title: Mesopotamia and Iran in the Parthian and Sasanian Periods
author: John Curtis
description: John Curtis is Keeper of Special Middle East Projects at the British Museum and a Fellow of the British Academy. His personal research interests focus on the archaeology and history of Iraq and Iran, c.1000-330 BC. He is the author of a number of books including An Examination of Late Assyrian Metalwork, Ancient Persia, The Oxus Treasure, Forgotten Empire (with Nigel Tallis) and The Horse: From Arabia to Royal Ascot (with Nigel Tallis).
zlib_text: Grajetzki, Wolfram. "Introduction." Greeks and Parthians in Mesopotamia and Beyond, 331 BC-
  AD 224. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2011. 1–4. Bloomsbury Collections. Web. 21 Apr. 2020.
  <http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781472540720.0005>.
  Downloaded from Bloomsbury Collections, www.bloomsburycollections.com, 21 April 2020,
  20:15 UTC.
  Access provided by: Freie Universitat Berlin
  Copyright © Wolfram Grajetzki 2011. All rights reserved. Further reproduction or distribution is
  prohibited without prior permission in writing from the publishers.
  
  Introduction
  This book follows the development of urban life in Babylonia, Elymais and
  the northern part of the Persian Gulf, from the arrival of Alexander the
  Great (331 BC) to the end of the Parthian empire (224 AD). For this period
  of about 500 years, certain cities have been selected as our access to the
  people living and working in the region as a whole. The heartland of the
  most ancient civilisations, this area remained throughout these centuries,
  as 