geographical space of the Aegean and Near East in a dualist manner, that
is, in terms of‘Greeks’and‘non-Greeks’. The combined evidence from
Greek and Persian sources, particularly the archive documents from
Persepolis, reveals ‘intense and multi-faceted cultural interaction,
which was able to prevail, largely unaffected by geo-political friction’.^65
The discourse that polarizes interactions into a dialogue between Greeks
and non-Greeks does justice neither to the agents revealed by the archive
documents, nor to the nature of broader historical phenomena. Roll-
inger’s conclusions are based on new research that illuminates more
clearly the identities of various workers listed in the Persepolis archive
documents. One case relevant to the north Aegean region is the name
‘Skudra’, which has usually been taken to refer to the territories captured
by Darius and Xerxes on the European side of the Straits.^66 Achaemenid
historians are now inclined to think that the‘Skudraioi’referred to in the
Persepolis Fortification Tablets lived in north-west Asia Minor, not in
European Thrace or Macedonia.^67 So long as the word Skudra seemed
to be applicable to the territories of the northern Aegean coastal areas
that came under Persian rule from 513bc, it was possible to refer both
to‘Skudra’and to the Persian‘satrapy’in Europe, as if they were more
or less synonymous. It now seems more likely that the inhabitants
of the north Aegean coast should be among the various groups of
‘Yaunā’referred to in the Persian documents. There is no obvious or
apparent way of distinguishing amongst the various‘Yaunā’, those of the
(^65) Rollinger 2006, 212.
(^66) According to Henkelman and Stolper (2009, 316–22), Skudrians cluster in a number
of areas around Persepolis, including 300kurtašin the central region, around Fahliyān,
north-west of Persepolis, 220 at Rakkan, 46‘stone cutters/polishers’at Tikraš; wherec.1,000
are known—flour/barley and/beer received on behalf of various Skudrians, male and
female. There is a northern cluster in towns and villages along the road from Media to
Karaš/Gaba(e), in the direction of Tamukkan and the Persian Gulf coast. Travelling Sky-
drians form a separate group, which includes women travelling some considerable dis-
tances, under supervision, to Persepolis, with authorization from the satrap of Arachosia-
Gandara. Activities associated with the rations include wine producers, grain storers,
servants (though sealed orders indicate more specialized functions), stone cutters/polishers,
report-makers/supervisors, grain producers, and grooms; but the activities carried out were
probably varied.
(^67) Henkelman and Stolper 2009, 295:‘Even if MacedonianÓŒýäæÆwas once a Thracian
town, and even if this region was brought under Persian control in 513, it would still seem
inexplicable why the Persians picked an ethnonym from the far west to denote the
Thracians, many of whom they had encountered earlier during the Scythian campaign
and probably before.’Their solution is to identify Skudrians with a mixed ethnic group of
Asiatic Thracians = Bithynians, now better attested around Daskyleion/Ergili. This seems
more plausible, especially as Scutari = Üsküdār, (ÓŒïıôÜæØïí) and several other toponyms
in Bithynia show further parallels, as well as Uscudama = Edirne (Amm. Marc. 14.11.15,
Detschew (1976 [1957], 349).
Regionalism and regional economies 219