Persepolis

Marjane Satrapi

About 3 pages (1,021 words)

Persepolis (graphic novel) Summary

Persepolis

(literally "City of the Persians" in Greek) was one of the most important capitals of ancient Persia. While the exact date of its foundation is not known, it appears to have become prominent at the death in 522 BCE of Cambyses II, the son and successor of Cyrus the Great (c. 585–c. 529), when it replaced Pasargadae as the capital of the empire. It was called Parsa by the Persians and functioned as the principal royal residence of the Achaemenid kings. It is assumed that Darius I (550–486 BCE), who succeeded Cambyses II, began work on the main platform of the complex and its structures between 518 and 516 BCE, visualizing Persepolis as the grand focus of his vast empire. Additional monuments were then added to the city's infrastructure in the reigns of Xerxes I (c. 519–465 BCE) and Artaxerxes I (d. 425 BCE). This great prosperity lasted only two hundred years, and the city was plundered and burned by Alexander of Macedon in 330 BCE following his historic victory over the Persian armies. After its massive destruction, Persepolis was eventually abandoned and lay in ruins through the successive dynasties that controlled Persia until 1620, when its site was first identified.

Investigating the Ruins of Persepolis

In the following centuries, Persepolis and its impressive ruins were the focus of numerous historical and travel accounts. While these observations were condensed and published by George N. Curzon in Persia and the Persian Question in 1892, scientific research and examination of the site was not undertaken until the 1930s. Ernst Herzfeld became the first field director of the Oriental Institute's Persepolis Expeditions in 1931. Between 1931 and 1934, he excavated the grand eastern stairway of the Apadana (the royal reception hall), the smaller stairs of the Council Chamber, and the Harem of Xerxes on the Persepolis terrace. Erich F. Schmidt took charge in 1934 and continued the excavations of the complex until the end of 1939, when the onset of the war in Europe put an end to archaeological work in Iran.

Since the early excavations under Herzfeld had mainly uncovered palaces, until the first quarter of the twentieth century Persepolis was believed to consist largely of palaces of the Achaemenid sovereigns and their annexes and gardens. However, the later excavations, between 1934 and 1939, revealed several additional structures on the high terrace. These included an entrance hall, the few remaining columns of the Apadana, the ruins of Darius' small residence (the Tachara), those of the palace of Xerxes (the Hadish), and the ruins of a structure identified as the Harem. There was, in addition, a second reception hall, known as the Hall of a Hundred Columns, and the "Unfinished Gate." It was believed by scholars that the citadel and the royal treasury were on the mountain called Kuh-i Rahmat, and that the town itself was situated at Istakhr, about six kilometers away.

By the 1960s, several scholars had reexamined the excavations and concluded that palace structures were only part of the large ensemble of buildings. Furthermore, even the functions assigned to some of the structures were inaccurate. The royal Harem, for example, was a double line of enormous halls with no external openings or open spaces, and organized around a long central corridor. It was evidently closer in its form and organization to a large group of vaulted halls, marked on the ground by multiple bases of stone columns, indicating storage structures or elaborate warehouses. It was therefore highly likely that these buildings housed the extensive royal treasuries of the Achaemenid kings, truly a fitting function for this grand showcase of the empire. The vast storerooms were in turn enclosed by elaborate military quarters and a few palaces. The "royal towns" of which the historians spoke lay at the foot of the terrace on the level of the plain, protected by a double wall and a moat.

The Structure of Ancient Cities

The remains of Persepolis provide scholars with important evidence on the form and layout of cities in ancient Persia. Its layout and monuments coincide with the depictions of cities and military camps on surviving wall panels, such as those at Sennacherib's palace city at Nineveh—the cult center of Ishtar between 704 and 681 BCE. Those wall panels mainly described scenes of war, defeat, and the conquest of enemies; cities and urban foundations were here always represented as circular, oval structures with strong walls and defensive bastions. In addition, a moat usually surrounded the entire city, so that the attacking armies were either inside or outside this defensive barrier. Significantly, within the urban walls there also appeared the horizontal road connecting the longer axis of the oval enclosure created by the city walls. Prominent buildings, in addition to numerous tentlike structures, filled up the rest of the space.

Based on these reconstructions of Parthian and Sassanian cities, it is therefore likely that the terrace at Persepolis—the raised, protected eminence within its citadel—was the center of an immense urban region, stretching for several miles across the plain. This urban district of dense population was criss-crossed by a large network of irrigation canals. Furthermore, main streets radiated from the central citadel, dividing the city into sectors and delineating the various areas of this region. It is evident that cities such as Persepolis, including its extant remains and legendary accounts, were important sources of emulation for the creation of urban centers by civilizations of the Near and Middle East, Central Asia, and the Indian sub-continent.

Manu P. Sobti