Women in Ancient Persia, 559-331 B.C

The Persepolis Fortification texts are quoted in three different ways. Those texts published by Hallock in 1969 are marked as PF, followed by the tablet number. Those texts published in 1978 are marked PFa 1 to PFa 36. The corpus of unpublished Fortification texts of Hallock's manuscript are abbreviated PF-NN, followed by the tablet number. The unpublished Fortification texts have been discussed on the basis of Hallock's transliteration; they have not been read against the tablet texts themselves. I shall refer to the published and unpublished texts as 'Fortification texts'. Texts from the Treasury of Persepolis published by Cameron are referred to as 'Treasury texts' and are quoted as PT. Two texts from Persepolis which were collated by Cameron are marked 'Fort.', followed by the tablet number (Fort. 6764 and PF-NN Fort. 5206); in one case the abbreviation for a Fortification text is 'Teh.', followed by the tablet number (Teh. 1957-2).

The Fortification texts are quoted with their date in brackets (year/month(s)) and, in cases when it is relevant to the discussion, the seal number is added in brackets. In the tables a period of several months is indicated by the number of months followed by the letter m instead of listing the months individually. For example, the date 24/3m indicates a period of three months in the 24th year. The years are numbered in the Fortification texts according to the ruling year of the reigning king. If either the year or the month are not known they are replaced with x. If a date is doubtful it is quoted with a question mark (y?/m?). Seal numbers are stated according to Hallock's list of seals. Unnumbered seals are distinguished in the tables by the letter s.

If ration scales for workers are quoted in the text the ration amounts for children are omitted. In the tables ration scales are limited for those workers discussed in the text; the abbreviation (m) distinguishes male workers, and (f) female workers.

The logographic writings ŠE.BAR, ŠE.GIŠ, UDU.NITÁ, ZÍD.DA, GIŠ.GEŠTIN, and KAŠ have been translated according

-xix-