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PRINCE'S
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GUlf Of
OACifr
XL
TIME
DOS
Other Publications:
AND
UNUSUAL FACTS
AMERICAN COUNTRY
VOYAGE THROUGH THE UNIVERSE
THE THIRD REICH
MYSTERIES OF THE UNKNOWN
TIME FRAME
FIX IT
YOURSELF
WORLD WAR II
THE OLD WEST
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Cover:
The
serene visage of a
young
Per-
as
is
an enduring
who
monument
to the kings
the
tant in the
The
development of ancient
Persia.
PERSIANS:
MASTERS
OF EMPIRE
is
Inc.
LOST CIVILIZATIONS
SERIES EDITOR: Dale M. Brown
John M. Fahey
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: John
L.
Jr.
Papanek
Art Director:
TIME-LIFE BOOKS
Bill
MANAGING EDITOR:
McKenney
Text Editors: Charlotte Anker (principal), RusB. Adams Jr., Charles J. Hagner
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sell
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Adams
Jr.,
Dale
M.
Thievon Mullin
PRESIDENT: John
Quarmby
Rita
D. Hall
Jimmy
Anthony
Allan, Ellen
Schemm
(research);
Roy Nanovic
(index)
Christina Lieberman (New York), Maria Vincenza Aloisi (Paris). Valuable assistance was
also provided by: Mehmet Ali Kislali (Ankara);
John Dunn (Australia); Angelica Lemmer
(Bonn); Gay Kavanagh (Brussels); Judy Aspinall (London); Constance Richards
(Moscow); Meenakshi Ganguly (New Delhi );
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Caldwell
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TIk Consultants:
part of this
TIME-LIFE
is
Library of Congress
Cataloging in Publication Data
Persians: masters of empire / by the editors of
Time-Life Books.
(Lost civilizations)
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and
index.
ISBN 0-8094-9104-4
Antiquities.
History To 640.
1.
Iran
Iran
has
is
a research collabo-
Inc. U.S.A.
2.
II.
and
Syria,
fourth-century-BC
site in
at a late-
eastern Turkey.
He has excavated exhaustively in Iran, including five seasons at the Median site of Tepe
Nush-i Jan, as well as in Iraq, Bahrain, Egypt,
and Greece. In addition to writing numerous
articles, he is the author of the Cultural Atlas
of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East.
This volume is one in a series that explores
the worlds of the past, using the finds of archaeologists and other scientists to bring ancient peoples and their cultures vividly to life.
Jarelle S.
Galford,
Nancy
Stein
Henry Woodhead
Picture Editor:
Holly Pittman, curator of Ancient Near Eastern Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
for 14 years, is associate professor of Art History at the University of Pennsylvania, where
Series.
95-13943
CIP
Other volumes
Land
of the Pharaohs
Splendor
Aztecs: Reigri of Blood
Pompeii: TIk Vanished City
Incas: Lords of Gold and Glory
TIk Holy Land
Mound Builders & Cliff Dwellers
Egypt:
&
LOST CIVILIZATIONS
PERSIANS:
MASTERS
OF EMPIRE
2011
http://www.archive.org/details/persiansmastersoOOtime
CONTENTS
ONE
ESSAY:
37
TWO
AM CYRUS,
KING OF THE WORLD
I
46
ESSAY:
Persepolis:
Ghostly Grandeur
73
THREE
THE DAZZLING REACH
OF DARIUS'S IMPERIAL SPEAR
84
113
FOUR
THE RISE AND FALL
AND RISE
OF EMPIRES
122
ESSAY: Treasures
for the
Timeline
Eye
158
Acknowledgments
Picture Credits
Bibliography
Index 164
160
160
161
151
JOr>-
^**a*
?aP
W3W-
V^4-
BECAME
THE LAND
OF THE PERSIANS
letime around
a
mighty kingdom
Assyrians.
Nineveh
tory.
in
what
is
fell
to
its
enemy, the
in present-day Iraq,
he
summoned
record his
a scribe to
vic-
His gloating words might have disappeared into the void had
in
in a wall
Hormuzd
palace. There,
some 2,400
of the
Ras-
sam, chief assistant to Nineveh's British excavator, Henry Austen Layard, freed the prism
Rassam
excited
from
The
From a
second-
millennium-BC tomb
at the Elamite
city
down
provoked such
The
every
discovery so
.wall
he could
writings.
an
in-
flicted
text that
of
holy
city,
entered
its
palaces,
seat
of their mysteries,
conquered.
opened the
treasuries
where
of the Babylonians,
royal Persians.
its
its
silver
their
I
I
away
their
lessness
not
on
known
their lands
the
of
last rulers
sowed
car-
devastated the
salt."
Tigris
as a psychological threat to
Head of a
between the
enemies but
among
A man
devastated,
that
city-states
as
rich alluvial
Mesopota-
mia. Yet even as he recounted his victory over the Elamites, the era
power would
in today's Iran
tains. It lay
though
this
uninhabitable
rimmed by
diversity.
Al-
fertile plateaus.
was
In the
Zagros
the
looming over
Mountains,
a western plain.
The mountain
and
rivers
by
when
irrigation,
farmers to
arid interior
till
made
it
the
soil.
fields
possible for
From
came
made Elam
the
the raw
materials that
wealthy:
an
pickaxes
spoils.
Their
off the
whelm
with
the Elamites,
dent on bows
to easily over-
who were
too
depen-
defense.
made
painting of the
mound
mains of the
city.
captures
tear
drama unfolding
in Susa 's
shadowed mound. The ancient and illustrious city lasted some 5,000 years under a
succession of peoples Elamites, Achaeme-
and Muslims
was finally destroyed by the Mon-
before it
AD.
lazuli,
silver,
and
And
through the passes came peoples who, bringing goods and ideas from
elsewhere, helped shape Elamite culture.
.shared
with
Mesopotamia, the
It
would
rise
when Ashurbanipal
who began
nia later
a
migrating into
Europeans would
it
around 1000 BC. Almost three millenrefer to much of this region as Persia,
still
settled
by the Greeks.
called Persis
From
of gold and
on
silver
pillars
and
also
couch-
mother of pearl, and precious stones." Indeed the Persian king Darius I, who rebuilt Susa around 518 BC, took care to record that he
had adorned Susa with gold from Sardis and Bactria, ivory from
Egypt and Ethiopia, and
trib-
an Seas.
Among
seen on
its
their subjects
palace facades
as
tamia, Ionians and Lydians from Asia Minor, Egyptians and Kushites
Africa, Scythians
foodstuffs, animals,
and
slaves
brought
in
revenues
was governed by
Achaemenes,
a line
who may
of kings named
after a
presumed
were
from splendid
men
of legendary prowess
capitals:
who
and
Persepolis.
But
of the
territory
The
lands
now
growing,
now
10
became
rule
141
Central Asia,
the Parthians, a
nomadic people
The
from
originally
who
eventually
Hebrew
and
institutions,
and even
It
cults,
mous
appeal.
the
Eu-
in
As
West roved
as far as Susa;
AD,
from
a brave traveler
of the
as
as different
the Great,
Xerxes,
first
performed
in 1738.
By the
18th century,
glowing accounts
was
new
most
at
Persepolis
over.
By the beginning
inter-
ests in the Middle and Far East to send representatives to Iraq, then
controlled by the
work
a re-
a\k\ Linguistic
of Meso
II
The
rich
scholars eastward
into Iran, not only to Persepolis but also to the thousands of tepes,
mounds
vast landscape.
and monumental
sculpture; writings that revealed the existence of kingdoms reaching
far back in time; ornaments, armor, jewelry, and regalia that had been
splendors: cities
wrought
THE ORPHANED
STRAYS
O F LURISTAN
in
crowded with
gold and
palaces, temples,
In the
objects,
al
art
silver.
were
up
in
They were
among European
intrepid,
an unseemly race
1,500 feet above sea level, stretching from the Caspian Sea in
Oman
The
in places inaccessible
such
as malaria.
The
Some
to
unclean
sell
infidels.
One
areas
were
in the south.
rife
with
dis-
Even ordinary
work
British report
Westerners,
whenever they met; and they kept themselves as far as possible from
the contaminating and dreaded influence of the hateful foreigners."
usa became one of the archaeol-
S:ogists'
tion in Iran. It
came
sian
first
power in the sixth century BC. Their leader, the first Perking, Cyrus, had acknowledged its long, proud Elamite her-
itage
to
title,
thus conferring
upon
While the explorers knew that Elam was an important province of the Persian empire, they had yet to uncover evidence proving just
and Susa
actu-
were.
Commission,
rial
up by England and Russia to resolve territodisputes between Iran and the Ottoman Empire, lands that
set
lie
within their
The
late
breeding people
who flourished
millennium BC
in the upland valleys of the
Zagros Mountains, a region
during the
first
known as Luristan.
By the mid-1930s,
ogists such as Erich
were
archaeol-
Schmidt
flying reconnaissance
flights
and unopened
graves. In
in
ning to change
the
He
earth's history.
was
and the
of the
also an archae-
and
sportsman,
ologist,
picture
adventurer,
of observers of the
liveliest
He
by the commission
chief,
map, and
excavate Susa.
Loftus set
off,
it
stud-
of Belgian archaeologist
Louis vanden Berghe that at last
provided a stylistic framework
for identifying the thousands of
"orphaned strays" lying in museums, private collections, and
ies
knew
targeting
after
on the books of
Old Testament. He
also
Benjamin of Tudela,
who had
As Loftus
and
ferry,
he recorded
all
dealers' shops.
York's Metropolitan
fields
examined the
He
houses until
5'/2-inch-long
delicious relief
He
cast
tell-
from an
it
to
termine
if
or modern.
pily
site,
trees,
and
he endured months of
F.,
forcing the
He
rapher Strabo,
who commented
that Iran
And
lizards
and
he enjoyed the
it
then subjected
Once on
roofs.
forests
barley.
He
and lemons,
dates, oranges,
Museum
it.
tests.
city,
Shushan
mean-
From 30
mounds,
As he drew
the largest of
close, he saw
which covered 60 acres and towered 70 feet.
the ruins, still visible above ground, of the apadana, the great
columned hall where Persian kings had received the tribute ofem-
13
pire. It
of an obelisk bearing 33
lines
still.
of cuneiform
site,
These included
script, a wall
of
200 small terra-cotta statues, mainly nude representations of a goddess, and various clay models of animals. The inscribed bricks and the obelisk, Loftus said, were "undoubted proofs
of the remote antiquity ascribable to the great Susian citadel." Although he believed there was more to find, Loftus ran out of funds
and had to depart, taking with him the artifacts he had discovered,
inscribed bricks,
The
Dieulafoys lived
at
forts and
numerous artifacts to the Louvre, including
head capital from one of the apadana's fallen
an enormous
bull's
columns. Jane took back to France the inspiration for several nov-
among them
and material
els
II
Parysatis, based
for
two
on
the
and
in the
rests
and
the
this
Dieulafoys'
port
to Paris.
trans-
Museum.
The French, eager to exploit sites of their own, kept a watchful eye on British work in the region. In 1884, with the modest backing of their government, a husband-and-wife team came to excavate
at Susa, the first in a long line of French scholars who would eventually dig there. They were Marcel -Auguste Dieulafoy, a soldier, engineer,
life
vivacious journals,
An Amazon
14
in the Ori-
ern antiquities
collection,
which now
ent and
On an
Expedition
to the
Home
works she expressed the sense of fallen majesty that had overwhelmed
her at Susa. The very ground under her feet, she wrote, was composed of the dust of ancient monarchies. She also excoriated the lessthan-generous monetary backing provided by the parsimonious
French government.
French archaeological
out
his country,
monopoly
and by
1897, the
artifact
known
excavated in the
as Susiana,
compensation to be paid
alluvial plains
would go
region of west-
and
silver items.
the
first
the
nians
who
excavations
pillaging tribes
that the
some of
near
lived
proved
first
hostile,
the
and
were so aggressive
teams
at
Susa used
stones at the
site
to construct, for
defense, a casdelike
known
this. Ira-
as the
fortification
Chateau. British
arit
later
among them
ment
archae-
expressed outrage,
who were
own country.
Iranians
One
Many
<ind the
careless
15
The
was scorned
director
who
treasure hunter
ravaged
sites
museums.
timated that
as
Morgan and
It is es-
his suc-
An
accomplished
for prehistory,
and
with
great
Egypt, when,
at
distinction
in
and
set
of a
civilization.
little
impermanency
meant
also
sites.
that people
archaeology, of course,
and
slow, painstaking
16
work
his initial
dubbed
the
and anxiety
experi-
In
the medieval-looking
Chateau.
explorations at Susa,
Morgan
was impossible.
He
decided,
much too
one large
building that would be in good enough shape for the ground plan
to be studied. Instead, as he observed in his writings, "I soon realized that everything was in the greatest disorder and that the signifanalysis
icant objects,
however
large,
at least
a great
deal of rubble."
The Frenchman
calls a
fastest,
commentator
cheapest way to remove the
most amount of earth from the main, 115 -foot- high mound at Susa.
Because he was unable to differentiate the various strata, lie divided
the
mound
shown him
le said
that
when
he
se-
earth
was thrown into wagons from a height of 16 feet, the objects hidden
in it "would not suffer," a remark that makes contemporary archaeologists shudder.
17
To dig through
many
Almost a foot tall and capable of holding a gallon of liquid, this 6,000-year-old
painted vase is considered a masterpiece
of prehistoric Iranian pottery, renowned
workmen,
for being decorated with beautifully stylized animals. Thousands of pieces like
this
Morgan
in the
far
too
for
him
details that
a stab be
made
at
Rendered at
done to the
below) illustrates
site
What Morgan's
Achaemenid
damage
by Morgan.
city into
haste gave
him was
an older world.
ples
He
the writing
used
a massive prehistoric
cemetery
crafted ceramics.
1908, exhausted
work,
his
covered with
in the period
tifully
tablets
and
assistant,
filled
When
dispirited
he
by
with beau-
left
Susa in
attacks
on
his
at
been
in existence for
thousands of years.
'culture
lifestyle
as Susa,
shaped by two
diplomacy,
to a
forces.
These centers
development of
rise
and
civic
strides in the
institutions,
and
from earliest times. By 7000 BC, village settlements had developed in both environments, with houses constructed of sun-baked
ited
pottery.
At
first
their vessels
in
the
Soon they discovered how to fire the clay in a kiln so the vessels
would be harder and riius better able to hold liquids. The earliest decsun.
kets that
Some scholars think these patterns echo the weaves of basthe pottery may have replaced as receptacles. The cerami-
cists later
liquid clay.
been found
at a
number of prehistoric
sites,
fruitful
contact
among
hills
known
262
by the Shaur
River. This
a small
was the
feet long,
19
feet
feet
of Susa.
On
one
hill,
measuring approximately
its base, was put
high from
it
For almost 3,500 years, the roof of Teptiahar's baked-brick tomb (right) lay intact;
but in 1965, roadwork unwittingly destroyed part of the structure. The 11-inchtall clay head below, found in an artists'
workshop strewn with shells, gold, sawed
elephant bones, bronze
ments,
and
tools,
mosaic frag-
may
Around
men,
women, and
one on top of another, in a small area. Some bodies were missing parts. Many seemed to have been
interred simultaneously.
Several archaeologists believe that these individuals died over a period of time
ies
were deposited
first
and
left
bod-
when
of them was
all
died
at
the
same time
or plague
that their
in a
in
this wealth.
moun-
At the beginning
20
of the Mesopotamian
a crudely
the tomb
Here
the bodies
Another nine
to the
additional 21
human
sacrifices, this
city
of Uruk was
felt
undeciphercd,
still
is
it
is
but the
in Susa,
stamped on
same
seals,
jars
as grain,
known
bullae,
at a
glance the
amount and
type of
is
on the
bullae,
thought to be to
on
Out of the
from
clay accounting
this basic
bookkeeping
came a rudimentary cuneiform that included some characters from Uruk's own vereffort
was quite
fy
distinct
the language in
from
UrukY
which the
Scholars identi-
early,
untrans-
still
were written
as
Proto-
European or Semitic
fall
linguistic families,
and has
no known descendants.
While Proto-Elamite has not been deciphered, it crops up over a wide area as archaeological digs
commercial
been excavated
as tar
north;
21
away
as
in
tar
tablets have
miles to the
gious tide.)
The
when American
archaeologist John
Hansman,
unknown
after
For
until 1970,
examining
linguistic references,
vari-
proposed that
tash Napirisha
it
resembled
mounds
at Tal-i-Malyan, a
wide
fertile
city.
valley in the
Zagros
A University of Penn-
whose massive defense walls protected well-built rectangular houses of mud brick, and workshops complete with fireplaces
and ovens. Bronzesmiths and potters had worked in the city, which
had also housed merchants and farmers. Geometric designs in red,
yellow, black, and white paint decorated the plastered walls of the
rooms of buildings. Proof that this was indeed Anshan came when
the archaeologists' trowels turned up bricks with the city's name
clearly inscribed on them.
Anshan had been established around 3000 BC, perhaps by
settlement
from Susa,
traders
who may
have used
it
as a transfer
known
as the
in the valleys
of the
(2600 to 1500 BC), Susa and Elam entered the historical archives of
the Mesopotamians, the enemies of the Elamites. As writing devel-
oped
in
Mesopotamian
cities,
narratives
began to be
set
22
down in
clay,
an upside-down
proclaiming
coming
be-
basket
tions
Un-
the locals as
(below, right).
the
was known by
to light.
the king's
hand-tooled, white
and opaque
blue or
wooden doors. Though no longer the capital of Elam, the city thrived until AshurbanipaVs savage attack
left it
in ruins.
with Elam.
Some of these
fictions,
but they indicate that Elamite and Mesopotamia]! kings waged spo
radic wars against
of a
clay
prism
known
It
long period.
as the
after
More convincing
Sumerian King
List, first
as
Susa. Final-
around 2300 BC, the armies of Mesopotamia, under the leadership of the city-state of Akkad, conquered Susa and absorbed it into
ly
this
pottery,
guages.
The
city
in
lan-
Akka-
dian kings' excursions farther east, a place where their charioteers And
infantry could retire during the winter before resuming their offensives in the spring.
When
23
BC, King
Found
ofNinhur-
Queen Napir-Asu
a high point of
Elamite metalwork. Napir-Asu's dress
and even her fingernails have been care-
and
TJje
shell
was
in the
likely
was
it
is
a copper
cast over
a bronze
core
lost again to a
Eventually
Ur
new
from Shimashki,
it
was highlanders,
this
time
mountains northeast of
According to later
2004 BC
Mesopotamian lamentation poems, the rulers of Shimashki were
strong enough to attack Ur itself and to lead its king into captivity. They also took away the statue of Ur's divine protector, the goddess Ningal, a sacrilege remembered long afterward in Mesopotamia.
The Shimashki gave way to another dynasty, about
1900 BC, known as the Sukkalmah. Votive and building inscriptions, as well as legal documents, offer some information
about this relatively long-lived line. By tradition, Shimashki's rulers
had come to use a title derived from the Sumerian language:
Sukkal Mah, or Grand Regent. The Sukkal Mah governed with
both a senior coregent (often his brother and heir, who bore
the title of Sukkal of Elam and Shimashki) and a junior coregent, the Sukkal of Susa, who might be the son or nephew
of the grand regent himself and was also in line to succeed
Susa,
who
in
capital.
it
from the
rally
Its agricultural
wealth, derived
Babylon to Syria
as well as in
attest,
two
names and
Then something
dire
no informa-
titles
of the
rulers
them-
near the
grew
cities
as the
cities
haps
this
ing era
scholars call
Nineteen years
later, in
in its fortunes,
Word
team and begun the Haft Tepe excava(pages 20-21), which would continue until 1979, when the Ira-
a sun ritual
and
work
to a halt.
and workshops
courts, kitchens,
plaster. Inside a
feet
it.
were
BC
which
of brick held
included
in
halls,
long and 98 feet wide was a huge central court that had a long
portico at
its
halls,
each
storer
to their original
search
lies
a passion to
enough
them
appearance. The
panels
on
untouched
in storage,
six
changed dramatically.
Humbled by the knowledge that
So
it
in 1990,
really
new
in the
The
of a collection of bricks
from the wall taken to Paris after
their discovery in Persia between
fraction
appear almost new. Because the excavators were not able to locate the top two
bricks of the goddess and her face was
badly damaged, the restorers reworked
her features
dress
is.
de-
and
show
when it was
piece
where
decades. During
tional panels
due to
the manufacturing techniques of
die ancients their way of drying
or baking the bricks, their way of
mixing clay with chopped grass
then we
left
The
of conservators'
forts
result
is
seen
them
as such."
at far right,
ef-
below.
to identify
bricks that
had been
>
-'
A sculptor fashions a
'
at
left.
from
the
right, conservators
work
unlike
their
missing part.
and discoveries,
1991 reconstruction
they
stored for
tomb
it
and assigned to
it
priests, servants,
tomb." The
tect his
servant,
girl
he established a chapel
for
and next
stele specified
amount
the
And
in
door
slabs covering a
found
festivals.
he
tomb whose
three -chambered
the stone
lifted
vaulted
brick roof had survived for almost 3,500 years. Inside lay skeletons
on
on
is
second
plat-
his "favorite
etons
on
may have
sacrificed to
serve
tomb, adjacent to
Even
in death Tepti-ahar
is
women
in the darkness.
To prevent
females to wait
on
based on another of
is
his vault at
sundown
their stealing
to
any of the
when
Mecquenem
objects
The many
them
There
artifacts
unearthed
almond-shaped
and the
figures,
ladies
eyes,
and braided
of the court,
sometimes
two gold
a goat, probably intended for sacriAnother treasure from the cache is the
holds
fice.
4 /i-inch-long
easily.
in the
heads with
full,
round
as well as small,
these
were
stint,
tablets,
faces,
of the king
nude, broad-thighed
Mesopotamian goddess
with their clay envelopes
letters
The
and other
tablets
28
texts
document
among the
and silver fig-
and they
Account
light
and dictionaries
on
daily
also
Among some
omens,
case
on the
Worse,
my
if
"problems
the piece
a widespread
The meanings
East.
God
to shed further
livers for
school
life.
tallies,
anxieties: "If
liver] a piece is
line; if this
will
attrib-
on
the
missing,
should be the
develop
in
my army."
is
For help
In
Negahban has suggested that their own name for their counHal-Tamti, may mean "Land of the Gods." Some of these di-
fact,
try,
vinities,
ers
in adversity,
were
such
as Ishtar,
spirits
Among
who
manifested themselves
Within
line
ter
a century
of Tepti-ahar's reign,
of kings, known
new
Susa centuries
later.
A king named
fifth of the
about
1260 to
from
Elam
Igi-halkid line,
123S BC, possessed the land, resources, and admin-
who
Untash-Napirisha,
ruled
untouched until
the archaeologist
team stumbled on
it.
and
his
ing an archaeological survey of the region, deemed necessary because of the extensive illegal digging that
istration to
well as in towns
and
surrounding
plain.
new
His most
city
25 miles
Susa
as
others,
Napirisha
lie
on the buildings are in Akkadihowever, are in Elamite. The ruins of Al-Untashat a place now called Chogha Zanbil, first spotted in the
inscriptions
company. From
had
excavated at
earlier
Susa dug some exploratory trenches there. Major excavations of
the 250-acre site were subsequently undertaken, between 1951 and
1962, by French archaeologist Roman Ghirshman.
Of the palaces, tombs, temples, and workshops that Ghirshman explored at Chogha Zanbil, the central and most impressive
structure was a ziggurat (page 23) that must have rivaled those of
Mesopotamia in its enormous size. Even in its ruined state it towered
mid- 1930s by people doing
1936 to 1939, Roland de
82
feet
above the
have reared
aerial
surveys for an
plain; in Untash-Napirisha's
at least
170
oil
Mecquenem who
day
it is
believed to
feet.
The ziggurat was made up of a series of buildings, like enormous boxes nesting one inside the other. Piercing the 26-foot walls
were monumental doors that opened onto vaulted stairways guardbaked clay griffins and bulls. The stairs led in turn to offerrs. Originally there were five stories; on the uppermost
30
was going
on.
one
Of these,
provided
a walled precinct
a setting for
huge paved forecourt, lavishly decorated with bricks and tiles glazed
in blue and green. Here, Ghirshman imagined, had been placed the
When
on them,
air.
open
seated
sacrifices
Blood and
libations drained
King Untash-Napirisha
left
from these
behind evidence of
how
Elamite
Mesopotamia.
He had
first set
stele
up
in
then
Napirisha,
Susa, where
five
it
to
transferred
was discovered
in
tions
from 1898 to
1909.
On
the
god
happiness.""
The
deity,
who
sits
on
animal
ear,
perhaps
He
ly
is
Napirisha, usual-
many
of the graves at
vessels.
still graze
king, standing
between the
that
is
priestess
U-Tik, perhaps
his
mother, and
his
queen, Napir-
desses.
of
similar cluster
deities
appears
nificent
of the king's
artifacts, a
on her
a curse directed at
to
do harm
dis-
Susa (page
at
fringed skirt
is
anyone intending
to her effigy.
The
curse in
whose
name means the "Great God," and who was
vokes four
divinities:
Napirisha,
its
live
to finish his
Susa, to Ashurbanipal's
years until
it
He
and those
after
him,
who immedi-
set in
usa reached
its
'Shutrukid kings,
built,
and embellished
its
monuments with
inscribed
reliefs
human
colfig-
horned crowns
built, re-
and decorated
depicted
md
who
32
coiffed
by her attendant,
Elamite
woman
an
sits
elegantly
cross-legged on
winding thread on a
meal offish awaits on a
table. This five-inch fragment of an
eighth-century-BC relief was molded and
carved from a mix of bitumen, ground
a lion-footed
stool
spindle while a
calcite,
named
succeeded him
his
Upon
city.
Fanned
and
mineral pitch, or
and
waterproofing.
Susa, for example, while laid out around courtyards according to the
fashion of the Middle East, had unusually large audience halls or re-
at
of lapis
Mesopotamian
and gold
cities
such
stele
filigree (pages
as
high
lazuli
carved from black diorite and engraved with the legal code
it
city
home.
Aggressive kings
known
Shutrukids supplied
as the
They reigned
in the
much of
With the Babylonian and Assyrian empires to the west and north
weakened by internal strife and dynastic battles, the Shutrukids, as
recorded in their
ed, plundered,
its
peak
own
in mid-century,
who conquered
central
under
king
if lucrative activity
named
reached
Shilhak-Inshushinak,
across
The Elamite
remembered
the
in
came
at
been
I.
BC,
in a strike at
Elam by
the
which
stated bleakly,
in
may have
crop
rest.
far
unlikely that
come
Elam ceased
failures
to light.
to exist.
in
33
who
now known
as Kurdistan.
And
JOY AND
DREAD AT
entering the region
for the first time were waves of the Indo-European peoples known
as Aryans, who probably originated on the Steppe of southern Russia.
These
tribes
One group
al-
later.
Gradually they
es-
tablished strongholds.
plateau, another in
500 years
arrived
1400 BC,
in Iran as early as
settled
it is
territory surround-
when
the emotion
makes
its
felt in
final re-
Pressured from the north, west, and south and having lost
control of their
HASAN
political
mountains
and ceremonial
80-foot-high
Urmia
in
up again in written
accounts of the ninth century BC, the Elamite kings and armies apparendy have taken up residence in towns named Madaktu and Hi-
center, but
come
into focus,
are missing
from
among them
the orig-
that
Some
and gold,
silver,
Other
1947
local
and bronze
citadels
shepherds climbing a
villagers
and dealers
vessels.
them
hill
in Kurdistan,
upon
few gold
in antiquities.
The
result
once the
artifacts
and
of nearby
now
choicest
displayed in
is
museums around
the world.
One of the
writ-
in the Archaeologi-
Museum
of Tehran (pages 50-51). The French archaeoloAndre Godard, who studied the artifacts, believes that the
re
dates to the
34
Robert
H. Dyson Jr. They soon came
across what he called the "discovery of a lifetime." Under a
laver of charred debris in the rusylvania archaeologist
the sliver
then a
bowl."
were so high
Spirits
after
Dyson
toast to their
good
fortune.
weapons and
silver,
gold, and
the
fire
that
consumed Hasanlu
work
also
it.
at-
brought to
light evi-
and
found the
remaining bodies in open areas.
Possessing gruesome head
roofs. Excavators
wounds or severed
limbs, they
few
who excavated at
prized that at
so
or stealing
protecting
it.
cities.
city fell to
BC.
sites,
Hasanlu,
Mannean
sat
on
lands.
scholars to be temples.
fiery
end
in
The
doms
at this time,
imprints
the city's
on the
is
BC,
is
Neo-
stacked the corpses in the streets and burned the city to the ground.
By 653, Sennacherib's grandson Ashurbanipal had killed Elam's leaders and placed client kings in the towns of Hidalu and Madaktu. Elam
was then torn by factions and revolts against its discredited monarchy. Then in 647 came the infamous Assyrian invasion, when Ashurbanipal chased Humban-Haltash III, the reigning king, into the eastern mountains, sacked Susa, and pillaged the countryside.
But the Assyrian yoke would be thrown off in 612 BC by
an alliance of the Babylonians and the Medes. In the succeeding century of Neo- Babylonian hegemony the fragmented remains of Elam would take on new life and its capital new
splendor. The stage was set for the flowering of Persia.
it
American,
gave a gift to her German-born husband, archaeL-ologist Erich F. Schmidt, director of three Iranian
expeditions. It was a Waco biplane, equipped with a
F-n
1935
a wealthy
Darius
I's capital.
it,
of magnificent
morning
light, cast
shot in early-
ture
is
the
and
its
side
is
to the
archaeological
by Schmidt
i***
**
M
W
'
>
Shot from
an
Mountain. Cruciform, or
crosslike,
facades
mark
Darius
II,
Artaxerxes
I.
I,
Darius
I,
and hidden
in
edge.
entry
to
Herzfeld,
ment of Sassanian
silver coins
and seals.
^^pHijMiMw
*&&
K0
'
J?
known
to the
its
above ground
rebel kings.
majestic face,
level,
Running along
moun-
the
equivalent of a day's walk were inns for the convenience offoot-weary travelers.
AM CYRUS,
KING
OF
THE WORLD
V^/ross
>ssing the Murghab plain
330 BC, an army threaded
its
way along
command
as the Pulvar.
in
wood-
The troops
would bring
at
the
site
of the Persian
tury
in
BC shows a man
Median
dress
carrying a bundle of
sticks, perhaps for
use in
moment,
II,
earlier,
known
as
of Pasar-
capital
celebrated world
size
and
felt
his
acclaimed predecessor.
ritual. Be-
in
way
account of their
sphere of influence
that
may have
ex-
Turkey
to
northern
Afghanistan.
visit
its
its
all
of 200 years
47
into the
It
was "a
The Macedonians
old at the time. They
its
found themselves
couch and
and was king of Asia. Grudge me not therefore this monument." The Greek historian Plutarch, writing Alexander's biography
in the late first century AD, reported that as a mark of respect Alexansians
it.
who founded
therefore, this
The
little
(for that
my
tomb remained
art
and from
know),
am
Grudge me
not,
doubt
that
body."
passage through
its
some
scholars
that
steps,
illustrious,
until the
moon
for near-
rose
on
it,
most
it
I sat
this in reality
one of these
N;
superlatives cap-
He
middle of the
lives
tral
millennium BC.
as the
nomads of
is
now
a population so
48
the austere
the
tecture of the
mian
monumentfrom
Mcsopota-
tombs
to
alleged ancestor,
An
Achaemenids ascendancy
carried out at
numerous messsages,
many
structures, sculptures,
,\\k\
artifacts that
answer
to others.
and
political
owe
are the
rise
works
of
east
or
west between the Middle Hast .md Europe, so too did diplomats,
tra\
sometimes
in
49
on by
DYNAMIC
A
such noted Greek authors
MELDING OF
ART STYLES
as
mony of the
compilers of the
doms under
^fiFmk^
and military an
down
events. It
is
own
set
versions of
its
styles, this
some 26
when
of treaties made
in
ian king
cities,
member of the
50
on
seventh centuries
BC and is
among
treasures
bronze tub
at
Ziwiye,
site
of a
fertile effect
A melding of
I*
The documents
whom
Esarhaddon,
all
these leaders to
him; you
will
not
will
You
revolt.
will
not
will
They
heir:
"You
sin against
You
evil intent.
The
at
length,
of the gods,
fell
you with
fortress or by a
plunderer
who in-
dais,
represented a
may Ninurta,
may he
fill
and
new
chief
ed throne
who
palace,
it
threats.
The
violat-
ing the lands between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, and soon to
by the Assyrians or by their rivals, the Manneans. But the execution and iconography of the
pectoral suggests that its maker
had ecclectic taste and that the
fortress's inhabitants were more
cosmopolitan than might have
been imagined.
who had
The
piece
is
divided into
Scythians,
of the
nomadic horsemen
'he
Medes shared
T.ground
did not, at this time, assert themselves
a similar back
beyond
their
own
who
small set-
ed languages,
They were
first
in
mentioned
until
Assvria's eclipse,
responsible
in
Median
site at
Museum
Godin Tepe
in
Toronto, Cana-
in central Iran.
village.
51
first
They
nearby
Assyrian
"
_.
"
mm$&
;:4
*?.* *
.m
'^
li
k.f.r
*s r
.*
-"*
monument
yet found
on Sargon's
stele
Greeks
the
as
provide
may
lie
Median
buried
at
archives
the
site
of
modern
much of what is
lies
today beneath
Medes
At
its
center,
for-
inaccessible for
Godin
Tepe have been explored; these are Tepe Baba Jan and Tepe NushJan, near Hamadan. The first mound, Tepe Baba Jan, excavated by
British archaeologist Clare Goff in the late 1960s, offers a tantalizing
glimpse of a grand building, which Goff considered Median but
which, according to other scholarly opinion, may be earlier. The
immediate study, two other Median
sites
in addition to
52
a richly
red .md
in
tiles.
Although
the
improving
parts
and
over.
ram-
an
altar,
was
carefully sealed.
were meticulous
that
it
site,
it
but protect
chips and
mud
bricks
it
and surrounded
it
in
alternate layers
it
work
a way
in their
late sev-
filled
of packed shale
by massive brickwork
barri-
from the Lydians. This was a land worth righting for: Its earth was
veined with gold mines, and sometime in the late seventh or early
sixth century BC, its inhabitants had invented coinage as a means of
it
and Lydians
stopped
sun on
in their tracks
May 28
hostilities to
by
sudden,
total,
and
Medes
that the
both
were
sides
terrifying eclipse
of the
585 BC.
in
The gods,
ed
Herodotus reports
in the
in
western Turkey,
just
and
heir,
it is
Croesus, whose
name
momentous
53
his
stands
still
ofSardis.
is still
some 35
city
all
solar eclipse, in
byword
of Lydia.
his time.
550 B(
in trouble.
It
,
Still
was
when
Persian
king
told,
at
whole of the Median empire. Croesus saw his opportunity. He mustered his armies and marched eastward, hoping to expand his own
territory by niching some of the former lands of the Medes. It was a
blunder that would cost him his entire domain.
roesus had undoubtedly failed
C:
r
ponent, Cyrus
II, a ruler
of his
life
who would
BC,
is
in infancy because
of an
evil
was
been abandoned
said to have
nursed by a dog.
Like the biblical hero Moses, he was then supposed to have been res-
of riiis
dier
lore,
fulfill
his destiny.
provide a
They
less fantastic
was
all
of Astyages, the
last ruler
BC,
er the daughter
in fact, Astyages'
grand-
was the
man who defeated and deposed the old Median king in 550 BC.
Some contemporary reports suggest that Cyrus was originally a
vassal of Astyages' who rose up and rebelled against his Median
was an ambitious outsider casting a covneighbor's dominions. He had been a ruler of the
etous eye
on
his
Medes.
how
by
his victory
his
ple,
build.
specifically
commanded Nabonidus
to re-
Marduk then
no longer
predict
that
at the
54
sians
ry
and declared
of Cyrus "with
in
an inscription on
his small
a stele that
really the
work of Babylon's
army" was
avenging god.
Ironically,
Cyrus would
reputation as an agent of
own monarch. So
his entire
the general
Medes and
vrus de-
the Persians.
is
likely to
have drawn
of Cyrus
Sm
>-
cipline
tiles,
patterns
(left),
where they
may
the site.
He
as senior officers to
Xenophon
ceil-
com-
and respected by
fair,
every case,"
from Per-
his
in his tactics,
was
details
as a brilliant military
*-
many
and democratic
in
reports, "there
men
they
Those who did such service for the army, he believed, were
as much to be honored as heralds or ambassadors since they were required to be "loyal and intelligent, alive to all a soldier's needs, active, swift, unhesitating, and withal, cool and imperturbable."
served.
when he
defeated Croe-
546 BC. The gold and silver of Lydia, together with the rich
spoils of the Greek merchant cities of Ionia, formerly under Lydian
control, would fund the march of Persian armies. There were reasons
sus in
From
tribes
menaced
the Irani-
his
name
Cyropolis, given to
ment on
zakhstan,
is
To
believed to
mark the
site
in
a settle-
posts.
the wealth of all the ancient world changed hands; to the south, along
55
Hamadan.
Archaeologists
temples built by
Medes around
Nush-i Jan
the
was occupied by
squatters.
David Stronach
re-
and
apparently during
its
rites,
may foreshadow
religion, which
was
to
56
was
It
grown
rich
in this
cording to Strabo, that Cyrus built a palace "on the coast near Taoke,
1
Akbar Safaraz excavated in oil area near Borazjan, where Achaemenid objects had been
found close to a road some 18 miles from the Persian Gulf shore. In
the ruins of a building, he unearthed two rows of elegantly carved
as
it is
called.
column
that he
'
from Cyrus's
reign,
and concluded
of
jewel
'he
was
cities
the
who
tell
hoard of silver
lies
exposed to daylight
may have
been
meant
commercial transactions.
line
BC
agree that
who visited
the
site,
it
was
reports that
a 56-mile circuit
enough
stout in
its
this
construction.
to
of
that, at
accommodate
for-
There was no
lack
by supporting
its
and
political
dominions.
He
reli-
also or-
against
ruler,
who was
He had
also
done
little
rites.
who had
57
as exiles
under Nabonidus.
The main
was that
Nabonidus had offended many gods and peoples, and that Cyrus was
divinely appointed to bring him down. The Persian king had
promised to respect the gods of Babylon, and in his incursions into
other Mesopotamian cities before he reached the capital, he was as
good
as his
word.
By October 12 the Persians had reached Babylon. Both Herodotus and Xenophon indicate that on that date a religious festival
occupied the attention of the
city's inhabitants.
Meanwhile, Gobryas,
in a strategy that
had been
"owing to the
size
of
Babylon
peacefully
and was
found by
ar-
chaeologists in Baby-
site
of
the
BC
mid-sixth century
lend credence to the
a
saying rich as Croesus. " About this time,
Cyrus
the
Great focused
his
ambition on
Lydian
king in Sardis and looting Croesus's
the west, defeating the wealthy
treasuries.
objects to
ment in the palaee of the ruler under jubilation and rejoicing. My numerous troops walked around in Babylon in peace, did not allow
I
anybody to
lon's chief
terrorize."
He proclaimed himself the choice of Babywho "scanned all the countries searching
god, Marduk,
Cyrus
II also
some of his
reforms,
civic
The
end to
brought
relief
their complaints."
am
king of the four quarters of the earth." Such boasts are seldom tak-
en
at face value
out of
by archaeologists, but
with
line
reality, for
in this case
far
palace-
swear loyalty to the Achaemenid vanquisher. "All the kings of the entire
world," Cyrus
who
tells us,
buildings, as well as
all
and kissed
While
his
my
who
West
feet in
live in
Sea, those
other sorts of
living in tents,
brought
Babylon."
many
him
as the
of himself as divinely favored. In the book of Isaiah, the prophet announces: "Thus says
by
be closed:
whom
he grasps
his right
ter gates
God
will
the roads;
will shat-
to pieces.'
59
tar
outshone
Persians,
after \is-
that
of his
two immediate successors: "The Persians say that Darius was a huckster, Cambyses a master, and Cyrus a father, for Darius looked to
making a gain in everything. Cambyses was harsh and reckless, while
Cyrus was gentle and provided them with all manner of goods."
The gentleness of Cyrus seems to have extended to his treatment of vanquished enemies. Many chroniclers assert that Cyrus displaved a radically new approach to the politics of conquest. He not
only deviated from the traditional practice of slaughtering defeated
kings as part of his victory celebrations but
late in
still
is
rulers to take
The Greek
commit
suicide.
He
up important
author-historian Bac-
at
figurewearing an Elamite
gadae,
this
the
leaped into a
fire,
to
seems
administrative efficiency.
as a
summer
residence.
his
to
and Babylonian
to
sculptures.
are seen in
this reconstruction
by architect
T"^"TT"
,.... w.......ti.."vmr
i;.nit;nrriiiniH ht
J?
Cyrus's throne,
can be seen
stone,
to the left
of his own,
tal
it,
and
be-
capi-
Pasargadae.
at
grand
new
to create a
fit
Mede
in
honor be-
of Asia, founded
and constructed
a city,
it
territory
of
level in the
site in a
mountain -ringed
cities
dement, Cyrus's
capital, despite a
val-
number of Islamic-era
set-
structures,
way
to Pasargadae
--
its
ruins,
site
visitors
found
although for
15th-century Venetian,
Josafat
Barbara,
Mandelso,
Carmelite
monks
in
community of
of the parent of a
It
named Sulaiman.
fgmmmmw*
count of
W-*
Saiiflgl
~=
itft.lnh
-*""
LIS**
^Mfaisfrj^
his visit
first
de-
tailed description
of other architectural
mains on
the
site.
re-
FROM
E
ROYAL
THE
ART H LY
SIONS OF PARADISE
adise
sure
or enclo-
pnradeisos
green space
filled
Not
joyed.
surprisingly, Persian
According to
over
all
hung the
GAJ>
"intoxicating"
Cyrus
sible.
The
pleased prince
on
let
that he
built at Pasargadae.
new
There,
ignated by archaeologists as
P and S,
shows.
Broad pathways
capital
and
down
a large inner
garden,
intended to
reflect the
empire's
came to be
nearby tomb, sur-
Killed in battle, he
buried
in a
stood in gardens,
two
the Great's
may
PERSIANS,
also
main garden
moist
added a glitter-
At
right
is
)
t
In
the
an
AD 1341
illuminated manuscript
and
left illustrate.
af
The weaver
an echo oftfje
ground plan of Cyrus the
squares, perhaps
garden at Pasargadae.
a fort,
he published
among the
ruins.
his
inscription
striking
found
resemblance be-
tween the tomb and descriptions by classical authors of Cyrus's sepulcher. But so convinced was he that the king's fabled capital lay
much
farther south,
place indeed
it
was
left
most scholars
a belief held
by
today.
German
ground
two principal palaces and the East Gate. He exposed fragments of bas-reliefs, columns, and capitals, as well as the smashed
remnants of giant statues with human and animal heads.
Other investigations followed. In 1935, German archaeologist
Erich F. Schmidt led a pioneering survey of Pasargadae from the air.
Fourteen years later, Ali Sami of the Iranian Archaeological Institute
resumed the excavation at the site of the two palaces and cleared the
area around Cyrus's tomb. When British archaeologist David
series
of digs
at
Pasargadae in 1961,
and
tastes, style,
monuments
at-
capital.
actuallv dated
from the reign of Cyrus. Some clues were provided by the techniques
and tools employed by the builders. The presence on stonework, for
with
instance,
plement seems to have entered the Persian stonemason's tool kit only
after Cyrus's death in 529 BC. Other evidence came from some of
the architectural styles and ornamental motifs
employed bv
Pasar-
gadae's builders, which reflected the influence, and perhaps the actual hands, of Western craftsmen from Lydia or Ionia. It was likely,
Greek Ionian
subjects.
the finely
worked
masonry,
The
fitted
burial
chamber,
a small
large slabs
of stone
styles
now
had resulted
be identified
as peculiarly
Among the
could
Achaemenid.
is
form
of Persian kingship.
A similar structure
excavated in Persepo-
and
east
Greek masonry.
was never
From
seem
so grandly
David
an un-
conceived that
to
(right), the
block; others
The holes were gouged by scavengers seeking the iron clamps that joined the
stones.
s&
T
?
t4i
is
It
By the
had been adapted to more utilitarian purposes, as indicated by the traces of work and storage space within the enclosure.
Stronach continued his predecessors' investigation of Palace
tury
BC,
S, also
it
known
as the "Palace
vided a setting for court ceremonies and formal audiences. With its
colonnaded porticoes, the building is reminiscent of the handsome
rectangular temples of Greece and the palaces of Anatolia.
its
cen-
imposing audience
At
hall,
Cyrus
also
which even
in
its
ruined
state
known
to
conveys a
more
a lush
its
and fragrant
all
new
palaces
by laying
down
To keep the
of its
kinds of trees."
flowed through a
handsome square
basins,
straight paths.
plants
tall
tery
water
jar,
known
as
made
It
in a traditional
buffware.
had destroyed two-thirds of the 24-inch-high vessel. Inside the surviving section of the container, however, below a thick layer of earth,
lay 1,162 objects that
highly
ry,
some long-ago
such
as bracelets, earrings,
crafted jewel-
wrought
e
in the
forms of beasts,
bells, flowers,
lazuli.
geometric
66
naments, which
still
by
lay side
side,
although
among them a
objects
had been
subsequently recon-
gold
a pair in
sports
far right),
lazuli.
one of
In design
it is
similar
to
lapis
Etruscan
pecially since
jar
sixth
of such
it
kind of coarse,
ables within
es-
styles
articles
may have been heirlooms of considerable age when they were hidden. The jar itself had probably been concealed sometime in the middle or late fourth century BC, perhaps by a woman of the court durAchaemenid dynasty,
Alexander's armies marched into Persia.
ing the
last
days of the
'yrus did
fleeing in terror as
not
live
to finish the
handsome
new capital. But the cosmopolitanism of Pasargadae, based on the inspiration of architects, artisans, and sculptors from many different
'construction of his
He
was
still
building this
as to
own
his
67
and
family,
opted for a
wisdom and
among diem,
supposedly,
"Remember my
last saying:
you
in
'
shall
have
it
many
ered
of Cyrus's end, selected one that he considto be closest to the truth. In this account, Cyrus was en-
different versions
likely
gaged
in a
frontier
of
his empire,
on the banks of the Jaxartes River in Central Asia. On the far side of
the river lay the domain of the Massagetai, a hostile tribe ruled by a
warrior-queen named Tomyris. Cyrus led his army across the river,
set up camp, and then proceeded to lay a trap for his opponents. He
ordered the cooks and army servants to unpack huge stores of food
and wine and place them conspicuously about the campsite. Then,
quietly, he commanded the entire army to withdraw to some unknown location, possibly back on the Persian side of the river, where
the\- would go undetected. A division of Tomyris's army, led by her
son Spargapises, invaded the abandoned Persian camp and set upon
die rations. Suddenly, the Persians reappeared and ovenvhelmed the
raiders, who were too tipsy and full of food to stand up to their enemies. Spargapises, humiliated, promptly committed suicide.
Outraged at the trick, Tomyris sent the rest of her armv
against Cyrus. The engagement began as a clash between the archers,
then
moved
Most of the
Persians died,
including their king. Herodotus ends the tale with a grisly anecdote
of Tomyris wading through the sea of corpses on the battlefield, cutting the head off Cyrus's corpse, then soaking the skull in gore, because, she declared, his
hunger
for
y September 529
'son
Cambyses
II
sated.
BC, Cyrus's
had ascended
the throne. Four years later he launched the enterprise that was
to extend the vast Persian empire even farther by attacking Egypt,
the most distant of the great powers of his day. This ancient and, at
one time,
virtually invincible
A new
now reigned, but his subjects found him as unthey had his father, who had preferred Greeks and oth-
pharaoh, Psamtik
attractive as
kingdom had
III,
knew
crown was
shakv.
68
head a modern
tion
of Egyptian dignitary Udjahorresne
salt statue
the
restora-
is
a cult devoted
to
him sprang
tip.
battle
and defeated
it.
Herodotus,
lying
battlefield
75 years
fallen.
The triumphant
Persians
marched
along the Nile to the capital city of Memphis, and after some
effectual resistance
late spring,
Cambyses
city
in-
and king. By
For
much of what
it.
occurred, there
is
the
word of an
He was
chancellor,
at Sais, a senior
who
eye-
oc-
Keep-
his
own
self-justifying version
of
on
ican
his
Museum
in
now
Rome.
Although Udjahorresne makes note here of "the great misfortune which had befallen the entire land" and also refers to the
presence of foreign troops encamped in his temple precincts, he collaborated with the conquerors. He became an adviser to Cambyses,
who had
decided that the best way to retain his hold over the coun-
was to have himself crowned Egypt's new pharaoh. Udjahorresne counseled him in the process and drew up the set of formal
try
his appreciation
new pharaoh
tian administration,
his
Egyp-
priestiy hierar-
69
traditionally
BC
GOING TO
THE EDGE
FOR DARIUS
upon
"Now do you
elite.
Cambvses
thereafter,
left his
or soon
as in his
of Cambvses'' death.
One
He
died 11 days
Other
later.
texts,
same name
it
Median
as the
at a place called
Ecbatana, the
capital,
die in Ecbatana.
what I
have doner" Darius I's words
seemed almost to taunt American historian and linguist
George C. Cameron as he
risked life and limb in 1948 to
believe
340
feet
make
latex
molds,
like
those
Many
I,
it
relative
and Cam-
who added
name of "Cyrus, an
Achaemenid." They suspect that this
scriptions in the
was
a fiction invented
by Darius,
who
blood but was not the direct descendant of the empire's founder, Cyrus
II.
supposed
common
ancestor, Achae-
set in
a cliff face at
Behistun
Mountains, 340
cient road
stone by Darius.
feet
in the
On
Zagros
ed
a relief that, in
documented
the
that had
brought Darius to the throne. Darius ordered the text to be inscribed
in the three most important languages of his realm:
Old Persian;
"0
and guided
by
left;
and figure out how the sculptors had reached the wall 2,500
when
As the days wore on, Cameron and his men were assaulted by cold and rain. To keep
warm, he wore two pairs of
pants, a wool shirt and sweater,
an army coat, a sheepskin jacket, and a blanket. Creating the
mold involved applying five layers of latex, to which burlap and
gauze were added for body.
Sometimes Cameron had to
lean from the ends of the scaffold, which had no guardrails.
Once, he nearly fell, pulled back
in the nick of time by his 14year-old son Tom. "Dad,"
teased the boy, "if you fall, I'll
never speak to you again!"
his 10 enemies.
by helped by
drilling holes
pend
two
sus-
Still,
and
had to climb
part of the rock face and
then descend a 30-foot ladder.
Outcrops made raising and low-
his
assistants
down
Cameron
dis-
71
Cam-
An Aramaic
copy,
breakthrough
at
in the study
trilingual text
cuneiform
as die
Egyptian hieroglyphics.
up the stony
face,
dangling
to whom he
"a wild Kurdish boy" managed to
memoirs, only
refers, in his
as
inscriptions.
combined
bril-
Achaemenid
royal
study of the
Zend
Avesta.
scriptures
The
latter
is
a compilation
of the sacred
religion.
One of the
work, he succeeded
tion
of Darius's
in
deciphering
transla-
narrative.
up
to test the
When
compared
were correct.
The
now
treasure
previously
open
flew
locked
gates
of myths,
of undeciphered cuneiform
of die ancient Middle East, a
PERSEPOLIS:
A GHOSTLY GRANDEUR
*,
'
.
'<*.
'*
<
-*s-
So
vast
may have
left
behind.
layer as
much
as
26
tive secretary
could describe
doorjambs of Darius
especially
gradually to dust.
at
the
site,
would be so
Accumulating
The
after 1931
ground in showers of ash and emand soon only those columns, doorways, reliefs,
and sculptures that had been hewed from stone remained standing, and many of tiiese toppled later in
earthquakes. Experts suspect that most of the mud-
and fresh-looking
However
ber,
them
by excavators from the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago under die direction
of the pioneering archaeologist Ernst Herzfeld and later that of Erich F. Schmidt, would corroborate Plutarch's account of die blaze. And much of the sculpture
covered
feet
Wood
turies
alike,
as
it
battered they
good
ex-
Palace, visible at
upper
left,
and
73
art.
A
When
the
the
Mountain of Mercy to
snapshots
below,
he
joined
could
dreamed of the
take
together
hardly
have
delineat-
to
bare
such finds as
SJlfelLJ-
HALL
HALL OF
100
COLUMNS
probably Artaxerxes I
GATE OF XERXES
*2T:
iSBfcBTSS
UNFINISHED GATE
NORTHERN FORTIFICATIONS
cruitcd to
and
foremen.
by
plate
Summoned
makeshift
at sunrise
gong
steel
suspended from a
wood
until sunset,
Above, dust
Below,
and
north
Mountain
to
a dumpsite.
wmm
Earthquakes scattered
Apadana's
reliefs
and
many
of the
other carved
wooden planks,
workers dragged
the heavy
chunks up
the
northern
employed
the eastern
stairway in place.
I^HL
LtilliililfflitLlitllUIJi
'
mil
]
l
'MWi mm
77
kk
-
I.
SETTING UP SHOP IN
After sleeping in tents for
seasons, Herzfeld
finally
and
his
HAREM
two
team
found comfortable
ac-
the
turned
into
Friedrich
the
Krefter
expedition's
place,
Airedale.
And
as
did
Krefter's
at night, after
the
and
a draftsman gath-
took up
lo,
and
violins, a viola,
let
and a
cel-
column
lintels
and
door-
ring eight
Harem. Oriental
Institute builders
78
and
and capitals
site,
had
to
79
after Friedrich
seized the
architect's
imagina-
both
of Herzleld's successor
Schmidt and of subseand Italian excavaIranian
quent
tors, Krefter penned a series of
Erich
detailed
into
scenes
of
one
at
kingly
dwarf
way at
the
to
to the
all visitors
the
Apadana,
the large
square build-
u $pm
*i
80
$*
Krefterfrom within
its
Krefter's
central hall.
main
81
82
HH
EHHMHBI
>
Its full
photograph
made
in the 1970s.
still
this
An
to
conserve
many
and
of the surviving
structures on the rectangular foundastabilize
city.
THE DAZZLING
REACH
OF DARIUS'S
IMPERIAL
SPEAR
-L/uring
tall
monument,
the
the
men would
feet across.
tonishing message
repeated
Starded
at finding
its
sides, spelled
out in Old
four tongues
all
which flows
1866 came
in
as-
the Nile,
manticized
or
pen
olis,
the
magnificent
city he built,
Darius
stylus.
pharaoh had
it
as ro-
tance of improving the sea links around his empire's shores, Darius
symbolic of royalty.
I,
Now
Enthroned in Persep-
fiction.
commanded," he
through
boasts
on
his stele,
The
was
my
desire."
85
way's
official
opening.
acknowledgment
sailed
that "never
was the
like
done before."
waterway through the Bitter Lakes of the Sinai Peninsula. According to Herodotus, the canal itself was wide enough for two war
galleys to pass each other under oar, an estimated 80 feet. Ships took
natural
four davs to
to the other.
is
provided by
Two of
cavation of the
the Louvre,
site
At
least
above the other. The empire that Darius acquired and extended unit-
monarch.
Himalayas
all
way
the
African desert.
it
Its territories
to the
As
ruler
now thou
shalt think,
of
rius held?'
look
Then
shalt
of a Persian
man
at
it
The
spear
While
who
become known
his predecessors
Cyrus
II
and
his
willing to call
on
him the
son Cambyses
II
had
He continued the
86
tradition, established
Those who accepted Persian overplace, and the religions and customs of
ars are
tower
still
may have
left in
The
clay tablets
of Darius's scribes
among them
much of
works,
menid heartland.
Darius also had the venerable Elamite capital
city
of Susa ren-
dence of
this at a palace
87
commemorating
evi-
in-
and
its
dana, or audience
day
as the
hall.
Known
to-
Foundation Charter of
asserted,
in
today's
Afghanistan.
still
thing
is
fell,
but that
it
survived,
tall;
although
this in itself
life-size,
stands 5 feet 8
evi-
probably was not more than 5 foot 10. According to a later Greek
commentator, the physician Polykritos, who served at the Persian
court in the early fourth century BC, Darius was a strikingly hand-
a trait that
was considered
reaching
down
mark of
to his knees.
88
dis-
Born in
dle East
pedition at Susa.
He
the
Mid-
French ex-
at times despotic. He
who served him well. Herodotus tells the
Median pretender
his
w:
'hile
but fragile bricks making up the frieze below were found scattered near the entrance to the palace. Jane
Dieulafoy wrote of her concern regarding
their excavation and shipment to the Lou-
"What
ble.
and removal
when moved,
was to put down the wave of revolt that swept across the
empire in the wake of the disputed succession. According to the Befirst
task
of the enamels
sand and lime, then enameled in brilliant hues, were strengthened during re-
construction.
the
was
they break
I have about
terrible worries
the discovery
.
vre,
er,
moratorium
for the
them
same period on
his
is
now
Paki-
a Greek
hoplite attacks
him
in a
on a fifth-century-BC red-figured
Greek vessel. The ever widening bound-
scene
under Darius
The
revenue in
all
his realm.
acquisition
was to make
Then
in 513
BC, nine
by
to
Greeks.
for the
far
it
among them
ern shores.
who were
By
home
Europeans
ed Greeks
who
in particular the
sig-
Even
so, the
would be to them; the presence, power, and demands of the interlopers from the east impacted heavily on them.
By the reign of Darius, there were already many Greeks with-
on the western
of Asia Minor. Trouble broke out in 499 BC, when the Ionians rose in revolt. The Athenians sent troops to help their rebellious
cousins, and in their presence, the city of Sardis, the seat of Persian
in
fringe
anger
When
the
to Herodotus, he loosed
He
to repeat to
him
nians,"
lest
risk
Per-
of Darius's
17-inch-long gold
Although usually consid-
to be
failing to
do so.
No soon-
had the Ionian revolt been put down than he started planning an
90
sword
may
clusively for
ceremonial
use.
states.
in
Greece
and Cambyses
quest;
it
II
w as Darius who
r
momentum
II
of con-
had created on
his capital
such a
parts,
with him."
known
as satrapies.
The
drawn from the highest ranks of the Persian nobility. Many came
from the so-called Seven Families, which included Darius's own clan
as well as the kin
of the
The
six
ulti-
mate control of the provinces. Beneath them, however, the subdivisions of the empire, including individual regions and cities, were often ruled by local people. Non-Persians could also find favor in the
higher reaches of the imperial court. Such was the destiny of the
prophet Daniel,
whom
91
whole kingdom." Another figure of the Old Testament, Nehemiah, was appointed cupbearer to a later Achaemenid monarch, Artaxerxes I, an important
position in the ruler's personal circle.
royally.
One
He
was
also
As the monarch's
representatives in their provinces, they were responsible for all government functions, from security and
justice to economic development and the raising of
taxes. The perquisites of the job were commensurate
was
said to
Babylonian governor
Given
their
own
when
power
of the empire,
became hereditary
the office
in
some
and
of Darius I at Persepolis
He
dubbed
and
and he dispatched
Ears, to determine
itinerant officials,
on whose shoulders
command
all
power
monarch. While
satraps
might take
gar-
risons generally
alle-
To help them cope with the day-to-day business of administration, both king and satraps relied on the services of a corps of
scribes whose job it was to keep the imperial records. They would
have been essential even
literate, as is believed;
The
if
book
il-
formula,
the
cliff"
nobility
"was inscribed and was read before me"; in the biblical book Esther,
we heir that King Xerxes I, Darius's immediate successor, called for
92
satraps in line.
site
still
stands at the
Egyptian
oasis of el-Kharga.
Cambyses
II,
diminish
try's
Darius in
A story in
in
local governor.
by Cyrus the Great. The satrap then wrote to Darius to ask whether
such a decree in
Made
ofgray-blue limestone
likely sculpted in
and most
this headless statue of Darius I was discovered in Susa in 1972. Its robe and
repository at Ecbatana.
pay for
the king.
Probably brought
it
to
A copy
a result, Darius
refrain
in the
The monarchs,
naming
As
all
fact existed.
literate
script to
Old
Persian. Since
it
own
call
The
script devised:
inscription at
cording to the
da,
will
of Ahura Maz-
different sort, in
Aryan [Old
sian]
Per-
exist before."
meting out
for
justice
a policy
all,
essential part
and
fair
dealing
he regarded
an
as
of the business of
Mazda,
am
right,
am
By
am of
a friend to
my
weak
man should have wrong done to
him by the mighty; nor is it my de-
it is
not
sire that
name
93
has
legal
come
eode bearing
to light.
his
What
is
certain,
however,
that
is
Achaemenid
rulers in general
which
expected laws
for the
their
own
into a
den of lions
the fact
for an infringement
that he was
The
who
tailed to live
man
flayed,
in the judge's
in his place,
of when he gave
his
'o
was made
pire, the
Achaemenids
to overflowing.
his chair
judgments.
T;
a carefully
seat
then appoint-
Soon
relied
on
Median
to the
yield.
status.
contributions
in
kind
were
requisitioned
frankincense, while
Egypt was
dest tribute
called
upon
from
particular
to furnish large
a cash lew.
94
The
numcru-
as ser-
Then
as
financial
burden
economic benefits of the peace and prosperity under Persian rule. Trade blossomed
with the improvement of communications and the removal of internal barriers, and much of the empire experienced a level of affluence
it rarely, if ever, had known before.
Commerce was encouraged by the introduction of a standard
coinage, a concept that had arisen in gold- rich Lydia some decades
earlier. Borrowing the idea, Darius spread it throughout die western
part of the empire, where networks of traders were quick to see the
advantages of the innovation.
The
basic currency
was
one -third of an
The
coins,
which on one
face
bore
ruler,
Ages-
ilaus II
394
One Greek
re-
in
He
it
my
you
are
from across the Euphrates," he wrote to a satrap in Ionia, "I commend your policy, and
for this great credit will be given you in the house of the king." Dacultivating
rius also
canals
fed by the
Tigris
95
rivers
in irrigation.
and Euphrates
was
also
expanded.
The
ancient network of
The
who had
poor
result
soils
what astonishing
to
I
also
for millet
and sesame,
While
what
refused
its fertility."
all
most was
not say
I will
to believe even
king,
size
As
by wealthy proprietors in
in practice held
his
name.
and gradually
by the
obligations, until
later years
of need. But
as
time
forces.
The feudal levies, and later the mercenary bands, supplemented a core of professional soldiers who were the main prop of
Achaemenid rule. At their heart were the 10,000 Immortals, so called
by the Greeks because their numbers were kept constant: Whenever
a soldier
All
was
killed or disabled,
elite royal
Palace of Darius I at
the
perfume
bottle, to
his sovereign.
ed by
the
lifestyle
minister
to the
and
from
its
were
military prowess
and in
The network
essential,
particularly farsighted.
needs of
effectively
detachment of
bodyguard.
A servant in
their ranks a
No
of his
at
thirsty troops.
highway
so-called Royal
Sardis in
that along
its
and
and
111
way
stations providing
3se
Private travelers
on
have
for their
official
lents that
no doubt paid
come down
96
to us
number
own
and pack
food
ani-
lodgings, but
Among
the docu-
are vouchers
on
Road was
the Royal
a watchful eye
on
traffic
on the empire's
it
onto a trusted
hair
slave's
shaved
travelers
principal highway.
exiled
Greek
all
had to
tive
bolstered by checkpoints,
scalp.
He
it
in
So
effec-
Susa sought to
home
to the Ionian
on the
instruc-
slave's arrival.
life is
stores
W!
were
as
ally.
tending to every corner of his kingdom, his loyalty was to the heartland in southern Persia.
greatest
It
(overleaf),
it is
located about 45
which was
The
built earlier
by Cyrus.
on
the
hills.
509
BC
reigns
his
monument, the city that Darius and his people called Persia,
also the name of their country. Known today as Persepo-
which was
lis
Work on
it
began around
some 100
years,
but construe
and continued to live royAccording to Herodotus, the booty collected by the Greek general Pausanias af-
court assembled
tion
army included
and silver furniture, couches over-
'gold
and cups,
all ofgold.
high, that
60
feet
still
feet,
A monumen-
tal
relief sculptures,
continued to jut
terrace
testimony to
later ages,
human
vaunting
such,
it
flective
ultimate
the
to
also
from the
of
As
ambition.
times, demonstrated
ti
vanity
of re-
earliest
by the
graffi-
doned
in
ers
the
fourth
century
AD.
AD
642, the
attract
visitors;
in
site
continued to
Islamic
geogra-
of the ruins
Western
olis
in their works.
interest in Persep-
reawakened knowledge of the classics, in parworks about Alexander the Great, the destroyer of Darius's
The
first
An
site
it
was
definitely identified as
was made
in
1878 by
the governor of the province of Fars, in which the city lies. An unsavory figure, reputed to have had the hands of 700 of his subjects cut
offenses, the
98
add to the
store
took
name of Forsat
the pen
cluded
wider interest
German
producing
direction
w ere
at
the
that
of
his
accepted, and in
site, this
in-
versity
structures.
entific basis,
w hich
1896 under
in
a plan
In 1924 a
laborers to
in the project,
book
some 600
set
time on a
of the Uni-
Institute
under Herzfeld's
first
compatriot Erich
sci-
F.
much of what
Schmidt
is
known
As the
Per-
made
they
ter
a spectacular find:
monumental ceremonial staircase, still standing afsome 2,500 years. Leading up to the northern entrance of the
of Persepolis was
Apadana,
jects.
selves
The
it
staircase,
Now,
surrounding
soil
The
gallery
Persepolis.
to the
1971
ly
reliefs
them-
vandals.
Morning
relief sculptures
and
image of the
mounded up
first.
The only
them 2,400
of Achaemenid
Of more
art.
another gigantic
difference
reliefs in pristine
condition, almost as
years before.
masculine:
is
resolute-
who
is
is
fe-
being delivered
from the province of Elam. The message underlying all the processions of bearded courtiers and of tribute -bearing
subjects from distant lands is equally unvarying. In the words of the
19th-century British statesman and student of Persia, George Lord
by
a representative
Curzon, "everything
is
Schmidt arrived
of majesty
in 1935 to
99
in its
most imperial
sin-
guise."
at his disposal
presented to him by
set to
skies (pages
37-45)
and delving into the ground. He removed the detritus from a splendid chamber, slightly larger than
the Apadana, where amid a forest of 100 columns,
the king
may have
was separated from the Apadana bv a courtyard, which had been cleared by
Herzfeld, and was named the Throne Hall by
state.
The
vast edifice
became known
as the Hall of 100 Columns. These two impressive
state rooms, both almost perfect squares, were in
also be attributed to the
Apadana,
it
that
one of these
of Xerxes
known
I,
ancillary structures
and
his successor,
in the biblical
ther's royal
es
lit-
Es-
husband,
striking,
Persia.
Xerx-
German
It
their
young
This floor plan was in fact the major factor that led
Herzfeld, under whose direction the ruin was excavated and restored, to conclude that the structure
One
set
may have
Among
1938.
the
numerous
artifacts
uncovered
at Persepolis
of large stone
reliefs
and
were
a pair
100
gold
(right)
alike in
and one
silver.
tablets,
one
Inscribed
Apadana.
inscribed
tablets
^ff^
* IT *- ^
fn
tf
>?y *m<
^r
<
W^t ^
*V Wf A Kr fp
> T"
'
sirr
?tt
Tfi
<r
>
h^
#Nn
\ <ff
!Mf
5^
sf j^r
97
ffi
^ ^^
<r
ft
<ff
** wr
n- a
^t
fir
^-
came
Elamite
in
also
some
including
to workers involved
in the construction
nyf
_
of Persepolis.
cm
spot
on
monumental complex
is
located in an isolated
Is*
e^
v
<^
i^
fer
Iff
<S
may
Many
observers
have
Apadana
reliefs
among
other
perhaps
of the Achaemenid
year.
Root, an
at the
But
New Year's
at least
one
festival, a
scholar,
of
high point
Margaret Cool
may
Whatever
with the
rest
its
much
1937
Acropolis of
when Schmidt's
seemed
aerial
setdement.
Then
erences to
many
villages
hu-
of
tablets
they contained
ref-
101
earlier
found
to support
survey distin-
man
be
his aerial
overviews with a
ground
survey, but
World War
II
in the 1950s,
and
in
1967
a graduate student,
from the
University of Pennsylvania. Sumner would survey the whole valley
below the Persepolis Terrace. Having served for 12 years as a naval
officer, several of them stationed in Iran, he had become interested
in the country's history and archaeology. (He also discovered the ancient Elamite city- of Anshan and eventually became director of the
Sumner found
Achaemenid times
to be as
ains
Darius I and
II,
Xerxes
had
I,
and Artaxerxes I
I's,
is
identified
to be those
seen on
added in the third century AD by Sassanian kings. Darius I's crypt (right) contains three chambers, each with three bur-
traces
102
ial
cists.
When
offering no clue as
to
tation.
He
also
uncovered
Sumner made
a discovery that
workers
at Persepolis,
er services.
Sumner
"When
became
in
boom
town, host to
great project."
By
but presumably
of Alexander
its
this
was the
ceremonial center. In
monument
his predecessor's
I
heyday the
he
left in
I,
was
as
an abiding
at pains to stress,
adept
was seen
my fa-
city
ther,
its
city
no excavation of Matezzis,
at fostering
added.'''
states,
then
in
Babylon. In putting
down
ed
gy,
all
of his
but considerably
less
magnanimity
been one of Darius's most
of the
in victory that
tive traits.
had
attrac-
re-
less
103
one Persep-
"We must not forget that monuments are like sick people; there
is
no treatment
that
is
the right
Giuseppe Tucci,
dent of the
presi-
Italian Institute
of
istered to
well. Invited
all
at
ago.
his
analogy
by Iranian authori-
city
o>
o o/
,'4MMfeB
PHii
Beginning with the research of previous excavators, the
husband-and-wife team undertook a campaign that would stabilize existing structures, reerect
fallen
ef-
fort to a resurrection.
The
Tilias also
drew on
earli-
by researchers on
ment
in the
a relief frag-
in
ar-
work,
Ann
Britt Tilia
remarked
it
Tilia, hints at
how
Persepolis
On a
the
(right),
doorframe of
Council Hall
deity hovers
king,
who
is
accompa-
nied by attendants
in-
carrying a sunshade
and a fly
whisk.
gods.
false
many
times, mainly
300
subsequent withdrawal to
Persia,
followed by the
around
foothills
final
destruction
30 miles north-
Plataea,
west of Athens, in the following summer. All these events were wo-
ven into the Hellenic national legend, and have subsequentiy found
holding flowers
The
tige,
memory of the
West.
blow to Achaemenid
pres-
even though the empire would remain largely intact for a long
time to come. In
its
Fourteen years
later
come
on
Achaemenid system
that
would
be-
officials could approach the king uninand even they had to bow low and put their hands over their
mouths. Visitors were expected to prostrate themselves; servants at-
vited,
As
for
royal presence
tare
unsummoned,
the
srher,
lest their
Old Testament
shall
says
breath touch
way
took her
106
into the
an inflexible
favorite wives,
his
biblical
life
in her
is
woman
chalcedony. Her draped gown and freeswinging braid add to the charm of the
in smaller,
more
this.
When he ven-
like a
re-
served for the king. Gold jewelry adorned his ears, neck, and wrists.
Other high
found among
entombment
woman
is
to
between 350
assumed
to be
and
that of
and
Morgan
archaeologist Jacques de
in 1901. Inside
out
date the
his opulence.
courtiers,
in a
tomb on
in a bronze,
laid
^--
lapis lazuli
two
also contained
and 65 agate
probably had been sewed onto grave garof
vessels
beads
The tomb
tiiat
ments long
marooned
II,
lit-
tle real
court intrigue.
Of the
nine
The
in his
ter
six
in
held
would be murdered.
when Xerxes
was
killed
bed
and
I,
Achaemenids who
in
him. The
Artaxerxes
when
I.
fratricide
He
truth, however,
After
107
as
its
dramatic
start,
relatively
after
was
It
was able to
travel freely
in
Xerxes
in his
II,
bed by
lasted a
his half-brother.
es I's,
who
mere 45 days
he was, in turn,
killed
murdered
II.
at its
largely
by the
The
fortunes of the empire temporarily revived in 358 BC under Artaxerxes' successor, Artaxerxes III. The new king averted challenges by the simple expedient of slaughtering
all
potential
rivals.
In
down renewed
ntrol
its
earlier disaffection
L08
by nature,
not ready
the body
to receive
was most
likely interred in
to the
to the
one of
Terrace
splendid
rebellions in
Artaxerxes
and damaged
reliefs
Left unfinished
bv
to
a once-glorious empire.
plundering
its
shrines
One of the
tian
It
tunate appointment.
commander turned
was then
cities.
its
installed as a
all
BC, the
house
itself,
puppet
ruler.
later, in
336
A new foe
of a kind
known had
arisen
sights
were firmly
set
to
Four years later, Persepolis was in flames and Darius was fleeing for his life.
He got as far as Damghan, 160 miles east of mod-
East.
own
officials.
at
an end.
insecure years of
Achaemenid
rule
was to be
some 22
of 1880,
a disheveled
camp of Captain
man found
his
last,
way
in
cen-
May
to the
F.
officer stationed in
109
He
bers.
night.
spoils,
Burton
them down
mountain cave shortly before midThey had evidently been arguing over the division of the
for four of the men were wounded. He intervened, and mantracked
in a
men
camp
Burton arrived
at
erty
and
at
once
known
be
let it
that he in-
whom
three merchants to
set-
dawn.
safely,
Word reached
it
total,
according to the
silver,
found upcountry
most of their
valuables, the
in present-day Pakistan,
owners agreed to
from whom
it
ognized
work
By
that time
British diit
was
rec-
most important assemblage of Achaemenid metalknown. It finally found its way by bequest in 1897 to the
as the
yet
Museum
British
sell
in
London.
it
seems to have been near Tashkurgan, where there are anThe objects were reportedly scattered along the river-
cient ruins.
bank, suggesting that they might have been washed out of a riverside
hiding place by summer floods and then deposited downstream when
the waters subsided.
sian
The Oxus Treasure consists of about 170 items, mostly of Permake and dating from the fifth and fourth centuries BC. They
include a golden
)ard
,
model of
and
jug, a pair
110
cording to the Rawalpindi dealers, about 1,500 coins also formed part
late in date,
and
belonged to
late
A Persian
noble
sits
sideways in a chariot
is
and
Bes.
Only four
and sliding.
precious objects.
items,
it is
not
no one knows
precisely
when
last stages
Persian empire
was only 23
in
334
BC when
killed.
Pressing
battlefield.
At Gaugamela east of the Tigris River in 331 BC, the king of Persia
was forced to flee once more from an engagement with Alexander,
marched unopposed
and Persepolis, which he set alight,
out of drunkenness, and others in revenge for the Persian
some
say
earlier.
Oxus
River, devastat-
he was
Perhaps
off;
later
executed
at
Ecbatana.
it
menid empire
and
of the
rich heritage
it
passed on.
Darius
was
boast of them
man
son, Xerxes
to Darius.
from the
made
art
subject.
and architecture of
And
all
die
in their willingnes
Persians
managed
in turn,
have an
tinents
of Europe
Achaemenids
113
to create an impc
on
and
effect
h id diss
artisans
Asia,
the
>uld,
the
is
sim
delegation
embellished with
left, is
Czar Peter
the
Great by
the
Russian gover-
nor of Siberia, it probably came from a remote Scythian tomb in that huge region.
f
V
Rearing
right
grace
is
the other.
Amphorae
like this
still
would
in
Susa reiterate the Persians' love of adornment. Many of the materials used such
Indian at far
right, below
>'V*>
r'\'.
\'
%.
and similar
in design to this
both
inlaying,
Eastern cultures,
from
the Egyptians.
and
the grave
Glass
vessels
117
may
be
there.
more than 2,000 years, this retnnant (above) of a horse's woolen breast
band, woven in Persia, suggests the flow
ria for
and
balls of thread,
IONIAN
>i
belt.
these two,
are fre-
bling here
reflects
a Persian predilection
from
Egypt,
A silver rhyton
(left),
the ubiquitous
Its eagle
is
both
head and
and lion
legs
SCYTHIAN
ZL:_
*,:
from
the
Oxus Trea-
dangling at
Median
and
the
the
worn by Assyrian
kings.
SCYTHIANS
TTTF
AND FALL
AND RISE-
RISE
OF EMPIRES
up camp
in the ruins
of an ancient
fortress high
officer: "I
discovered
some
above the
river
reporting to his
commanding
at
in a letter.
"The
paintings consist of
partly obliterated.
Relic of the Sassani-
ans
There
dynasty
to
ties in
water channel,
are
stoic nobles
depicted; to the
left,
visi-
ologist
The
is still
about,
it
would
the investi-
ture of Bahrain
I.
If your
in-
American archae-
well repay
at
the time,
exploring
another relief
showing
teresting
IPs
also
rule a Per-
sian empire
the
is
armv
and
Murphy's
vehicles.
123
who was 54
years old.
was
trying,
not
least
more than 40
is
lit-
ing in
many
gaged
in worship. It
was a
little
as
is
clear
startling revelation
of the
century
1920s,
stone
archaeologist Clark Hopkins, field director of excavations from 1931 to 1935, "rose
out of the desert like the bones of some
long-lost, half-submerged dinosaur buried
20 and 30 feet in
desert sand."
deserted stronghold
we were
completely
civilization
ing a
result
from
a succession
to the
Germans
place,
Still,
army
Worn
steps (above)
ascend
to the cult
Romanized god
and
canes.
The
heirs, in
all
one
visit
the
site.
In
made photos
diey had found Greek stonework, a few fraginscriptions tiiat suggested tiiat the city
of Alexander's Macedonian
The dazzling
open-
site,
veterans
heirs
was ruled by
Persia
known
had
as the Seleucids.
work
Mithras, long
scrolls
societies,
archaeologist to
first
by Macedonians
built
of ancient
been
examination of the
Achaemenid empire.
Syrian
window onto
way or anodier,
home of ancient
lost to the
would
standing in a
men are
believed to
Roman
who
Roman- Parthian competition for this region. "We saw to our surprise
a small scene in
his troops,"
soldiers,
which
Roman
him
in
Roman
letters: "Julius
flag
on
written next
And
before
of Roman troops,"
in-
is
common
renamed
it
city's
mighty
born
walls. It
cities,
likely
is
Nicator,
who had
been
in the
So
rich
125
Academy came
was the
site,
when
paintings
archaeologists spon-
in the
two seasons. Then in 1927 a decade of excavation in DuraEuropos began under the joint auspices of the French Academy and
area for
a small scale,
Dura-Europos mirrored
THE PERSIAN
GOD WHO
BATTLED EVIL
faiths,
tians. Finally,
sanians,
who
it
would succumb
Roman
AD to the Sas-
them
Some in the old Persian world may have greeted the ideas of
new regime as a rebirth, but for Dura-Europos, the whirlwind
world.
this
disaster.
With the
cult
of fire
had hoped
for a peaceful
and
fruitful
in the
minds of its
blewomen
in a
his
ginning
among
1700
another on
sia's late
this
ties.
ed by the Sassanians
tury
AD, when
at Susa.
He may
a Persian wife,
he took
still
avail-
after the
Any
when he died. After his death in 323 BC, all but one
officers wed that day in Susa rejected their wives. They and
troops may still have been smoldering over the sight of Alexan-
tures collapsed
of the
their
as their
state religion.
it
foreshadowed,
empire.
was adopt-
He
it
through blood
agriculturists in
mass wedding
followers,
with those of the newly conquered Middle East when, in 324 BC, he
compelled 80 of
as
both of which
at its core,
known
Macedonian
From
126
at
the
of seven subordinate
rule,
ingly influenced
by
Persia,
he had adopted
of promoting brotherhood,
his partiality
its
war
with Angra Mainyu, the De-
the
structive Spirit
is
in further divisiveness.
shifts
dis-
BC
one
Lie.
Both,
in arms. In 310
widow, Rox-
By then,
at
an Alexandrian dynasty
Immortality.
office. Increas-
hope of
chivalry or mercy.
among
One of Alexander's generals, Ptolemy, had seized Egypt, while another, Antigonus Monoph-
would
fight
throne
itself
a large part
of Anatolia and
Syria.
The
"last turn
of creation," Angra
and the Lie, will
be destroyed and the earth renewed, to become the paradisiacal home of the just forever.
Mainyu,
he
Evil
fled to
local
BC
make a stand,
with an army borrowed
The
city
on the
grateful Babylonians
first
honored the
or
of a new
April 3, 311
expanding
his
de-
BC by
on the Baby-
realm to the
east, in
lost.
won
and the next year he invaded northern India. There he discovered that the numerous principalities with small armies he had
helped Alexander to conquer were no more; they had been replaced
versaries,
127
'
**LmjJ~^&^!'
'
make a treaty.
Macedonian territorial
wisely decided to
He
yielded
and
as
ing
world,
Mediterranean
the
ele-
when
beyond. In an
alliance
Monophthalmus at
BC. The array of huge,
apparendy had a devastat-
Syria in 301
ing impact
forces
of Antigonus
including
With that
victory Seleucus established an empire that reached from the boundaries of India in the east to the borders of Anatolia in the west, most
of what the Achaemenids, and later Alexander, had ruled.
For a foreigner, Seleucus enjoyed an advantage that put him
in good stead with the Persians. It was he, alone among the 80 Macedonian officers in the mass wedding at Susa, who had not rejected his
wife Apame, daughter of Spitamenes, the overlord of Bactria. Seleucus may have kept her because he did not wish to deal her such a devhis
son Demetrius
he himself was
killed.
he genuinely loved
her.
a
in
new
A
city in Syria,
BC, Seleucus
Antioch-on-the-Orontes,
it
would become
named
founded
of his agen-
da was to assert
occupied by
gaged
in
his
128
Market
Street in
this
were part of
here
place, built
cids,
The
around 300
market-
BC by the Seleu-
city.
for
killed in battle
Stratonice.
in
were joined
Syria.
king's fa-
as
Apame and
Crown
fact
gave
rise
to a scandal
Prince Antiochus
I,
or so the
an-
Seleucus's son by
ill
Roman
young man's
ill-
who
The
Drinking cup in hand, club resting by
his feet, a life-size Heracles lounges on a
lion skin beside the Silk
tun.
had
fallen
ill.
Road at Behis-
He
across
tiochus
who
on the
the
in
young
command
Tigris.
level
among
the 'Parthian-
ruins of Seleucia-on-the-Tigris,
It
of double
who
checked
lists
A scholar
after
and
exercise,
as
much exclusive
and public
clubs as places
insurrection, Seleucus
and
his successors
planted Greek
pire to preserve
130
came under
and a pair
of sandals.
at least 11 Seleucias
tolia, Syria,
named
after
Mesopotamia, and
Iran.
Ana-
in
of Hellenistic culture
in
an alien
sea.
cities flour-
became the
eastern
lon. If that
is
in 1927,
although
aerial
photographs confirmed
During the subsequent decade of excavations, the archaeologists learned that the city had been carefully
planned. The residential area stood at the center, edged by two great
transportation arteries. The main road through the city lay to the
south; across this avenue were the marketplace and civic buildings.
To the north was the royal canal with its flow of traffic between the
Euphrates and the Tigris Rivers, and beyond the canal was the temthat
it
and palace
ple
district.
so.
!L
laid
out in a rectangular
its
levels re-
Hellenistic buildings
marking
the onset of Parthian rule, the planning was less rigid, and
layer,
The
major center in Seleucid times, the city was renamed Seleucia of Eulaios. Known as a hub of international trade, Susa was also an ad-
Still
ministrative center
'
structures as the
ticularly
gymnasium and
class
may have
1946 to 1967;
his
digging
laid
of the
131
par-
streets,
Greek gods,
Macedonian ruling
city
indicate that
friezes.
As elsewhere
With
its
on the
were un-
Greek
rulers, as
in Bactria, or
monarchs such
Antiochus
as
III
Most of the
in-
formation about this region comes from coins, and there seems to be
a striking dearth
titude
dug up
of Seleucid coins in
Persis
in other provinces.
BC, when
Then
BC
190
in
Roman
Aegean
Sea.
III,
in
the
Two
decades
later the
still
drawn
to
amount of
of his domain
fierce-
independent people dedicated to a monotheistic religion. The dramatic story of the clash between Antiochus and the Jews is told in
ly
the First
ish historical
and
are
documents
is
Old Testament
132
office.
BC,
after
sta-
tioning troops in the city and enraging the Jews with acts that were
in deliberate violation
ly rites
altar,
of their religious
practices.
He
ing Modein,
home
to a priest
on the
named
villages
deitv.
of Judah, includ-
Mattathias of the
Hasmonean
family and his five strapping sons. Mattathias was unable to restrain
He
killed a
officer
One of the
He
tles;
for
itary victories
altar, built a
new
actly three years after the desecration of the Temple, Judas and his
had shrunk to
a dynasty
known
lost
and eastern
marked on
their equestrian
and
it
Cilicia.
AD
territo-
all its
as the Parthians,
the
way of life:
much
own
after their
133
named Arsaces,
man
"of undisputed
sometime
after
250
BC
would
offer
Parthian homeland, located near Ashkhabad, Turkmenistan. Archaeologists discovered the second-century-BC painted-
clay head in
lowed by a line of competent warrior-kings who expanded the Parthian domain. The outstanding Parthian military leader, however, was
Mithradates
I,
who
cities
and
ex-
"Old Nysa," as the ancient site is called by scholars, was excavated from 1948 to 1961 by Soviet archaeologists, who identified it
by an inscribed potsherd they found there as the town of Mithradatkert, probably
named
after Mithradates.
and were 16
feet thick.
Any would-be
feet
attacker
ramp along
They used,
columns
that
in
architectural
some rooms.
spanned 55
feet,
and decorative
styles.
for example,
port.
treasure included
some 60
some
instances
and
in the oriental
mode
Greek
in
in others, a
and
life at
this juncture.
the
handle
afi'ieze from
At
another
the
col-
The
BC
success of Mithradates
is
cid capital,
his profile.
There he
es-
He left
made
of
a practice
letting
conquered Seleucid
on coins
his
new
remain Greek.
subjects
as the "Philhellene,"
cities
on the
jiily
turned up hard
facts
Between 1903 and 1914, for instance, German archaeErnest Walter Andrae excavated atop the partially uncov-
the Parthians.
ologist
part of
much
outs of Labbana's temples, homes, and grand palaces but also crucial
details
of the
latter
was the
made possible
rooms known as
secret that
local
gypsum
that
bonded
soon
as
able
to
they were
laid.
W0
Labbana
is
On
The
palace at
the Silk
Road 37
sides.
was
been
also
managed
to withstand the
might of Rome. In
as well,
its
defenses.
60 to 100
was
first
much
ed by
The
cir-
1951,
when
Iraqi archaeologist
Fuad
Safar.
later, in
its
many
springs.
Among n
j|
human
occurred widely
opening
Some
and
pri-
rooms
for entertaining
summer and an
ffl
,
of air.
up
at
some
of Shami
in
of Susa,
east
settle
official
orders to
of a
man
and marble
It
was
a life-size
bronze
statuary.
The
district
administrator was
summoned
to in-
spect the location and carry the finds back to his headquarters.
was
He
months
later, when Aurel Stein, a British orientalist, came through on a trek
across western Iran. At 73, the scholarly adventurer had spent a lifetime exploring the ruins of Central Asia, India, and Iran.
On viewing what he called a "remarkable archaeological
find," Stein knew that, as he later wrote, "it was manifestly imporstill
six
least
known period in
the
The standing male figure was hollow, probalost- wax method. The head was found separate from
by the
the body.
made
mode of travel
and
jewels,
AD.
left,
rubylike gem),
to see
no
hills."
When
vi-
of a five-foot-deep covering of earth, he discovered that a structure that had stood there "had been completely wrecked and
site
137
its
more
to Parthian architects,
and
vaulted
fast-bonding mortar.
Columns
own
is
seen below in
among
the
crumbling
third-century-AD ruins of
Ardashir Vs palace. The first Sas-
dome at
the third-century-
to daylight.
The squinch-
es
room may be
the earliest
example
walls
that
75 by 40
A single
feet.
small cop-
century
AD.
Parthian
reigned
more than
BC. In an
with the
changed
three decades,
BC
to about
Mithradates
East,
ambassadors
ostrich eggs
skilled at their
ex-
with
the
of China, Wu-ti,
among
gifts,
and magicians
conjuring
tricks.
traveling frequently
Be-
were
in Syria
87
Han emperor
them
he
sovereigns,
from Palmyra
through Merv
in
Turk-
Alma Ata
There
stan.
in eastern
Chinese
Kazakh-
merchants
up of armor-clad
fitted
units.
mounted
One
made
known as cataphracts, who rode steeds outwith wraparound protective horse aprons. This armor was fashlancers
ioned from iron or bronze bands, and examples of it have been unthed at Dura-Europos. In battle the riders wielded a spear 12 feet
140
tans of leather or
decorated
felt
over highly
tucked
trousers
into
forms of devastating
They
walk,
moved them
to a canter,
one
Pieces of wire securing torso to
legs,
the
(left)
months after
its
Aurel
and uncovered
site
ruins of a Parthian
shrine with a small brick altar (above).
the
devastating
enemy
and
a gallop. In
attack
pattern,
stands in the
chaeologist Sir
attack.
mounts pivoted, and they loosed their arrows over their horses' rumps, repeatedly firing into enemy ranks, a maneuver that became legendary as the "Parthian shot."
The outstanding skills of the Parthian cavalry came to the fore
in the middle of the first century BC, when Parthia went to war
against Rome. Under the command of a feudal leader named Suren,
Parthia's cavalry knights and mounted archers thoroughly demolas their
of the
Roman
defeat
dramatic fashion.
He
ing the play The Bacchae by the Greek playwright Euripedes. In the
drama the heroine holds the head of her son Pentheus; in this performance, the head she carried was that of Crassus. Pleased with the
victory, the Parthian king nonetheless felt direatened
of a
vassal
by die triumph
who might
have designs on his throne. His solution was to have the victorious
Suren executed.
The
141
own
against
Rome
for almost
300
LIVELY
TRADE IN
TEXTILES
A
The Romans were continually intervening in Armenia. Rome's
acclaimed general, Mark Antony, led a disastrous campaign against
the Parthians in 36 BC, in which he lost at least 32,000 men. By the
years.
time of the
some of
tling
their differences
through diplomacy. By
this time,
fully
recovered; in-
all
Rome
named Ardashir, who
weakened by the
provincial lord
rivalry
with
last
that he
was unable to
resist a
Not surprisingly,
one of the
rarest survivals
past
in the case
pieces
owe
their preservation to
their inclusion in
igh
southwestern Iran, a
work
relief
Parthian empire.
One
end of the
on the mountaintop guarded the approach through the gorge to Ardashir's casrie and to the circular town that lay in the valley below.
ians.
Many
142
is
of the
of Sassanian textiles, history has been
luck)'. Some 100 fragments exist
today to give a glimpse of a
once -flourishing industry
whose output traveled far and
wide over the Silk Road linking
Asia and Europe by trade.
Significantly, almost all the
samples that have come down
to modern times were found
not in the Sassanians' homeland but in Europe, Central
Asia, Chinese Turkestan, and
Egypt. Many of the European
but
uries; scholars
fragile cloth
and
intricate
tices:
world
in
affairs.
Others find
faith,
little
and
hard
The
Shapur
I,
vast
domain
that Ardashir
left his
Capadocia
in Anatolia.
Under Shapur's
sanians benefited
parts
medieval
art.
home ground
on
the woman wo
To
this
forcibly set
up
Mesopotamia and
third century BC.
Syria in the
Sas-
sanians
is
Having made
name
for
them-
AD.
Achaemenid
building,
And on
known today
as the
"Cube of Zoroaster"
(page 87), Shapur had a long inscription carved, telling the story of
his
King Shapur
Romans
Ammianus
known
in the
West
through the
historians.
tells
largely
how
the Sassanians
surprise.
He
wrote
audience and screamed: "Is this a dream, or are the Persians here?"
The audience turned to look and was showered with arrows. "The
city was set on fire," the Roman wrote, and the enemy, "laden with
plunder, returned
143
home without
man."
Through
a matter
of troops swooping
to Shapur, the
down on
clash
force
marched against
fensive on his part. Then,
in
Roman
first
the
force
Roman
was
Philip the
killed
Arab
and
their
blanche in
heir to the
lied again,"
he reports. Rome,
Armenian throne,
it
is
father.
Shapur had
legedly "annihilated a
Roman
force of 60,000."
144
to
be Khos-
including a second
with
vessel filled
harp-playing musicians
(detail at right,
hunt
tan
and
is
rich in details,
from
the pat-
swirling water
king thought
grafitti
ment. "Caesar
(AD
low him
to have been
protection
row II
leader
A Sassanian
and fish
(detail at right,
mar
bottom).
the masterpiece.
Modern
November
in
Hopkins and
1932, as
his
interior wall
city.
They
of a building
remember when
ly
die
might
[last]
still
be
Hopkins
recalled,
still
tell
cov-
away,"
cession of paintings!
Whole
scenes, figures,
and ob-
magnificent in
The
ed to the
last-ditch defenses
fore,
filled
city
had hurried to
fortify the
it
with
years be-
rafters.
would
Roman
soldiers;
On
one
and Dura-Europos
of the contest
fell.
in a tunnel
of
Archaeologists
beneath one of
a score
of armed
nearly 17 centuries,
its
left
undisturbed for
in his inscriptions as
one of
"a total of 37 towns" that his army "burned, ruined, pillaged." His
most astonishing victory over the Romans, near Edessa three years
later, around AD 259, was recalled in a 25-foot-high rock relief showing two Roman emperors paying homage to him, one on bended
knee. For at Edessa he not only had defeated a Roman army of some
70,000 but, in a deed almost unique in history, had captured a Ro-
man emperor,
Valerian, alive.
145
"We made
_L^C^ -
what
its
prisoner,
is
Roman
ruler,
to be an abbreviation
is
er cuts
at
Versailles, Bishapur,
more
Roman
Ghirsh-
or the "Beauti
of the apho-
through
Ghirshman and
his colleague
number of buildings,
pings palace
who
built
***"* >"
prisoners
Upon
:*'*
all
/ 2
Georges
Salles
fertile plain,
uncovered
and another
edifice
ny
146
Two
among
Rustam under a
near Naqsh-i
sky. Forbidden
deep blue
minted during
their
on one
A cave in the vicinity may have been the king's burial place.
held a
lifelike
statue
It
About
a single stalactite.
26 feet high, it now lies on its back (page 149), possibly yanked looseby an earthquake. An Islamic observer in the 14th century reported
that
some people
believed
it
has
turned to stone."
L;
faians
peoples of their expanded domain, and religion was one of the means
they chose to accomplish
this.
Shapur
showed an intense
religion
ideas.
For a time, he
Jesus,
of Iran
and chief
when
relief
of Shapur
at
Naqsh-i Rustam.
scription revealed
him
to be a zealot
who
fist
in-
who
used an
mental
The
Kartir.
in the
tion that
It
who
among
interest in
instru-
in
his career
caste-rigid
Bahrams
I,
priest to
noble
in the
Sassanian
and
II,
Throughout Sassanian
shifted with the ascension
matter of politics as of
his
of religious tolerance
faith.
Shapur
II,
who
ruled from
Rome, married
309 to
lived, for
as often a
AD
fairly
short
alliances
with
officials.
147
flowed
in
build
dams
may
also have
made
left
viable position,
routes
now
included
much more
and
Commercial
in length
in
coasts, carrying
on the coins wore a distinctively different crown. Ardashir, for example, has on a skullcap topped by a globe of hair encased in silken
gauze, and Shapur
Many of these
and others
Mediterranean
Romans
civilizations
at various
and
Nobles
tion
and
their
in Russia's
In the
Rome.
exist today,
The
them
Huns, Van-
Hermitage
in a collec-
148
epic
poem
based on
his justice
re-
and diplomat-
was
and
for alleviating
seed and
cattle.
is
The
roes
built at Ctesiphon,
king's throne
kind,
it
known
as Taq-i Kisra
room. The
largest
example of
soars to a height
its
feet,
The
trappings of the
in narratives
ofSbapur
the cave
I,
by
it
by a golden chain so
able to
knees,
tell
it
was upon
over marble
silk
more
it.
When
people
were un-
fell
to their
floors.
since fallen
room
a curtain,
stood for
centuries.
alds.
open only when he held audience. The huge silver and gold crown of his office was adorned with pearls, rubies, and emerThe crown was so heavy it had to be suspended above his head
behind
A statue
at
his grandfather,
Chosroes
II
is
celebrated
for his lavish lifestyle than for his largesse to the poor. It
counted
in the
Shahnamb
that
on one
royal
is
re-
nied by 300 horses with golden trappings, 700 falconers with hawks
mor and
slaves
carrying staves
and 1,040 more wearing arand swords. Seventy chained lions and leop-
holding
javelins,
men
leading
The good
149
life
did not
last.
By the
nal dissension
left
and
AD
new
faith
of Islam
636, Arabs
powered by the
and
Hamadan,
this last
at
the Arabs
III,
the
last
won
a final victory.
Some
together to
Initially,
fight.
the
most highly developed culture of their age seemed to be purely deThey melted down exquisite works of silver and gold to cast
structive.
archi-
tak-
ing aerial photos of ancient Iranian sites in the 1930s, was aghast at
the degree of destruction that could
still
be seen.
He
reported on
mounds and
cities
into
fields."
and
history, to
show an
apprecia-
government and administration, to value and imitate Persian architecture and other visual arts. "Though the mosque replaced the fire
Roman Ghirshman,
temple," wrote
"it
was
It
w-
with gold,
>us
L/m/
and colored
V v
ated magnificent wo
gems,
gla
t the luxurio
Shapur II (thought to be the
at left)
mon
establish
who
dire
ty's
terials:
sels
suggest the
The
silver
is
from
a single
skills.
They
separate
molded
foil.
This technique
ailed
richly
galia
Sassanian monarchs
t(
>
allies
in
in Mill re-
mortal combat.
Sassanian
influenced
art
civilizations
tribution.
What
centuries after
ures continue to
5,
is
certain,
tl
deli;.
M;/
iiss
5^
mm*
v
k.
Wfc
..^:
r-
iSts;
-j^-.v.
>
rjtm
Two raw
<fow/ be-
hoofs,
sil-
ver plate. The figures in relief are separate pieces ttmt were affixed to the back-
$F~^
inlay.
(i
*.l
*
./
<
J[
sardonyx
!>npur
/,
sword d
arm
of the Romai
grasps the
capture
the Sassau.
the
Romans
in
AD 260.
Gold covers
the
scabbard
and handle
symbol of rank
^n*inA*wmm&*m
ff
st^"""
jm
and
authority.
which
is
this delicate
an or early Islamic in
date.
served as
a ceremonial
in
its
rhyton,
its
AD,
elabo-
and an opening
imtelgZ&Xtl
**<!!
JA
,1
lift
,'nW
Jl
vase.
In Sassanian art, such halos and necklaces are often associated with the king.
Semiprecious
by
owner's
A Persian
name
inscription gives
as Ardashir.
tfte
w^
nq Itqutd into
mot
the
woman
its
Three
other sides.
among
tlte
most popu-
...
"
W.-.S..
f
l
i>
bowl, where
a king,
legs jutting
came
is
<
in n
enthroned. Legend
it
to the
Paris as
J
vf
)-.
O-
jj
/
up
|
h*
wt
1
Cs-
IB
ACHAEMENID PERIOD
1200 BC,
it
temple
in
Susa.
550-330
BC
Claiming descent from the legendary Persian king Achaemewho gave his name to the pivotal Achaemenid dynasty,
Cyrus the Great embarked on an ambitious imperial adventure
that would see the Persian conquest of Syria, Asia Minor, and
Mesopotamia. At his death in 529 BC, Cyrus was succeeded by
his son Cambyses II, who added Egypt to the Persian empire.
Darius the Great, the military leader who seized the throne
in 522 BC after the death of Cambyses II, consolidated and expanded the empire and brought Achaemenid Persia to its
height. Choosing as his capital the ancient Elamite city of Susa,
Darius I brought in materials and summoned workers and artisans from all over his empire to rebuild the city and erect a
magnificent stone and brick palace whose columns were
topped with elaborate capitals such as the 10-foot-tall limestone double-bull figure above. At Persepolis, some 300 miles
southeast of Susa, the king launched another great complex of
palaces and administrative buildings that would not be completed until his grandson ascended the throne.
Following the reign of Darius I's son Xerxes I, who put
down revolts in Babylonia and Egypt and who waged long and
destructive wars against Greece, the Achaemenids drifted into a
decline marked by rebellions and intrigues. Finally, in 334 BC,
young Alexander the Great moved eastward from Greece with
his army and swept across the tottering Persian empire. Susa
and then Persepolis fell to the invaders. Persepolis was burned,
and Persia's Achaemenid dynasty died with its last king, Darius
III, murdered in 330 BC by one of his retainers.
nes,
SASSANIAN PERIOD
IVORY RHYTON
Alexander the Great did not long survive his conquest of Persia, and when he died of a fever in Babylon in 323 BC, his generals began squabbling over rights to his extensive empire
which embraced most of the known world at the time. By 311
BC, the commander Seleucus had ascended the throne of Persia, and after consolidating control over rebellious territories in
the east, he established his own dynasty to reign over some of
the Achaemenids' old empire.
Like Alexander before them, the Seleucid monarchs sought
to rule their domains by building Greek- style cities and by peopling them with settlers from Greece. This introduction of
Greek culture would forever change the course of civilization
in the region. But the Seleucids could not stem a tide of rebellion that arose in the eastern provinces of Bactria and Parthia.
By the mid-second century BC, the Parthian warrior-king
Mithradates I had subdued most of the empire and occupied
During the early years of Sassanian rule, the old Persian empire
expanded considerably. Ardashir I, conqueror of the Parthians,
was succeeded by his son Shapur I, who extended his domain
to include the whole of modern Iran as well as parts of Iraq,
Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Arabian Peninsula. So bold was
Shapur's imperial vision that he declared himself "King of
Kings of Iran and non-Iran," a grandiose title that did not endear him or his successors to the rival empire of Rome.
Shapur managed to beat back a series of Roman invasions
and to put down a revolt by the Kushans in the northeast. But
later Sassanian monarchs were not so successful, and by the beginning of the fourth century, much land had been lost to the
Romans and to the rebellious Kushans. Under the long reign
of Shapur II, or Shapur the Great, much of the old empire was
Through
the centuries of Parthian rule, Greek influences reas shown by the ivory rhyton above; its shape is
AD 224-642
AD
mained strong,
among
typically Persian,
AD
domes
in
that,
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The editors wish
individuals
and
to
UCLA,
tiquites Orientales,
asiatisches
Museum,
Berlin;
Coleen
The
Musee du
Chuck
Jones,
Krefter,
Larson,
The
Museum
Giuseppe
Tilia,
Rome; Joachim
von
PICTURE CREDITS
The sources for illustrations in
this vol-
Credits from
left
and from
Cover: Artephot/Babey,
Paris.
End
The
Museum,
Back-
Pennsylvania
University of Chicago.
Paris. 8:
Negahban/The Univer-
of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Gianni Dagli Orti, Paris. 32: R.M.N.
Paris. 34: Robert H. Dyson. 35:
Hasanlu Project/The University of
sity
Insti-
R.M.N.,
Erich Lessing/Art
Chicago. 46:
The
Philadelphia,
British
Museum,
ies
from 1961
to
1963 by David
The
tute of
Georg Gerster
McKenney, Time-Life
Art by
Bill
staff;
Books
Musee du Louvre/AO,
Metropolitan
Museum
Paris. 12:
The
of Art, Gift
Mazenod/Editions
52, 53:
The
R.M.N.,
Paris' 15:
Na
Bibliotheque
R.M.N. Paris.
17: Roger Viollct, Paris. 18: R.M.N.
Paris. 20: F/at Ncgahban/The Uni-
tionak dc France.
16:
of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia;
From Excavations at Haft Tepe, Iran
by F/.at (). Negahban, 1991 The University Museum of Archaeology and
versity
Ncgahban/The
University of Pennsyl
R.M.N. Paris.
24 26: R.M.N.
s.R.M.l. /Gerard Dufrene
23:
Georg
Pans. 2~:
Gerster.
Musee du Louvre/AO.
lime
28, 29:
New
Citadelles, Paris.
Munich
Civiliza-
Gianni Dagli
160
From
Pasarjjadae:
Re-
The
Oriental Institute of
The
The
Heiko
Krefter,
Weisenheim
/Babey,
Paris. 87:
R.M.N,
(3);
Gianni
Museen zu
1954
Paris
Museum
(54.3.2);
R.M.N./G.
Blot,
Institute
The
(4). 120,
Museum, London
Rome
(3)
go. 106:
The
British
British
Institute
Museum, Lon-
sity
Antonio
In-
Museen zu
Berlin-
grini,
Textiles
Institute
121:
Tilia,
Krefter,
e Scavi di
Berlin- Preussis-
Heiko
Museum from W.
atisches
Andrae, Die
Library,
London
The
Mu-
British
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Hole, Frank, ed. TJjc Archaeology of
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Persepolis."
at
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"Archaeobotanical Perspectives on
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Rostovtzeff,
M.
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"Seleucia-on-the-Tigris." Catalogue.
University of Michigan,
May
6,
1977
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Levine. Occasional paper 26. "Exca-
vations
Royal Ontario
Museum.
1974.
INDEX
Numerals
in italics indicate
an
illus-
Benjamin of Tudela: 13
40-41
Ardashir
1:
jewelry, 116,
Aristobulus: 47, 48
Armenia: 141, 142, 144
Armenians: 10
Arrian: 66, 126
Arsaces: 134
Arsacid dynasty: 134
Arses: 109
Ahura Mazda
sculpture,
48,
6,
Artaxerxes
II: 107,
Artaxerxes
III:
Artemis
65
Amu
tomb
(deity): 131
94
11, 98, 123,
Bourgeois, Brigitte: 26
Braham V: 146
Breasted, James Henry: 123-125
of Persian Studies: 53
British
Museum:
British
School of Archaeology: 50
RC:
109-110
Burton,
Buzurjmihr: 149
Byzantine empire: 150
Aryans: 9, 34
Ashurbanipal: 7-9, 29, 32, 36, 51, 158
Assur: 8, 135; Parthian palace at, 138
Darva: 110
Arabs:
150
Cambyses
II:
Awan:
Carmania: 88
24
22, 23,
Carrhae: 141
China:
Babylon: 8, 10, 29, 33, 36, 54, 60, 70, 88,
94-95, 103, 106, 112, 127, 131; Cyrus's
conquest of, 57-59; excavations at,
58; glass jar
11, 140,
Chogha
found
at,
117
148
Bacchylides: 60
88, 97-98, 113; Audience Hall (Pasargadac), 60-61; Council Hall, 74, 81,
"Cube of Zoroaster/
Gate of Xerxes,
(
75, 80;
143;
Hall of 100
Harem of Xerxes
I,
gadae
23; Zoroastrian
fire
tower,
133
Code of Hammurabi: 33
Constantinople: 11
survey
Bahram 1:123,147
Bahram II: 147
Barbalissos: 144
Cyropolis: 55
Barbaro, Josafat: 61
Barsine: 126
Behistun: 42; cliff reliefs
Cyrus
of,
aerial
42-43
monumental buildings
134
Baga-stanna (Behistun):
23, 25,
Chosroes I: 148-149
Chosroes II: 148, 149
Chateau, the: 15, 16, 17
Cilicia:
at,
30-31
94, 105;
by, 9
Bullae: 21
Arabia:
of,
108;
108;
86
Bondoux, Jules-Georges: painting
British Institute
Artabanus V: 142
Al-Qadissiyah: 150
at,
Borazjan: 57
Alyattes: 53,
monumental
146-147;
Bitter Lakes:
meld-
Ahasuerus: 100
Ahwaz: 25
Akkad: 8, 23, 33, 158
Alexander the Great:
at,
149
Elamite
(deity): 90, 93, 126;
reliefs at,
Agesilaos: 95
on
Bishapur: excavations
117
13, 101-102
Bagoas: 109
at,
70-71, 72,
Belshazzar: 57
Beltiya (deity): 32
164
93
Esarhaddon: 50, 51
Eshnunna: 33
Ethiopia: 10, 88
Euphrates River: 8,
Damghan: 109
13, 91-92,
Daniel (prophet):
Dardanelles: 132
Darius
94
cavations
100
tomb
of,
commissioned
bv,
Darius
Darius
II:
tomb
62, 108;
126, 158;
102, 108,
of, 40-41,
102
tomb
55, 57,
58, 59, 60, 61, 68, 69, 72, 85, 86, 89,
93;
136
Euripides: 141
72, 84, 85, 86, 88, 89, 93, 97, 100, 104,
at,
of,
Hidalu: 34, 36
Hindush: 89-90
Hopkins, Clark: 124, 126, 145
Hormizd: 147
Humban-Haltash
Huns: 148, 159
III:
36
109
Dasht-i-Lut Desert: 22
Delegation Scientifique Francaise en
Perse: 15
Dura-Europos:
vations
at,
at,
125
Duvanli, Bulgaria:
silver
Jr.:
amphora
excavations at
Gandhara: 88
Gandharans: 114
Ganneau, Clermont: 86
Gaugamela: 112
Gaza: 69
Ghirshman, Roman: 150; excavations
by, 30-31, 131, 146
Glasswork: Sassanian, 154
Gobrvas: 58
Godard, Andre: 34
Godin Tepe:
51-52
Ecbatana (Media):
10, 52,
Ecbatana
III: 144
Granicus River: 112
Grave goods: 18, 20, 30,
(Syria):
Grav Ware
70
Edessa: 145
24
7,
9, 10,
34, 118
Elephantine: 72
el-Kharga: Persian temple
at,
92
Elymais: 132
Erasistratos:
Eretria:
129
gemstone found
at,
106
French
Muslim
rulers pre-
31, 114-
34-36
64
146
Issus: 112
Egyptians: 117
Elamites:
for, 9;
archaeological explo-
in,
Elam: Assyrian conquest of, 7-8; centers of power in, 22, 32; decline of,
33-34; geographical influences on
culture of, 19; and Persian empire,
12; resurgence of, 36; rivalry with
Mesopotamia!! cities, 22-24, 29, 33;
trade in, 21-22, 24, 36; wealth of, 8-9,
of name
117
93, 112
34, 51
monopoly on
Gordian
29
Iran: derivation
Goff, Clare: 52
Hart Tepe:
artifacts
excavations
at,
Italian Institute
East(IsMEO): 104
found
at,
28-29;
Hagmatana: 52
Hallock, Richard: 101, 103
Hal-Tamti: 29
Hamadan: 52, 56
Hamanu: Assyrian sack of, 8
Hammurabi: 33
Handel, Georg Friedrich: 11
Hansman, John: 22
Josephus: 13
Judah: 132,133
Judas Maccabee: 133
Judea: 92
165
at,
136; ex-
68
Judeans: 50
147
Kerman: 88
Kartir:
Khosrow
II:
Memphis: 69
Menelaus (high
144
Merv: 140
Mesopotamia:
132-133
priest):
dominant
on Elam,
20-21; 19th-century European in50, 131, 143;
19,
Kushites: 10
Elamite,
19,
91; golden bowl, 774; gold ornament, 119; gold pectoral, 50-51; gold
plaque, 46; gold rhyton, 97; inlaying,
Oxus Treasure
Metropolitan
Leonidas: 106
Levine, Louis: excavations
Tepe, 51-52
117;
Godin
89
found
13
Luristan Mountains: 22
Lurs: 137
64, 775
for,
24
Macedon: 128
Macedonia: 90
Orodes: 141
sites
Oxus
Oxus
96
Parthians:
9, 11,
76
of,
133-134; and
Par ysatis:
Pasargadae:
palaces
):
Napoleon: 86
Naqsh-i Rustam:
41; relief at,
10, 47,
102, 108;
29
at
Mattathias: 133
de: 19 28,
tower
30
ground plan
at,
97
Pelusium: 69
32
30, 31, 32
Nebuchadnezzar
Negahban, Ezat:
Matezzis: 103
Mecquenem, Roland
found
57-58
aerial
Marlowe, Christopher: 11
Massagetai: 68
(deity):
at, (A,
Napirisha deity
empire, 136,
14
at,
Pausanias:
55,
Roman
N
Napir-Asu:
excavations
of,
50
Mount Alvand: 52
Murphy, M. C: 123
Nabonidus: 54,
12; archaeological
controlled by, 11
Parker, Barbara:
Muslims: 9
Master of Animals
Immortals: 15
Oriental Institute, The: 73, 78, 87, 99,
100, 102
Palmyra: 140
Palestine:
Mountain of Mercy:
158
(New
Lvsander: 62
Medes: 34,
of Art
Mongols: 9
Morgan, Jacques
Obelisks: 14
Ottoman empire:
Museum
York): 13
at
sil-
Susa, 12-14
14, 16, 86,
Lydians:
with Elam,
Mesuti-Re (deity): 69
Metalwork: drinking vessel handle, 775;
Kushans: 159
in, 12,
River: 22
Louvre:
Nimrud: 50
Kur
Nile River: 69
tombs
at, 87,
I:
33,
at,
88,
143
29; excavations
166
reliefs
57
15, 21,
at, 63,
at
ments
in,
of,
network
nications
commu-
Rhosus: 129
Rich, Claudius James: 48
Roaf, Michael: excavations bv, 53
Roman empire: 11,49, 126, 147; and
96-97;
in, 60,
decline of,
11,
11;
94-95, 113-
113
147, 151,
159
Shilhak -Inshushinak: 33
Shimashki: 24
Shushan: 13
found
Persians:
Silk
Road:
129,
136,142,148
134
Fuad: 136
Safer,
Phoenicia: 108
Sais:
Salamis: 106
Spitamenes: 128
Phrvgia: 95
Salihiyah: 123
Maurice: excavations
at
Salles,
88
Sami,
Georges: 146
excavations by,
Ali:
64
97
Pottery:
19, 21;
vase, 18
64, 65, 66
Suez: canal built by Darius
Sukkal Mah: 24
Sukkalmah dynasty: 24
Sumer: 8
Sumerian King List: 23
Sumner, William: 102-103; excavations
II:
36, 52
142-143; and
rise
Romans, 143-146,
142-143; trade,
147-148, 151
12, 143; aerial surveys by, 37-45, 64, 99, 101, 150;
excavations at Persepolis, 73, 80, 99-
Mary Helen: 37
found
at,
136
Seleucids:
at
Nin-
Buddhism,
Judaism, 132-133;
faiths,
Rhagae: 112
9, 11,
99
Surkh
12,
Dum: bronze
artifacts
found
at,
13
Susa: 7-11,
19,
palace
at,
at, 18;
88; earrings
excavations
Seleucia: earrings
Anshan, 22
acropolis cemetery
133
37
85-86
of,
at
at,
Suren: 141
Schmidt, Erich E:
100
Schmidt,
Qaleh-i Dukhtar: 139
Qasr-i-Abu: aerial survey
Stratonice: 129
Proto-Elamite Period: 20
Psamtik III: 68, 69
Ptolemaic dynasty: 128, 132
Ptolemv: 127
Pulvar:47
PuzurTnshushinak: 23-24
86
61
57,
Sargon
Polykritos: 88
Spargapises: 68
Sparta: 95
Sardis: 10, 53, 58, 60, 62,' 65, 88, 90, 96,
Elamite,
69
Dura-
bv,
Platea: 106
67;
118
Simash: 22
Sind: 88
Sippar: 33
precursors of,
Pillet,
in,
at,
Darius's
found
at,
117;
Susiana: 15
Syria: 108,
167
12" L28,
Takhti Suleiman:
45
Tal-i-Malyan:
131, L33,
aerial
mounds
143
at,
22
INDEX
U
64-65
Tamburlaine the Great:
11
144, 145
Tall-i-Takht:
at,
26-27
Temple of Marduk (Babylon): 58
Temple of Neith (Sais): 69
Temple of Shamash (Hatra): 136
10,000 Immortals, The: 89, 96
Tepe Baba Jan: excavations at, 52-53,
54-55
Tepe Marlik: 30, 34; terra-cotta bull
vessels found at, 31
Tepe Nush-i Jan: excavations at, 52,
53, 56-57; silver hoard found at,
Elamite,
102
University of Tehran: 25
Untash-Napirisha: 29-30, 31, 32; ziggurat of,
23
Tepti-ahar,
found
tomb
at, 21,
of:
20; skeletons
Textiles: Sassanian,
Xerxes (opera): 11
Xerxes I: 92-93, 97, 100, 103, 106-107,
tomb
of,
40-41, 102
Urartu: 33, 36
Xerxes
II:
108
Uruk: 21
U-Tik: 31
Yazdigird
Valerian: 145-146, 153
28
Xenophon:
67
Ur:24
57
29
Susian inscriptions,
Wu-ti: 140
102
18, 21;
21
Young,
Vandals: 148
150
III:
Tepe, 51-52
Museum: 69
Victoria and Albert Museum:
Vatican
142-143
110
Thermopvlae: 106
Thrace: 90, 128, 132
Tigris River: 8, 51, 58, 95, 130, 131, 135
Tilia,
Ann
Tilia,
Britt: 104,
105
Tomyris: 68
Trajan: 136, 142
Old
168
Zagros Mountains:
70
Zahedan: 22
Zendan: 61
Zend Avesta: 72
Ziggurats: at
30-31
Chogha
at,
50-51
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ISBN 0-8094-9104-4