Amélie Kuhrt (23 September 1944 – 2 January 2023) was a British historian and specialist in the history of the ancient Near East. Kuhrt was educated at

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

and SOAS. Professor Emerita at

, she specialised in the social,

cultural Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...

and

political history Political history is the narrative and survey of political events, ideas, movements, organs of government, voters, parties and leaders. It is closely related to other fields of history, including diplomatic history, constitutional history, soci ...

of the region from c. 3000–100 BC, especially the

Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , ''māt Aššur'') was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization that existed as a city-state from the 21st century BC to the 14th century BC and eventually expanded into an empire from the 14th century BC t ...

Babylonia Babylonia (; , ) was an Ancient history, ancient Akkadian language, Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Kuwait, Syria and Iran). It emerged as a ...

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

n and Seleucid empires. Kuhrt died on 2 January 2023, at the age of 78.

Achaemenid History Workshops

Kuhrt was co-organiser of the Groningen-based Achaemenid History Workshops with Heleen Sancisi-Weerdenberg from 1983 to 1990. These workshops were noted for their "multidisciplinary approach... hichsaved Achaemenid history from being viewed from a Hellenocentric stance" and inspired other thematically focused scholarly activities in the 1980s and 1990s.^:522–23 Proceedings from Achaemenid History Workshops were published in eight volumes (Achaemenid History: I-VIII, 1987–94).

Awards and honours

In 1997, Kuhrt's book ''The Ancient Near East : c.3000-330 BC'' was awarded the annual American History Association's James Henry Breasted Prize for the best book in English on any field of history prior to the year 1000 AD: the committee noted "enormous breadth and depth of Amelie Kuhrt’s work, her ability to elucidate even the most confused periods and deftly to incorporate both source problems and scholarly disagreements in her text, and her lucid prose make this volume a pleasure to read... she has expanded the parameters of the field of world history." Kuhrt was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2001. She was a member of the British Academy's Projects Committee, which is responsible for assessing the scope for new projects and initiatives sponsored by the Academy. Kuhrt was elected to Honorary Membership of the American Oriental Society in 2009.

Publications

Selected books

* ''The Persian Empire: A Corpus of Sources of the Achaemenid Period''. London:

Routledge Routledge ( ) is a British multinational corporation, multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, academic journals, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanit ...

, 2007. * ''The Ancient Near East : c.3000-330 BC''. London : Routledge, 1995. (v.1), (v.2) * ''Images of Women in Antiquity''. With Averil Cameron. London : Routledge, 1993.

Selected articles

* "Ancient Near Eastern History: The Case of Cyrus the Great of Persia", in Hugh G. M. Williamson (ed), ''Understanding the History of Ancient Israel''.

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

. 2007. , pp. 107–127 * "Cyrus the Great of Persia: Images and Realities", in M. Heinz & M. H. Feldman (eds), ''Representations of Political Power: Case Histories from Times of Change and Dissolving Order in the Ancient Near East,'' pp. 174–175. Eisenbrauns, 2007. * "The Problem of Achaemenid Religious Policy", in B. Groneberg & H. Spieckermann (eds.), ''Die Welt der Gotterbilder'', Walter de Gruyter, 2007, pp. 117–142 * "Sennacherib's Siege of Jerusalem", in A.K. Bowman et al. (eds) ''Representations of Empire: Rome and the Mediterranean World.'' Oxford University Press. 2004. pp. 13 – 33. * "The Achaemenid Persian empire (c. 550-c. 330 BCE): continuities, adaptations, transformations", in S.E. Alcock et al. (eds.), ''Empires: perspectives from archaeology and history.''

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

. 2001, pp. 93–123 * "Women and War", ''Journal of Gender Studies in Antiquity'' 2 (1) (2001) 1 - 25 * "The Persian Kings and their subjects: A unique relationship?", ''Orientalistische Literaturzeitung'', vol. 96 no. 2 (2001), pp. 165–172 * "Israelite and Near Eastern historiography," in A. Lemaire & M. Saebo (eds), ''Vetus Testamentum Supplementum'' 80 (2000), pp. 257–279 * "Usurpation, conquest and ceremonial: From Babylon to Persia", in D. Cannadine, S. Price (eds), ''Rituals of Royalty: Power and Ceremonial in Traditional Societies'', Cambridge University Press, 1992, pp. 20–55 * "Babylonia from Cyrus to Xerxes", in John Boardman (ed), '' The Cambridge Ancient History: Vol IV - Persia, Greece and the Western Mediterranean''. Cambridge University Press, 1982. p. 124 * "The Cyrus Cylinder and Achaemenid imperial policy", ''Journal of Studies of the Old Testament'' 25 (1983), pp. 83–97

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuhrt, Amelie 1944 births 2023 deaths Alumni of King's College London British historians Fellows of the British Academy British Iranologists People associated with the History Department, University College London British Assyriologists Iran's Book of the Year Awards recipients Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford