The Idea of Iran, volume I: Birth of the Persian Empire

156 Pages·2005·2.2 MB·English

by  Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis

Birth of the Persian Empire

Birth of the Persian Empire

Volume I

Edited By

Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis
and
Sarah Stewart

in association with The London Middle East Institute at SOAS
and
The British Museum
Published in 2005 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd
6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU
175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010
www.ibtauris.com

In the United States of America and Canada distributed by
Palgrave Macmillan a division of St. Martin’s Press
175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010

Copyright © 2005 Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis & Sarah Stewart

The right of Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis & Sarah Stewart to be identified as
editors of this work has been asserted by the editors in accordance with the
Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988.

The publication of this book was generously supported by the Soudavar
Memorial Foundation.

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or
any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior
written permission of the publisher.

ISBN 1 84511 062 5

EAN 978 1 84511 062 8

A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
A full CIP record for this book is available from the Library of Congress

Library of Congress catalogue card: available

Typeset by P. Fozooni

Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd, Padstow,
Cornwall from camera-ready copy edited and supplied by the editors
Contents

Introduction 1
Cyrus the Great and the Kingdom of Anshan 7
An Archaeologist’s Approach to Avestan Geography 29
The Achaemenids and the Avesta 52
The Contribution of the Magi 85
The History of the Idea of Iran 100
Iron Age Iran and the Transition to the Achaemenid Period 112
List of Abbreviations 132
Bibliography 133
List of Figures

Map showing the principal sites in southwestern Iran mentioned in the 10
text
Persian nobleman at Persepolis wearing the “Elamite” dagger 12
Bath-tub coffin of Kidin-Hutran, son of Kurlush, from the Neo-Elamite 17
tomb at Arjan
Modern impression of a cylinder seal in the Louvre, bearing the legend 17
“Parsirra, son of Kurlush” (after Amiet 1973)
Composite drawing of impressions on Persepolis fortification texts 596– 18
695 and 2003 by M.C. Root and M.B. Garrison
Map according to Gnoli (adapted from Gnoli 1980) 32
Map according to Vogelsang 33
Map according to Humbach 34
Map according to Witzel 35
Map according to Frantz Grenet 44
Aerial photograph of the Hellenic town of Ai Khanum 46
Pottery vessel in the form of a humped-backed bull from tomb 18 at 113
Marlik, National Museum of Iran. Photograph J.E. Curtis
Horse’s breastplate from Hasanlu, National Musem of Iran. Photograph 114
J.E.Curtis
Bronze drinking-cup in the form of a ram’s head from Hasanlu, National 115
Museum of Iran. Photograph J. E. Curtis
Dish in “Egyptian blue” with bird’s head on rim, from excavations at 117
Ziwiyeh in 1977, National Museum of Iran. Photograph J. E. Curtis
Drawings of seals and a sealing from Tepe Nush-i Jan 120
Drawings of possible Achaemenid period material from Tepe Nush-i Jan 122
The base and the top part of a bronze stand found in an Elamite tomb at 124
Arjan, National Museum of Iran. Photograph J. E. Curtis
Acknowledgements

This proceedings of the first series and the planning of future series have
developed with the support and invaluable advice of a number of people. The
editors would like to thank Fatema Soudavar Farmanfarmaian, Ardavan
Farmanfarmaian, Susan Salmanpour, Narguess Farzad and Nazi Mahlouji.
This book could not have been published without the dedication and
expertise of Parvis Fozooni, who typeset and formatted all the papers and
scanned the images.
The editors are also grateful to Iradj Bagherzade and staff at I.B.Tauris for
their support.

Introduction

Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis (The British Museum)
and
Sarah Stewart (The London Middle East Institute at
SOAS)

T
his volume contains a series of six lectures delivered at the School of
Oriental and African Studies in the spring and summer terms 2004
organised by the London Middle East Institute at SOAS and the British
Museum. As a result of the tremendous success of the first series, the Soudavar
Foundation has generously agreed to support further series.
The Lecture series “The Idea of Iran: from Eurasian Steppe to Persian
Empire” was prompted by a desire to explore the multifarious ideas about the
notion of “Iran” beginning with the origins of Achaemenid hegemony. The first
half of the title was borrowed from Gherardo Gnoli’s collection of essays
entitled The Idea of Iran (Rome, 1989), in which he discussed the complex
question of Iran and its national identity from a historical perspective. The title
of the present volume, The Birth of the Persian Empire, broadens the approach
and takes into account research undertaken during the past fifteen years. It
enables scholars from different subject disciplines; archaeology, history,
religion and philology, to debate various issues concerning the nature and
origin of Iran as a political, religious and/or ethnic entity.
The importance of Iranian studies cannot be underestimated. It is our hope
to re-invigorate the subject, which for many years has been neglected. This
would require ending its vulnerability due to changes in the international
political environment or fluctuations related to government funding. As well as
providing a forum for academic debate, our aim in organising this series is to
attract young people to the field of Iranian studies and encourage them to think
beyond contemporary geo-political boundaries. Iranian cultural heritage spans a
vast area of what is now a region divided by nation-state borders, religious
ideology and political conflict. There is a need for a coherent approach to Iran’s
historical cultures that is free from contemporary pressures to reinterpret the
past in ways that conform to present norms of whatever nature.
We are extremely fortunate to be able to bring together a collection of
papers by eminent scholars, all of whom are experts in their field. The editors
have, therefore, respected the fact that their research sometimes involves