CHAPTER 15 Persia (including Khūzestān)
Rémy Boucharlat
Two of the four royal residences of Darius and his successors are located in southwestern Iran: Persepolis in the mountains of Fārs, the ancient Persia, the cradle of the Achaemenid dynasty; Susa in the lowlands of Khūzestān, an extension of Mesopotamia, a part of the ancient kingdom of Elam and the Achaemenid satrapy of Elam. Susa is halfway between Persepolis and Babylon in Mesopotamia, the ancient capital of the eastern world until Cyrus' conquest, and another Achaemenid residence. In this part of the empire, even carefully ruled as an “Itinerant state” (Briant 2002: p. 187) during the frequent and long journeys of the king, no city, not even Susa, is a permanent royal capital. This is probably the main reason why no cities in the true sense of the word, as we know them from previous Near Eastern empires, could be located at Persepolis or Susa, and why these two places were no more “urban” than Pasargadae, the residence of Cyrus, the founder of the empire.
Apart from these famous royal residences, the settlement pattern of the southwest of Iran is poorly known, not to speak of the religious monuments and cemeteries, though the situation has been changing slightly in recent decades. Newer discoveries fill some blanks on the archeological maps. This vast area covers three modern provinces: Fārs around Shiraz, Būshehr along the coast of the Persian Gulf, and Khūzestān to the west. Few sites occupied during the Achaemenid period are known outside the mentioned royal residences and a half‐dozen elite buildings using stone components. To be added are find spots of column bases, sometimes in situ. The settlements of ordinary people, yet very few, are gradually identified in the three provinces as they are explored and the archeological material becomes better known. Southwest Iran does not appear as densely populated at this time as some areas of the western parts of the empire, such as Egypt, Levant, and Anatolia, but these regions have certainly been more intensely covered by archeologists for some 150 years. As for the cemeteries, their absence is notable, apart from the royal tombs at Naqsh‐i Rustam and near the terrace of Persepolis. This absence of archeological evidence raises the question of religious practices and beliefs of the Persians and other populations in the heartland of the empire (cf. Chapter 85 The Heartland Pantheon and Chapter 87 Funerary Customs).
Pasargadae, the First Royal Residence
Cyrus chose Pasargadae as his royal residence in Persia probably soon after his accession to power before 550. The main part of the site is organized and built in order to make visible the king's power. Located in an intermountain plain at 1850 m above sea level, Pasargadae benefits from permanent water resources in a rather mild climate in summer. The archeological site covers 300 ha. The known residential area (Figure 15.1) covers some 100 ha, in which a half‐dozen stone buildings are scattered. The most famous monument, isolated in the southwest, is universally recognized as the tomb of Cyrus (Figure 87.1). This is a free‐standing structure made of ashlar masonry, with large blocks carefully fitted and bound by iron clamps embedded in lead. It is house‐like (6.40 × 5.35 m) with a gabled roof, resting on a plinth of six tiered steps (13.35 × 12.30 m on the ground). The inner burial chamber, which Alexander visited twice, intact in 330 and plundered in 327, measures 3.17 × 2.11 m and is 2.11 m high (Stronach 1978: pp. 24–43).
Figure 15.1 Plan of Pasargadae.
Source: Reproduced by permission of the Joint Iran–France Mission at Pasargadae.
At 1300 m northeast there are two rectangular columned halls with respectively four and two pillared porticoes, and two small pavilions with columns (Figure 15.2). Beyond a bridge crossing the stream, a monumental gateway is also a pillared rectangular hall. In the opposite direction, a 14 m high tower (Figure 15.3) has been interpreted as a grave or a temple, which are unlike functions, given the very small size of the inner chamber placed in the upper part of the building without windows. According to a unique source (Plut. Artax. III, 1–2), to be cautiously dealt with (Binder 2010), this tower could have been the place of dynastic ceremonies, such as the coronation of the new king (Sancisi‐Weerdenburg 1983). Northeast of these stone buildings, the 30 m high natural hill is crowned by a large platform, called Takht‐i Solaiman, 14 m high, made of huge stone blocks carefully dressed and bound by clamps. It was probably planned to be the seat of Cyrus' residence. This project was given up and replaced under Darius I by a mudbrick defense wall and series of rooms (Stronach 1978: pp. 11–23).
Figure 15.2 Pasargadae, aerial view of Palace P.
Source: Reproduced by permission of the Joint Iran–France Mission at Pasargadae; photography B.N. Chagny.
Figure 15.3 Pasargadae, aerial view with Palace P and Zendan‐e Sulaiman.
Source: Reproduced by permission of the Joint Iran–France Mission at Pasargadae; photography B.N. Chagny.
The ashlar masonry is a new technique in southwest Iran. After his conquest of Asia Minor, Cyrus imported from Ionia and Lydia craftsmen, architects, and sculptors, who realized an architecture strongly influenced by art and techniques of these regions (stone cutting techniques, bases and column shafts, floors). These techniques are implemented in hypostyle halls which are, for the first time in Iran, equipped with stone column bases made of two square plinths supporting a torus, and in the two main buildings, with columns made of stone shafts, which replace the wooden poles known before in the northwest and west (Nylander 1970; Stronach 1978; Boardman 2000). The plan of these buildings is a Persian creation, especially the hypostyle hall. Architecture and decoration also incorporate elements from Mesopotamia. Representations of animals and monsters on bas‐reliefs and sculpture flanking the gates in Assyrian sculpture are also used at Pasargadae, perhaps at the main doorways of Gate R, but certainly on top of the columns of this building in the shape of double protomae which formed part of the capitals. The gatehouse, a hall with two rows of four columns – also a Persian innovation – shows a remarkable bas‐relief forming the jamb of a side entrance: a man (Cyrus or a genius?) wearing an Elamite dress with an Assyrian double pair of wings wearing an Egyptian crown (Figure 94.1). This relief intends to show the diversity of the empire, and this policy, born at Pasargadae, will find its grandiose representations in the sculpture of Persepolis and the architecture of that site, and in Susa as Darius made known in several inscriptions.
The whole flat area of the site from the tomb to the hill is crossed by an artificial stream derived from the river Pulvar. This surface of c. 100 ha is now interpreted as a park, a “paradise” (Greek paradeisos), a term of Old Persian origin (*paridaida) and a Persian invention that the Greek authors admired in various places of the empire, but
