to invoke this same provenience for a wide range of objects, including both forgeries and other items that have come to light through clandestine operations (Muscarella 1980: pp. 31–35; cf. Chapter 105 The Achaemenid Empire and Forgery: Material Culture). Prominent among other objects with a dubious status are the well‐known gold tablets with late Achaemenid inscriptions written in the names of Ariaramnes and Arsames (AmH and AsH: Schmitt 1999: pp. 105–111) as well as duplicates of the foundation texts that were found in the Apadana at Persepolis (DHa: Lecoq 1997: pp. 218–219; cf. the discussion of these items in Mousavi 2012: pp. 43–44 with n.121; see also Chapter 104 Achaemenid Empire and Forgery: Inscriptions).
The knowledge that we currently possess of the mud‐brick architecture of Media in the seventh and early sixth centuries BCE (cf. Stronach and Roaf 2007: pp. 181–182) may begin to allow us to speculate on various aspects of the character of the smaller settlements that must have typified the province of Media in Achaemenid times. To start with, Media's absorption into the far‐flung Achaemenid Empire must have produced an altogether new sense of security. As a result, people who had previously chosen to reside, if at all possible, on clearly defensible, rock outcrops or on the often considerable heights of long‐established prehistoric mounds, would have not taken long to abandon such locations in favor of new habitations that stood at the same level as their orchards and fields. In these new conditions the main arbiter of location would have been the availability of water. And in many cases the recently available technology of the qanat (cf. Wilkinson 2012: pp. 16–27) was no doubt used to bring cool, clean water from distant, underground aquifers to the exact point where surface water was required.
While Achaemenid builders frequently included worked stone elements in major structures, we can be sure that everyday construction in the countryside would have largely depended on mud‐bricks, mud‐brick struts and wood. In addition, it is important to note that, while the standard mud‐brick in independent Media was oblong in shape and measured c. 40 × 24 × 12 cm in size, the Achaemenids introduced a smaller, square mud‐brick that was normally 34 × 34 × 12 cm in size. Indeed, it is changes in brick sizes – not to mention subtle changes in pottery – that will no doubt ultimately allow archeologists to plot the still missing patterns of rural settlement that must have characterized the broad plains of Media in Achaemenid times (cf. Boucharlat 2005; Curtis 2005).
As to the likely appearance of the settlements in question, most villages were presumably characterized by a preponderance of flat‐roofed, single‐storied houses. Also, on the evidence of not‐too‐far‐distant rock‐cut tombs of the late fourth/early third centuries BCE, certain of the houses may well have been marked by porticoes with elegant wooden ceilings and two or more wooden columns (cf. especially Herzfeld 1941: fig. 312).
Since archeobotanical studies of the excavated Median and Parthian plant remains from Tepe Nush‐i Jan indicate that emmer, bread wheat and barley were grown in both these periods (Kylo and Hubbard 1981), it is only logical to suppose that these same cereals were among those that were cultivated locally in the interval between these periods. Parallel studies of the animal bone sample from the Median and Parthian settlements at Tepe Nush‐i Jan are also informative. In both Median and Parthian times cattle remained the main source of meat. The real revelation, however, is the very varied character of the local horse population in these two periods. In this context the bone sample indicates that the famed pastures of Media were home to (i) large, heavy horses (with a withers height of over 150 cm), to (ii) horses of a median size (with a withers height of 135–137 cm), as well as to (iii) a miniature form of horse (such as very possibly represents an independent breed) with an average withers height of only 105–110 cm (Bökönye 1978: p. 28).
With reference to the extent to which Achaemenid art and architecture can be said to be indebted to prior Median achievements, it has recently been suggested that the innovative columned halls of eighth/seventh century Media may not have had quite such a strong influence on the evolution of the famed columned halls of Pasargadae and Persepolis as was once imagined (Gopnik 2010: p. 196). On the other hand it is clear that a number of motifs that are found in the monumental mud‐brick architecture of Media eventually re‐emerged as elegant designs, rendered both in stone and in other materials, in various late sixth‐century and later Achaemenid contexts (Roaf 2010). Since certain of these motifs are first found on the walls of the central temple at Tepe Nush‐i Jan, and since they would seem to re‐appear on occasion in equally numinous settings, it is all the more interesting to note that the stepped portion of the mud‐brick fire altar from the central temple (Stronach and Roaf 2007: fig. 2.13) almost certainly finds an echo in the stepped upper and lower extremities of the characteristic Achaemenid stone altar – actual examples of which were encountered at Pasargadae (Stronach 1978: fig. 72).
Aside from being masters of construction in mud‐brick, as well as redoubtable riders – and breeders – of horses, the Medes appear to have been celebrated, in the Achaemenid period especially, for their skills in metalworking. This is evident, not least, from a glance at the choice gifts of precious metal that are displayed by the Median delegation in the parade of subject peoples that adorns the carved socle of the Apadana at Persepolis (Schmidt 1953: pl. 27). On the other hand, the fact that Darius I chose to depict his Persian subjects in the bas‐reliefs at Persepolis in two separate forms of dress (perhaps best defined as a voluminous “court dress” and a more tight‐fitting “riding dress”) can no longer be used to support a never very convincing suggestion that those individuals in riding dress were all Medes and that, accordingly, the Medes shared the governance of the Achaemenid empire with the Persians (see, e.g. Stronach 2011: p. 477).
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