Heleen Sancisi-Weerdenburg

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Heleen Sancisi-Weerdenburg

Heleen Wilhelmina Agatha Maria Sancisi-Weerdenburg (born May 23, 1944 in Haarlem ; † May 28, 2000 in Utrecht ) was a Dutch ancient historian specializing in classical Greek and Achaemenid history.

Career

Heleen Sancisi-Weerdenburg began her studies in Classical Studies at the University of Leiden , which she graduated in 1967, and then did research with Willem den Boer , a specialist in Greek history. For her doctoral thesis she set herself the task of solving the complex realities of the Achaemenid Empire from the confusing web that had created the literary conventions of Greek literature . That became her life's work. To solve the problem, she studied the ancient Persian language and also Iranian archeology with Louis Vanden Berghe at the University of Ghent . She received her PhD in history and archeology from Leiden University in 1980. After teaching at the University of Groningen from 1975 to 1989 , she became Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Utrecht in 1990 .

She was a pioneering researcher in classical Greek and Persian history. Her work emphasized the importance of returning to classical authors (including the Greek father of the story Herodotus and the Athenian playwright Aeschylus ) with fresh critical attention to the importance of them in the context of the subtext and agendas involved in their complex views of the classical Read Persian history and its 200 year old empire founded by Cyrus II .

In the writing of history in the classical tradition and its modern processing, the classical Achaeminid Persian people and the Greeks, with whom they fought in the so-called Persian Wars, became essential for each other. Layers of assumptions of Western cultural supremacy have made it possible for the tales of the Greeks to be taken literally, though there were clear references in these sources and evidence from Persian sources that cried out for critical reassessment. Sancisi-Weerdenburg systematically examined a number of astutely selected problems in Western assumptions about the Achaemenid Empire - including the mention of decadence as an essential quality of the ancient Persian kings and the mention of the role of harem intrigues as an essential social advancement for women in the empire. The topics became touchstones of the new historical agenda about the Persian Empire, introduced by Sancisi-Weerdenburg's steady confrontation with the doubts that involved engaging and powerful debates with a stimulating number of scholars.

Heleen Sancisi-Weerdenburg died of cancer in Utrecht at the age of 56 . She had two children.

Publications (selection)

Heleen Sancisi-Weerdenburg was a prolific writer on Achaemenid history with numerous publications in Dutch and English.

  • Colloquium Early Achaemenid History. In: Persica. 9, 1980, pp. 231-232.
  • (Ed.): Achaemenid History. Proceedings of the London 1983 Achaemenid History Workshop. Volume I: Sources, Structures & Synthesis. Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, Leiden 1987, ISBN 90-6258-401-2 .
  • (Ed.): Achaemenid History. Proceedings of the London 1984 Achaemenid History Workshop. Volume II: The Greek Sources. Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, Leiden 1987, ISBN 90-6258-402-0 .
  • with Amélie Kuhrt (Ed.): Achaemenid History. Proceedings of the London 1985 Achaemenid History Workshop Volume III: Method and Theory. Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, Leiden 1988, ISBN 90-6258-403-9 (therein Was there ever a Median empire?, Pp. 197-212).
  • (Ed.): Achaemenid History. Proceedings of the London 1986 Achaemenid History Workshop. Volume IV: Center and Periphery. Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, Leiden 1990, ISBN 90-6258-404-7 .
  • (Ed.): Achaemenid History. Proceedings of the London 1987 Achaemenid History Workshop. Volume V: The Roots of the European Tradition. Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, Leiden 1990, ISBN 90-6258-405-5 .
  • (Ed.): Achaemenid History. Proceedings of the London 1988 Achaemenid History Workshop. Volume VI: Asia Minor & Egypt: Old Cultures in a New Empire. Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, Leiden 1991, ISBN 90-6258-406-3 .
  • (Ed.): Achaemenid History. Proceedings of the London 1989 Achaemenid History Workshop. Volume VII: Through Travelers' Eyes: European Travelers on the Iranian Monuments. Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, Leiden 1991, ISBN 90-6258-407-1 .
  • with Amélie Kuhrt, Margaret Cool Root (ed.): Achaemenid History. Proceedings of the London 1990 Achaemenid History Workshop. Volume VIII: Continuity & Change. Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, Leiden 1994, ISBN 90-6258-408-X .
  • (Ed.): Achaemenid History. Volume IX: Persepolis Seal Studies: An Introduction With Provisional Concordances of Seal Numbers & Associated Documents on Fortification Tablets I-2087. Nederlands inst. voor het Nabije Oosten, Leiden 1996, ISBN 90-6258-409-8 .
  • with Jan Willem Drijvers , J. de Hond (Ed.): Ik hadde de nieusgiergigheid. The reizen door het Nabije Oosten van Cornelis de Bruijn (approx. 1652–1727) (= Mededelingen en Verhandelingen van het Vooraziatisch-Egyptische Genootschap “Ex Oriente Lux”. 31). Ex Oriente Lux, Leiden / Leuven 1997, ISBN 90-6831-927-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Amélie Kuhrt: Sancisi-Weerdenburg, Heleen. In: Encyclopaedia Iranica. July 20, 2009, accessed February 12, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Margaret Cool Root: Obituaries. Heleen WAM Sancisi-Weerdenburg. In: The University Record. June 19, 2000, accessed February 12, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Sancisi-Weerdenburg, Heleen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sancisi-Weerdenburg, Heleen Wilhelmina Agatha Maria (full name); Sancisi-Weerdenburg, Heleen WAM
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch ancient historian
DATE OF BIRTH May 23, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Haarlem
DATE OF DEATH May 28, 2000
Place of death Utrecht