadened perspectives, and expanded networks, all of which will continue to shape the development of the project in the coming months.
The new academic year is officially here, and the WORK-IT team greets it with joy!