Academic Bio
Rhyne King is a PhD candidate in Ancient Near Eastern history who studies the social, political, and economic history of the Achaemenid Persian Empire (559-330 BCE). His dissertation is titled “The House of the Satrap and the Making of Achaemenid Persian Empire.” Using primary sources in Greek, Aramaic, Akkadian, Old Persian, and Elamite, this dissertation argues for the institution of the house of the satrap (provincial governor) as fundamental to the Achaemenid imperial project. Rhyne was awarded a Mellon/ACLS dissertation completion fellowship for his final year of graduate school. Rhyne’s article concerning Achaemenid political economy, “Taxing Achaemenid Arachosia: Evidence from Persepolis,” appeared in the Journal of Near Eastern Studies in 2019. With Richard E. Payne, Rhyne is the co-editor of the volume The Limits of Empire in Ancient Afghanistan: Rule and Resistance in the Hindu Kush, circa 600 BCE – 600 CE (Wiesbaden, 2020).