This book project explores Sasanian silver, perhaps the most well-known surviving form of material culture from Iran under the Sasanian Empire (224-651 CE). Dozens of silver plates, bowls, and pitchers produced between the 3rd and 7th century feature figural imagery that has long served as a foundation for understanding Sasanian culture. These silver vessels were popular not only in Sasanian-ruled Iran, but long after the collapse of the empire and across neighboring lands, including China, Byzantium, and especially the Eurasian Steppe and Taiga.
While foundational scholarship has focused on classification and dating, this project shifts the paradigm to analyze the dynamic social biographies of these objects. By tracing their lives from royal banquet ware and diplomatic gifts to post-empire trade commodities and venerated relics, the book reframes Sasanian silver from passive luxury goods to highly adaptable and negotiable social tools that actively shaped social networks across Eurasia for over a millennium.