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VOLUME 19 NO. 3 SEPTEMBER 2010 T c o n t e n t s

Volume 19 No. 3 September 2010

3 Editorial taasa rEVIEW Tobin Hartnell and Josefa Green THE ASIAN ARTS SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA INC. Abn 64093697537 • Vol. 19 No. 3, September 2010 ISSN 1037.6674 4 Cheshmeh ali Ware: a Painted CeramiC tradition in thE iranian Central Plateau Registered by Australia Post. Publication No. NBQ 4134 Edna Wong

editorIAL • email: [email protected] 7 ElamitE art General editor, Josefa Green Javier Álvarez-Món publications Committee 10 The Kazakly-Yatkan Wall Paintings: New Perspectives on the Art of the Ancient Iranian World Josefa Green (convenor) • Tina Burge Melanie Eastburn • Sandra Forbes • Ann MacArthur Fiona Kidd Jim Masselos • Ann Proctor • Susan Scollay Sabrina Snow • Christina Sumner 12 in the Western imagination design/layout Tobin Hartnell Ingo Voss, VossDesign

printing 15 Love Thy Neighbour: The Intimate Art of Diplomacy in Persepolis Processional Sculptures John Fisher Printing Stephanie Reed Published by The Asian Arts Society of Australia Inc. 18 Sasanian Panels PO Box 996 Potts Point NSW 2011 www.taasa.org.au Ali Asadi Enquiries: [email protected]

21 In the PubliC domain: A Persian Shahnama Folio from the NGV TAASA Review is published quarterly and is distributed to members Susan Scollay of The Asian Arts Society of Australia Inc. TAASA Review welcomes submissions of articles, notes and reviews on Asian visual and performing arts. All articles are refereed. Additional copies and 22 Silks of sasanian Persia subscription to TAASA Review are available on request. Heleanor Feltham No opinion or point of view is to be construed as the opinion of 24 BooK rEview: Paradise Lost. Persia from Above The Asian Arts Society of Australia Inc., its staff, servants or agents. No claim for loss or damage will be acknowledged by TAASA John Tidmarsh Review as a result of material published within its pages or in other material published by it. We reserve the right to alter 25 Exhibition Preview: Beauty And Betrayal: Ancient at the Nicholson or omit any article or advertisements submitted and require Elizabeth Bollen and Tobin Hartnell indemnity from the advertisers and contributors against damages or liabilities that may arise from material published.

26 Traveller’s tale: Museum of Iran All reasonable efforts have been made to trace copyright holders. Helen Holmes and Ros Hunyor taasa mEMBERSHIP ratES $60 Single 27 nEW lEadership for taasa $90 Dual $90 Single overseas (includes postage) 29 Recent taasa aCtivities $30 Concession (students/pensioners with ID) $95 Libraries (overseas, $95 + $20 postage) 29 taasa mEmbers’ diary $195 Corporate/institutional (up to 10 employees) $425 Corporate/institutional (more than 10 employees) 30 What’s on: September - NOVEMBER 2010 $650 Life membership (free admission all events) Compiled by Tina Burge advertising ratES TAASA Review welcomes advertisements from appropriate companies, institutions and individuals. Rates below are GST inclusive.

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Photo: Kourosh Mohammad Khani. The deadline for all articles for our next issue is 1 OCTOBER 2010 A full index of articles Published in TAASA Review since its beginnings The deadline for all aDvertising in 1991 is available on thE taasa WEb site, WWW.taasa.org.au for our next issue is 1 NOVEMBER 2010

2 t a a s a C o m m i t t ee E d i t o r i a l : AN c i E N T I R A N

Gill green • President Tobin Hartnell, Guest Editor Art historian specialising in Cambodian culture

CHRISTINA SUMNER • Vice President Principal Curator, Design and Society, This focus issue of the TAASA Review on curator at the Nicholson Museum, reviews Powerhouse Museum, Sydney Ancient Iran demonstrates that Australia is its new jewellery exhibition which, while currently one of the leading contributors focused on the classical culture of Greece ann guild • TREASURER Former Director of the Embroiders Guild (UK) to the study of ancient Iranian Art and and Rome, also displays some important Archaeology. examples of Persian and Persian-inspired KATE JOHNSTON • SECRETARY jewellery for the first time in Sydney. Intellectual property lawyer with an interest in Asian textiles Edna Wong recently graduated from Sydney University in Archaeology. Her piece on John Tidmarsh reviews a nostalgic book about Hwei-fe’n Cheah Cheshmeh Ali ceramics investigates some Iranian culture and landscapes. Using aerial Lecturer, Art History, Australian National University, with an interest in needlework of Iran’s earliest art. Recent research reveals photography, Paradise Lost: Persia from Above the sophisticated techniques and emerging captures a moment in time in Iran’s history JOCELYN CHEY themes of these Iranian ceramics from some that is rapidly disappearing as modern Iran Visiting Professor, Department of Chinese Studies, University of Sydney; former diplomat 7000 years ago, which influenced western industrialises. Iranian art for millennia. Matt Cox The journal finishes with a Traveller’s Tale Study Room Co-ordinator, Art Gallery of New South Javier Álvarez-Món originally graduated item about the Carpet Museum of . Ros Wales, with a particular interest in of Southeast Asia from Berkeley and now works as a lecturer Hunyor and Helen Holmes first examined the on ancient Iranian art at Sydney University. extraordinary displayed in the museum Philip Courtenay His piece covers the evolution of Elamite Art, and then travelled around Iran to experience Former Professor and Rector of the Cairns Campus, one of Iran’s oldest civilizations. the diverse cultures that produced them. James Cook University, with a special interest in Southeast Asian ceramics After considering the earliest art traditions in The range of topics covered by the articles LUCIE folan Iran, following articles review the role of Persia in this issue starts to capture the vitality and Assistant Curator, Asian Art, National Gallery of Australia (modern , southern Iran) in the Iranian experimentation of artists in ancient Iran. The Sandra forbes world. Two pieces deal with Persepolis, a site cultural influence of these ancient works are Editorial consultant with long-standing interest that still embodies romantic ideas of Persia even still with us, as Iranians and foreigners alike in South and Southeast Asian art 2300 years after its destruction. My own piece, look to Iran’s artistic heritage to experience Josefa green Persepolis in the Western Imagination, considers the enduring ideas of its layered past. General editor of TAASA Review. Collector of Chinese how the meaning of Persepolis changed as the ceramics, with long-standing interest in East Asian West became more engaged in Iranian affairs. This special issue required the generosity art as student and traveller Stephanie Reed explores how the Persepolis of many professionals. Thank you to the GERALDINE hardman reliefs stand apart from other decorative generosity of the contributors, photographer Collector of Chinese furniture and Burmese lacquerware programs of Ancient Near Eastern states by Koroush Mohammad Khani, the Oriental MIN-JUNG KIM focusing on communal aspects, rather than war. Institute (Chicago), University of Pennsylvania, Curator of Asian Arts & Design at the Powerhouse Museum University of Akron, University of Tasmania ANN PROCTOR Fiona Kidd works with Sydney University’s and Sydney for your help. Art historian with a particular interest in Vietnam Chorasmia project (the lower Oxus region). Her piece covers the newly excavated wall SABRINA SNOW This is a special issue in that it announces paintings of Kazakly-yatkan in the eastern Has a long association with the Art Gallery of New South the resignation of our current President, Chorasmian oasis. Through this work, Central Wales and a particular interest in the arts of China Judith Rutherford. On page 27, we Asian artists emerge as a new force in the Hon. auditor provide a brief outline of Judith’s wider Iranian art world. Rosenfeld Kant and Co achievements and I’m sure I speak for all members in thanking Judith for her s t a t E r ep r e s e n t a t i v e s Ali Asadi, an Iranian archaeologist working at outstanding contribution to TAASA over Persepolis, covers the last stage of pre-Islamic Australian Capital Territory the years and hoping that we will still Art - the Sasanian period (224-654 CE). His article find her at all our future functions. Robyn maxwell records how the Sasanian kings chose a very Visiting Fellow in Art History, ANU; traditional art form, rock reliefs, as an important Senior Curator of Asian Art, National Gallery of Australia At the same time, this issue is happy to part of the artistic repertoire of the time. Northern Territory announce the unanimous election of Gill Green as our new President and Christina Joanna barrkman The Sasanian world existed at the centre Sumner as our new Vice President. Gill Curator of Southeast Asian Art and Material Culture, of the Silk Road, a link between China and will become just the 4th President since Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory Europe. Heleanor Feltham considers the role TAASA’s foundation in October 1991. Queensland of the Sasanian court, not just in silk textile While Judith took over the reigns in 2001 Russell storer production but in defining Western and (from Jackie Menzies) when TAASA was Curatorial Manager, Asian and Pacific Art, Chinese textile styles for centuries to come. Queensland Art Gallery 10 years old, our new leadership comes just one year before our 20th anniversary. South Australia From archaeology and art history, the focus shifts to museum collections. Susan Scollay We can look forward to many more James bEnnett years of TAASA continuing its work of Curator of Asian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia considers the significance of the Shahnama (the Book of Kings), on the occasion of its one promoting Asian arts in Australia. Victoria thousandth anniversary, while examining a Carol Cains folio from the Shahnama held in the National Josefa Green, Editor Curator Asian Art, National Gallery of Victoria International Gallery of Victoria. Elizabeth Bollen, assistant

3 C H E s h m E h a l i W a r E: a P a i n t E d CE r a m i C TRADITION IN TH E i r a n i a n CE n t r a l P l a t E a u

Edna Wong Map of Cheshmeh Ali Sites. Created by Tobin Hartnell and Edna Wong. eramics are one of the oldest technologies C of ancient Iranian civilization. Early ceramics were hand-made and decorated with simple geometric patterns or even smudges of paint. In the Central Plateau of northern Iran, some of the earliest painted ceramics were found in Tepe Sialk (modern ). These ceramics are dated to the Neolithic period, over 7500 years ago. They are typically coarse, buff ceramics with organic tempers and decorated with simple geometric designs, net and basketry patterns.

During the Transitional Chalcolithic period (c. 5300-4300 BCE), a new type of fine ceramics made its appearance. These fine ceramics, known as Cheshmeh Ali Ware after the village in which it was first discovered, were exquisitely painted and produced to a high technical standard. The red fabric was specially prepared published, these ceramics have long been basketry or brickwork that would have been to remove impurities. The best examples have used as markers for the interpretation of the found in everyday lives. There were also consistent, well-fired profiles suggesting that chronology of northern Iran. While the site designs such as loops, triangles, ovals, wavy their makers were expert craftsmen. of Cheshmeh Ali has yielded rich findings lines, parallel bands, dots and dashes. As a from the Neolithic to the Late Chalcolithic result, the painted designs on the ceramics can Not only does Cheshmeh Ali ware represent period, this discussion will concentrate on the be quite complex with various combinations a sophisticated ceramic culture of prehistoric fine ceramics of the Transitional Chalcolithic of naturalistic and geometric images. Iran, it was part of the social transformation period, also known in older literature as the that was occurring in all parts of ancient Sialk II period. Examples will be drawn from Forms are open, consisting mainly of cups, Iran. Hunters and gatherers were becoming material found in other sites across the Central bowls, vases and goblets. There are also a farmers or herders. Rare materials such as Plateau as well as from Cheshmeh Ali itself. few jars and very distinctive basket-handled obsidian and semi-precious stones such as bowls. The latter was decidedly an innovation turquoise, agate and lapis lazuli were traded Cheshmeh Ali pottery in the Transitional as it is not seen in any of the vessels from over long distances across the Middle East. Chalcolithic period is characteristically the Neolithic period. The walls of the cups Pottery production was becoming a more reddish-brown to orange-red in colour with and bowls are straight, oblique, concave or specialised activity with advanced kilns and black or dark brown painted motifs. Painted carinated. The thin, smooth rims are without dedicated craft quarters. Metal-working decorations are present on the interior, mouldings. Bases are slightly concave, round also made its first appearance in the Central exterior or both surfaces. Mineral paint or pedestalled. The distinctive pedestalled Plateau at this time. Villages were becoming might have been used in the decoration that base would remain a hallmark of ceramics sophisticated towns and would soon become turned dark brown or black on firing (Malek from this region of Iran. The thin-walled, grit- some of the earliest urban centres of Iran. Shahmirzadi 1977: 283). tempered vessels are often coated with a slip and burnished. Once decorated, the ceramics Cheshmeh Ali ceramics have held special The Cheshmeh Ali ceramicists painted flocks were evenly fired at higher temperature interest for archaeologists, art historians and of stylised birds with long legs and bent producing a characteristic clinking sound collectors because they are one of the earliest necks, ibexes and wild goats with curved when struck. The thicker walled vessels show prehistoric painted pottery traditions found and notched horns, even dangerous animals thin dark grey cores that suggest inadequate in northern Iran. In 1934-1936, Erich Schmidt such as snakes. When they painted plants, firing. These are mainly larger storage vessels. first uncovered these ceramics at Cheshmeh they preferred wild flowers and trees rather Ali, a village situated in Rayy, now part of than the crops that they were planting. These Earlier scholars have concentrated on modern Tehran. Since then, similar ceramics representational motifs were not present in documenting and comparing designs and have been found in prehistoric sites across the the preceding Neolithic period, but have since typology in sites where this distinctive ware was Central Plateau of northern Iran, spanning a remained distinctive features of the ceramics found in order to establish a relative chronology distance of over 300 km, from the and from the Central Plateau of Iran for the whole and regional contact. Today archaeologists can Kashan plains in the west to the Gurgan and of the Chalcolithic period, which spanned go beyond these chronological comparisons Damghan plains in the east. over 2000 years. to investigate social transformations. For example, recent excavations have uncovered Although the initial excavation report for Geometric motifs are well represented on craft quarters, while remains of kilns have been Cheshmeh Ali itself has never been fully these vessels. Important designs include found in settlements (Fazeli et al. 2005, 2007).

4 T A A S A R E V I E W VOLUME 19 NO.3 A Selection of Cheshmeh Ali Ceramics, N. Iran c. 5300 – 4300 BCE, pigment on earthenware. © Penn University, image no. 152832

Direct evidence of ceramic production, such as studies so far suggest that the ceramics were moulds, ceramic polishers/scrapers, slag, waste made in the individual settlements rather materials, prepared clay balls and red ochre than centrally manufactured and distributed lumps, has been found within these contexts. (Wong 2008). X-radiographic analysis is uncovering different forming techniques in Not only were craftsmen deploying a the manufacture of these ceramics. One of the greater range of technology to produce these more interesting techniques associated with ceramics but there is evidence for growing Cheshmeh Ali ware was the use of sequential standardisation which suggests a movement slab construction technique in which round, away from household production. As part of oval or polygonal slabs were used to form the my doctoral work, I examined very thinly- vessels. On the rim in particular, elongated cut sections of the ceramics using a phase slabs on the surface show clear signs of contrast microscope with rotating stage. This regular rotation causing the researchers to work at the microscopic level showed that hypothesize an early use of a fast rotating the fabric of the Cheshmeh Ali ware was device (Dipilato and Laneri 1988). If proven, surprisingly uniform in sherds taken from the use of a fast rotating device at this time various sites in the Qazvin and Tehran plains. would be significantly earlier than known The clay was well levigated with a low ratio of examples from , making coarse to fine inclusions, good homogeneity Cheshmeh Ali an example of an advanced and contained only very small amounts of craft production society. organic temper. The firing temperature for the Cheshmeh Ali ware was likely to be above In 1977, anthropologist Martin Wobst 850ºC, judging from the very low occurrence suggested that it might be useful to view of calcareous inclusions. To achieve this styles of artefacts as a means of transmitting quality of production, craftsmen would have information. Visual information such as had to select and levigate the clay carefully pottery style and motifs, among other things, and achieve good temperature control of their indicates ritual contexts, ethnic affiliations kilns. For this reason, we consider Cheshmeh and self-created identities. The sharing of Ali potters as some of the earliest specialised visual information reinforces relationships artisans of ancient Iran. and thus promotes social cohesion and negotiation between groups by providing a With the resumption of field work in Iran recognised set of cultural symbols. during the last 15 years and improved scientific techniques, a wider range of research On this basis, Matney (1995) initiated the issues are now being tackled. Geochemical study of the painted motifs on the Cheshmeh

T A A S A R E V I E W VOLUME 19 NO.3 5 Cheshmeh Ali sherds showing wild goats with curved

Field staff restoring Cheshmeh Ali ceramic vessel on site. 1930’s. Photo: E. Schmidt. © Oriental Institute, Chicago horns, pigment on earthenware. Photo: Hassan Fazeli

Ultimately, the study of the Cheshmeh Ali ceramics goes beyond the obvious aesthetic appeal of these exquisitely painted vessels. The study of the production and distribution of the Cheshmeh Ali ceramics holds the key to the transition of the pottery industry from a household one to that of an organised workshop industry of specialist potters with increasing standardisation in production, heralding the new era of craft specialisation that was to become the hallmark of the Chalcolithic period, an era of technological Ali ceramics. He started by examining and the hereto unpublished manuscript detailing breakthrough not only in ceramics but also in cataloguing all the design elements found on the Schmidt excavation with a database of metallurgy and social organisation. the available pottery stored in the University architecture, ceramic vessels, sherds and small of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology finds together with new discoveries being Dr Edna Wong is Honorary Research Associate in the and Anthropology and the Oriental Institute made at Cheshmeh Ali by contemporary Department of Archaeology, University of Sydney. of the University of Chicago. He noted their researchers and information obtained through locations on the vessels, how they varied and new scientific techniques not available in the REFERENCES the combinations in which they occur. The 1930s when the site was first excavated. Dipilato, S. and Laneri, N. 1998. “Sequential Slab Construction” information was coded and entered into a and Other Problems Concerning Hand-building Techniques” in computerized database, which also contained a Although we have known about the painted Chalcolithic Iran: Experimenting with Mammographic X-Ray Images. Bar International Series, 720, pp. 59-68. wealth of information on the spatial location of Cheshmeh Ali ceramics for decades, it is every object found in the excavation. The aim was only in recent years that more systematic Fazeli, H., Coningham R. A. E. and Batt, C. M. 2004. “Cheshmeh- Ali Revisited: Towards an Absolute Dating of the Late Neolithic and to generate patterns that would provide some investigations into these vessels have begun. Chalcolithic of Iran’s Tehran Plain”, Iran 42: 13-23. insight into what information was encoded in the These investigations include re-excavations Fazeli, N. H., Coningham, R. A. E., Young, R. L., Gillmore, G. K. painted motifs of these vessels. At Chogha Mish of important archaeological sites, including Maghsoudi, M. and Reza, H. 2007. “Social Transformations of the (southwestern Iran), this type of information Cheshmeh Ali itself, Zagheh and Tepe Tehran Plain; Final Season of Settlement Survey and Excavations at has been used to document design families that Sialk. The most important new site under Tepe ”, Iran 45: 267-286. might relate to the original households that excavation is Tepe Pardis, a prehistoric Fazeli, H., Wong, E. H. and Potts, D.T. 2005. “The Qazvin Plain produced these ceramics. At Cheshmeh Ali, town that oversaw large-scale production of Revisited: A Reappraisal of the Chronology of northwestern Central Plateau, Iran, in the 6th to the 4th Millennium BC”, Ancient Near this work should similarly promote scholarly Transitional Chalcolithic ceramics. These new Eastern Studies XLII: 3-82. discussion on the social situation of the ceramic excavations and surveys provide absolute Matney, T. 1995. “Re-excavating Cheshmeh Ali”, Expedition 37(2): producers of Cheshmeh Ali ware. dating using the radiocarbon dating method 26-38.

and enable archaeologists to gain a better Schmidt, E. 1935. “The Persian Expedition”, University Bulletin Matney’s original project has since expanded understanding of the settlement pattern as 5(5): 41-49. with a grant from the Shelby White-Leon Levy well as technological and socio-economical Wong, E.H.Y. 2008. Ceramic characterization and inter-site Program. This enables the incorporation of developments in this region. All of these relationships in the northwestern Central Plateau, Iran, in the material from the re-excavation of Cheshmeh results together will further the study of Late Neolithic to the Bronze Age. Ph.D. dissertation, University Ali in 1997 and provides access to the material the dynamics of interregional interaction of Sydney. held in Iran with the participation of Iranian and growth of social complexity in the late scholars. When completed, it would contain prehistoric period.

6 T A A S A R E V I E W VOLUME 19 NO.3 E l a m i t E a r t

Javier Álvarez-Món

Ziggarat at Choga Zanbil, c. 1340 – 1300 BCE. Photo: J. Álvarez-Món

lamite civilization was the result of E interaction between low-land Susiana (broadly the present day province of Khuzestan) and high-land eastern Zagros polities, which coalesced into the creation of a multi centred Elamite state around 2000 BCE. From the Mesopotamian perspective, Susiana was the gateway to the eastern Iranian highlands, the plateau beyond, providing indispensable access to primary material resources such as metals, timber, and stone. From the highland perspective it was the gateway to a web of flourishing, river bound, urban Mesopotamian centres with luxury manufactured goods and unmatched cultural and social complexity.

The artistic heritage of is dominated by the material production unearthed at the and finely decorated wares. So-called changes in Mesopotamian and Mediterranean city of Susa. Founded at around 4000 BCE I style pottery is characterized by egg shell- polities. The economic prosperity and political on two natural prominent outcrops reaching thin walled, slightly fired beakers and bowls influence of the Sukkalmah period (c. 1900 - c.10.5 to 7 m high above the surrounding decorated with monochrome geometric and 1500 BCE) is reflected by a wealth of artistic Susiana plain, the southern town extended naturalistic designs in black paint over a and monumental architectural remains. over c. 7 ha (the alumelu “high-rising” city cream background. The city of Susa expanded to about 85 ha or Acropole mound), the northern town towards the east with a succession of new extended over c. 6.3 ha (the mound). Elam as empire came to political maturity neighbourhoods, which included a school, The Acropole hosted a massive monumental around 1850 BCE. By the late 19th century BCE a tavern, and monumental compound elite terrace, grain storage facilities, and hundreds the figure and authority of the “Great King of households organised along large courtyards of funerary remains including flat axes, Elam” dominated international politics to the and reception halls. These mud-brick chisels, pins, flat mirrors made of copper extent that Elam was orchestrating political constructions provide insights into traditional

Susa 1 vessels, c. 4000 BCE, pigment on earthenware, from ‘The royal city of Susa: Ancient Near Eastern treasures in the ’,

(ed) P.O. Harper, J. Aruz, F. Tallon, Harry N. Abrams, NY, 1992 pp32, 35 & 40. Louvre Museum

T A A S A R E V I E W VOLUME 19 NO.3 7 Statue of Queen Napir-Asu, c. 1340 BCE, bronze and Life-size “royal” heads from Haft Tappeh, c. 1380 BCE, painted clay.

cast copper, Louvre Museum. Photo: J. Álvarez-Món The Museum of Susa, Shush (Khuzistan). Photo: J. Álvarez-Món

vernacular architectural practices, sometimes in 1155 BCE, marked by the “departure” to metallic bracteates. The large skirt ends in a known as “architecture without architects”. Elam of the statue of Marduk together with long flared fringe and includes motifs in the large amounts of “trophy”. Amongst the shape of bands and pointed dots. The surface Situated between the ancient highway linking most celebrated artefacts placed in the sacred was further embellished with gold and silver the Elamite capitals of Susa and Anšan, lies Acropole complex at Susa in dedication to foils (Meyers 2000). the open-air sanctuary of Kurangun. It was the Elamite divinities were the Law Code of carved around 1650 BCE on top of a rock-cliff and the Victory Stele of Naram- Untaš-Napiriša is credited with instituting overlooking the Fahliyan River majestically Sin. The resources accumulated during this a religious “revolution” by founding a holy flowing through the panoramic Mamasani period of Elamite imperial expansionism city dedicated to the veneration of highland region. The sanctuary exhibits an exceptional produced an unprecedented artistic golden and lowland divinities. Choğa Zanbil is example of highland Elamite art and religious age from c. 1500 to 1000 BCE. located about 35 km southeast of Susa. It was ideology. Its manufacture required cutting deep surrounded by three concentric walls enclosing into the vertical side of the rock in order to make A mystifying aspect of Elamite funerary royal funerary monumental installations, three flights of staircases linked to a rectangular practices consisted of placing life-size clay heads temples, and an estimated 53 m high ziggurat 5 x 2 m platform and three basins with carved next to the skull of the deceased. The heads built of millions of clay bricks. The ziggurat remains of 26 fish. The vertical surface of the were modelled and painted with detailed facial had four levels and, at floor level, two main rock exhibits a rectangular panel carved in low- features suggesting individualised portraits. entrances flanked by twin pairs of protective relief with a pious religious image representing Who the heads were meant to represent blue-glazed bulls and bird-headed griffins The the divine Elamite couple and worshipers. The remains open to speculation (Negahban 1991: staircases led to a brightly decorated temple bearded male Great God is sitting on a throne 37-39, Alvarez-Mon 2006). topping the ziggurat (the kukunnum) dedicated made of a coiled serpent. His right hand is to the highland god Napiriša and the lowland bestowing symbols of power (ring and rod) and The most important Middle Elamite king god Inšušinak (Ghirshman 1966). blessings (holy water) to the Elamite monarchs. was Untaš-Napiriša of the Igehalki house (c. Sculpted along the staircases are three groups 1340-1300 BCE). The sculpture of his wife, The interlude between c.1100 and 750 BCE of about 40 male worshippers represented in queen Napir-Asu, remains a masterpiece of is a “dark age” period of Elamite history profile and wearing long braided hair ending ancient metallurgical work. The 1.29 m tall reflected by the absence of material remains on a looped knob, which were added to the acephalic statue weighing 1750 kg was found in the archaeological record. During the relief during the early Neo-Elamite period c. in the temple of the god Ninursag, in the Susa first millennium BCE the identity of Elam 800 BCE (Potts 2004). Acropole mound. Until very recently the underwent two alterations that forced a techniques used to cast the copper and bronze reformulation of its political, social, and artistic Elam’s political rivals in Mesopotamia sculpture remained unknown. It was cast in character. Socially, the genetic pool of Elam were the Kassite tribes. No less than five two parts using a clay core that allowed the was increasingly replenished by individuals generations of Elamite rulers had Kassite making of a single shell of copper by the lost- of ancestral Indo-European (Iranian) heritage wives, mothers, or both. The enduring wax technique. Once the core was removed, in parallel with the emergence of a dominant association between Elamite and Kassite the shell was filled with solid bronze. The class characterised by an equestrian culture. royal elites established the basis for Elamite queen’s garments were chased after casting. Geopolitically, the constant Elamite challenge claims on the Babylonian throne. These The upper short-sleeved blouse was decorated to Assyrian authority over the Zagros and claims eventually ended with the collapse with hundreds of little pointed dots probably Mesopotamia resulted in the devastation of the Kassite dynasty and sack of Babylon representing embroideries or, more likely, of western Elam and saw a shift in cultural

8 T A A S A R E V I E W VOLUME 19 NO.3 Open air sanctuary of Kurangun with relief carvings, c 1650 BCE. Photo: J. Álvarez-Món. Line drawing from L. vanden

Berghe, Reliefs Rupestres de L’Iran Ancien, Musées Royaux d’Art et d’Histoire, Bruxelles, 1984 p228 Copyright: J. Álvarez-Món

city of . Inside the tomb a bronze bath-tub style coffin contained the skeletal remains of an adult male lying on his back. Next to the skeleton lay a of cotton- made textiles folded in layers (the earliest attested secure evidence of the presence of cotton in the Near East) and gold rosettes and disks. To the side of the skeleton lay an iron dagger ornamented with precious stones and gold filigree. The right arm was bent in the direction of the chest, resting next to an extraordinary gold ceremonial “ring”.

This artefact has no parallel in the arts of the ancient world. It has a tubular grooved middle shaft ending with circular plaques on which can be found matching repoussé and chased designs of rampant lion-headed griffins posed heraldically around a small palmette-tree. A lid engraved with registers of floral buds and lotus blossoms was placed over the coffin and secured by ropes to the handles on the sides. Outside the coffin were a number of additional precious items of ceremonial and/ or functional use. This evidence of an Arjan artistic school at around 600 BCE between the ending years of the Elamite Empire and the genesis of the Achaemenid-Persian Empire suggests an historical nexus where the process of transference and cultural continuity between Elam and Persia can actually be documented (Álvarez-Món 2010).

Dr. Javier Álvarez-Món is a Fulbright-Hays Scholar in the Near Eastern Art and Archaeology Department of Archaeology, School of Philosophical and Historical Enquiry, University of Sydney.

REFERENCES

Álvarez-Món, J. 2006. “Elamite Funerary Clay Heads”, Near Eastern Archaeology 68/3: 114–2. and political power eastwards towards the illustrates a distinctive artistic production and Álvarez-Món, J., 2010. The Arjan Tomb: at the Crossroad of the highlands (Álvarez-Món 2009). represents a clear hierarchical order organised Elamite and the Persian Empires, Peeters, Leiden. by social status (Álvarez-Món forthcoming). Álvarez-Món, J., 2009. “’s Feast: a view from Elam”, The Zagros highland region of /Malamir Iranica Antiqua 44. is nested in a mountain valley located about The standard view of the end of the Elamite Álvarez-Món, J., [forthcoming] “Braids of Glory, Elamite Sculptural Reliefs from the Highlands: Kul-e Farah IV”, in K. Degraef and 100 km to the east of Susa. Carved over the Empire brings the period to a close with the J. Tavernier (eds.), Susa and Elam, Archaeological, Philological, sides of cliffs and boulders are a series of 12 assumed destruction of Susa by the Assyrian Historical, and Geographical Perspectives, Brill, Leuven (expected Elamite bas-reliefs without parallel in the king Ashurbanipal in 647 BCE, the progressive 2010). artistic historical record of the ancient Near abandonment of urban centres paired with Álvarez-Món, J., Garrison M.B. and Stronach D. [in Press]. East. Two reliefs are of particular interest political fragmentation, the reversal to a “Introduction for Elam and Persia”, in J. Álvarez-Món and M.B. because of their size and subject matter. pastoral nomadic socio-economic existence, Garrison (eds.), Elam and Persia, Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake. They depict complex ceremonial sacrifices and the ultimate disappearance of Elam from Ghirshman, R., 1966. Tchoga Zanbil, Vol 1 (La Ziggurat), Mémoires de la Délégation en Perse 39, Paris. accompanied by musical performances and the historical record. A recent reassessment banquet ceremonies. Dated around 800 BCE, of the textual and archaeological ¯sources has Meyers, P., 2000. “The Casting Process of the Statue of Queen Napir-Asu in the Louvre”, Journal of Roman Archaeology, the relief of Kul-e Farah number IV captures a prompted alternative views of the end of the Supplementary Series 39: 11–8. “frozen-in-time” communal banquet centring Elamite empire and consequently, of the genesis Negahban, E., 1991. Excavations at Haft Tepe, Iran, University on the figure of a king sitting on a throne of the Achaemenid Persian period (Álvarez- Museum Monograph 70, Philadelphia. and surrounded by at least 140 participants Món, Garrison and Stronach, in press). Potts, D.T., 2004. “The Numinous and the Immanent, Some consuming meat. The aesthetic choices Thoughts on Kurangun and the Rudkhaneh-e Fahliyan”, in K. von and distribution of the various registers, In 1982 a stone-walled burial was accidentally Folsach, H. Thrane, and I. Thuesen (eds.), From Handaze to Khan, which group servants, high status nobles, discovered near the ancient city of Arjan, Essays Presented to Peder Mortensen on the Occasion of his 70th Birthday, Aarhus: 143–56. and possibly a priestly and military class, situated to the northeast of the present-day

T A A S A R E V I E W VOLUME 19 NO.3 9 t h E K a z a K l y-y a t K a n W a l l P a i n t i n g s : n EW PE r s PEC t i v E S o n t h E a r t o f t h E a n C I E NT IRANIAN W o r l d

Fiona Kidd Field photo of a ‘portrait’ fragment, Eastern Chorasmia, Uzbekistan, c late 3rd/early 2nd century BCE. Photo: Fiona Kidd

ome of the best preserved early Iranian S mural art is currently being excavated by the Karakalpak-Australian Expedition to Chorasmia, in modern Uzbekistan. Dating to the end of the first millennium BCE, and perhaps an early forerunner to the flourishing early medieval mural art traditions of , the paintings demonstrate an unprecedented diversity of colour, style and imagery; they provide critical new perspectives on both the foreign relations of the ancient Chorasmian oasis, and the visual art of the ancient Iranian world.

Chorasmia forms an agricultural wedge in the delta region of the Amu Darya where it flows into the Aral Sea. Located between the agricultural world to the south and the vast steppe region to the north, Chorasmia’s location is important in understanding its role as a ‘contact zone’ in the wider Iranian world (Francfort 2005). The region is perhaps best known as the northeastern buffer of the . Despite ceding early from the Empire - probably around the end The images in the gallery provide for the – a clear indication of elite identity. Other of the 5th century BCE – recent research first time in pre-Islamic Iranian mural art an elements of the costume – such as the headdress demonstrates a distinct Near Eastern heritage extensively preserved group of individually and the colour and patterning of the dress – in Chorasmian visual art. framed, almost life-size bust ‘portraits’ – are almost certainly gender, ethnic and other though this term is loosely applied as these status indicators, but these signifiers are not yet The wall paintings from the monumental site schematic images do not represent a ‘likeness’ understood. The absence of facial hair on the of Kazakly-yatkan in the eastern Chorasmian as such. At least 36 personages can be identified portraits compounds the gender issue. oasis reflect clear links with its sedentary from over 100 fragments found in the fill of and nomadic neighbours, providing a rare the corridor. The busts are shown frontally, Fragments of painted text found in the snapshot of a thriving and syncretic local while the profile head of each personage faces corridor mention the word ‘king’ in the visual art culture in the little known eastern either right or left. The physiognomy of the ancient Chorasmian language. This has led to Iranian world. Built in the late 3rd or early 2nd personages appears to be the same: full, red speculation that the images comprise a portrait century BCE, Kazakly-yatkan is the largest lips, strong nose, unique eyes with stylised gallery of royal ancestors. Other interpretations site in Chorasmia during this period and a eye lashes, and red ears with the details of the are possible. Spiral torques are unknown in the possible regional ruling centre. The most cartilage clearly defined. archaeological record of Chorasmia; they find impressive structure at the site to date is the their best parallels in steppe burials, and on KY10 monumental building complex, which Although no fragments of the portraits were ruler portraits on Parthian coins (Reeder, 1999; comprises a central building apparently found in situ in the corridor, several large Sellwood, 1981). A steppe identity for at least surrounded by a corridor on all sides, and a fragments preserving multiple portraits some of those portrayed in the gallery cannot series of rooms and circulation spaces around provide an indication of the original structure be ruled out – and may also hint at a political this. Although its exact function is unclear, of the gallery. A surviving column shows function of the KY10 complex. A steppe identity the building was characterized by a diverse three framed portraits, suggesting that they is further supported by comparative evidence program of display. Monumental mural art were painted in three tiers across the wall face. of the unique bird protome headdresses shown is just one element of this program, which The location of the fragments in the fill of the on some of the portraits. The closest parallels to included moulded copper alloy and gold corridor indicates that only the eastern side of date for these headdresses come from nomad leaf architectural ornamentation, painted the wall was painted. Given that the gallery is ‘warrior’ burials in the Pazyryk region of the sculpture, painted columns and perhaps even less than 2 m wide these images were clearly Altai Mountains dated generally to the second decorated ceilings. not made for a large, public audience. Who half of the first millennium BCE. was the intended audience of the gallery? One of the most impressive preserved In addition to a steppe connection, other sections of the paintings is an image gallery in Perhaps the most vexing question about the fragments underline the Near Eastern the western corridor surrounding the central portraits is their identity. All of the personages heritage of at least some of the visual art at building (Yagodin, Betts, et al., forthcoming). wear a spiral torque with zoomorphic terminals Kazakly-yatkan. A fragment of wall painting

10 T A A S A R E V I E W VOLUME 19 NO.3 Digitised tracing of wall painting fragment preserving four portraits,

Eastern Chorasmia, Uzbekistan, c late 3rd/early 2nd century BCE. Photo: Fiona Kidd

What was the direction of the spread of these influences? From a more art historic perspective, who were the designers, artists and craftspeople involved in the construction of the building? Where were they trained?

In the absence of any targeted study of Chorasmian - or even eastern Iranian/ central Asian - art, the rich corpus from Kazakly-yatkan will play an intrinsic role in understanding broader developments in the visual art of the ancient Iranian world. Is the syncretic style exhibited at Kazakly-yatkan representative of Chorasmian art? Equally as significant is the idea that the Kazakly-yatkan mural art does not blatantly copy images and designs from surrounding regions: designers of the Kazakly-yatkan display program were certainly influenced by surrounding cultures, but their interpretations of these influences were unique. Ongoing research at Kazakly- yatkan will surely continue to provide rich insights on the visual art of the ancient Iranian world.

The Karakalpak-Australian Expedition to Chorasmia is directed by V.N. Yagodin and A. Betts. The project has received substantial support from the Australian Research Council as well as National Geographic and many volunteers. C14 analyses were largely funded by support from ANSTO.

Dr Fiona Kidd is an Australian Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Archaeology, University of Sydney. Her current research explores ancient Chorasmian visual art, with a particular focus on the Kazakly-yatkan wall paintings.

REFERENCES

Faccenna, D., 1981. “A new fragment of wall-painting from Ghaga Sahr (Kuh-i Hvaga - Sistan, Iran)”, East and West 31 1-4 (1981): 83-97 + plates.

Francfort, H.-P., 2005. “Asie centrale”, L’Archeologie de l’Empire Achemenide: nouvelles recherche de P. Briant, and R. Boucharlat, de Boccard, Paris. 6: 313-352.

Ghanimati, S., 2000. “New perspectives on the chronological and functional horizons of Kuh-e Khwaja in Sistan”, Iran 38: 137-150.

Jamzadeh, P.,1996. “The Achaemenid throne-leg design.”, Iranica from a circulation space to the west of the Pugachenkova 1992). Also unpublished is an Antiqua 31: 101-146. central building shows a face with grapes ornamental pattern comprising at least three Masson, M.E. and G.A. Pugachenkova, 1982. The Parthian and a vine leaf. In close proximity to this decorated concentric circles. This motif can rhytons of Nisa, Casa Editrice le Lettere, Firenze. fragment was another one, showing what be traced back to the Achaemenid and Pugachenkova G.A., 1969. “Tron Mitridata I iz Parfyanskoy Nisy.” appears to be a tendril. The best parallels for Assyrian empires. Vestnik Drevney Istorii 1 (107): 161-171. this combined grape, vine leaf and tendril Reeder, E., 1999. Scythian Gold.Treasures from Ancient Ukraine, motif come from the Parthian site of Old Nisa, A painting fragment showing a ‘crowd scene’ Harry N. Abrams in association with The Walters Art Gallery and where a spectacular horde of ivory rhytons from the centre of the buildings finds its best the San Antonio Museum of Art, New York. was found. A similar motif combining the parallels in an image from the site of Kuh-i Sellwood, D., 1981. An Introduction to the Coinage of , Spink, London. grapes, leaves and tendrils was used as part Khwaja in Sistan, almost certainly dated to of a on some of the rhytons (Masson the early centuries CE if not later (Faccenna Yagodin, V, Betts, A. et al. Forthcoming in 2010. “Karakalpak- Australian excavations in ancient Chorasmia. An interim report on and Pugachenkova 1982: Pl 12,1). An as 1981; Ghanimati 2000). These linkages raise the Kazakly-yatkan wall paintings: the ‘portrait gallery.” Journal of yet unpublished magnificent carved ivory further critical questions. From a political Inner Asian Art and Archaeology 4. furniture element from the central building perspective, what was the nature of the finds remarkable parallels with Parthian and relations between Chorasmia and the ruling Achaemenid throne legs (Jamzadeh 1996; Iranian heartland, and the steppe world?

T A A S A R E V I E W VOLUME 19 NO.3 11 PE r s EP o l i s i n t h E WE s t E RN IMAGINATION

Tobin Hartnell

hen Darius I took the throne in 522 BCE, luxurious palace complex ever built up until and Susa overshadow Persepolis in Greek W he planned a new city to symbolise the that period in Persia’s history. writing until the campaigns of Alexander. ideals of the Achaemenid Empire. Unlike Cyrus (559 - 530 BCE) in nearby In the construction of Persepolis and other For Alexander, Persia was the enemy of who emphasised his Ancient Near Eastern early palaces, the Achaemenid kings needed all Hellenes and Persepolis the most hated heritage with traditional images of winged to introduce new arts into the Persian idiom. city in Asia (Diodorus Siculus, 17.70-72). genii and half-man, half-animal priests, Darius The earlier Elamite canon of monumental After his victory against the Persian army wanted to create an environment that was architecture emphasised solid mass broken at Gaugamela (near Arbela, northern Iraq), quintessentially Persian. Yet Darius’ Persia up by barrel vaults; in Persepolis, a Greek- Alexander rested the army at Babylon before (modern Fars or Province, southern style post and lintel design was used with moving against Persia in January 330 BCE. Iran) was still tribal and it was only one stone-framed windows bringing light into He knew of Persepolis’ cultural importance to generation since Cyrus had built the oldest the interior. Egyptians and Medes (western the Persians and understood that to capture known recognisably Persian monumental Iran) fashioned gold inlay to accentuate the Persepolis was to symbolically defeat the architecture. Therefore Parsa (Greek intricate relief panels that served as orthostats enemy, leaving Darius III as a king without a Persepolis) represents more than a city; it for the palaces. Lydians and again Egyptians throne. Alexander correspondingly acted not represents a major step in the transformation were the master woodworkers; Babylonians just as victor but liberator, sending any Greek of Persia and an extension of the identity of (southern Iraq) were the masters of baked slaves home with high honours. Revenge for the land and its people. It was so important brick installations, glazed with bright Persia’s ancient aggression against Greece that even 2000 years after its destruction, colours. The result is a masterpiece of Persian was at hand. visitors recognised the grandeur of ancient architecture that is still visited by over one Persia at the site. million Persian tourists each year. What Alexander found at Persepolis far exceeded expectations, even for the famed The defining feature of this city was the Yet in classical Greek sources, historical and luxury of the Achaemenid Empire. According grand terrace and its monumental palaces. literary, Persepolis is barely visible. There to Diodorus Siculus (17.70), Persepolis was The major buildings were Iranian-inspired. is no direct evidence that any resident of the greatest city under the sun. As the new The Apadana (public palace of Xerxes r. 486 mainland Greek ever went further east than master of Asia, this luxury presented a - 465 BCE) resembles in form the columned Susa (southwestern Iran) before the time conundrum for Alexander. Persepolis was halls of elite Iranian houses in 9th century of Alexander. Indeed, Aeschylus’ play The his property and he could have left the city BCE Hasanlu (northwestern Iran) that were Persians dramatises the Achaemenid court intact like he did with Memphis (), used to entertain guests. The grand courtyard mourning the naval defeat at Salamis (near Babylon (Iraq), and Susa (southwestern of Persepolis is a formalised version of Athens) at Susa. When Artaxerxes II’s brother Iran). Alternatively, Alexander could follow Hasanlu’s arrangement of columned halls Cyrus the Younger hired Greek mercenaries the model of Tyre, the capital of Phoenicia, around courtyards. Even the terrace is a to march against the Persian king, they which had to be destroyed in order to secure formalised extension of the high places marched from Sardis (the capital of Asia his control of the Mediterranean. Whether used for sanctuaries, such as the Iranian fire Minor) to Babylon. Arguably the two most through accident, or whether Alexander temple at Nush-e Jan (western Iran). The important contemporary Greek authors on was spurred on by the prostitute Thais - as innovation lies in the planning and execution Ancient Persia, Herodotus and Xenophon, suggested by ancient writers such as Quintus of Persepolis, the largest, most intricate and never mention Persepolis. Instead Babylon Curtius - Persepolis was burnt to the ground.

Panorama of Persepolis, 5th century BCE. Photo: Shervin Afshar, 2006

12 T A A S A R E V I E W VOLUME 19 NO.3 View of Darius’ Palace, Persepolis, E. Flandin and P. Coste pencil drawing, 1840’s,

from ‘Voyage en Perse’, Gide et J. Baudry, Paris, 1851-54

This act of destruction still reverberates through history: locals still hold Alexander to account for cultural vandalism.

Arrian (6.30) described how Alexander regretted the destruction of the city on his return from India and Central Asia. Alexander started the process of rehabilitating Persepolis with the construction of altars dedicated to himself and Phillip. He prosecuted Orsines, governor of Persia, for desecrating Persian royal graves. In his stead, Alexander appointed Peukestas, a Persian-speaking Macedonian and one of Alexander’s Companions. From the most hated city in Asia, Persepolis had become Alexander’s favoured city of Persia.

The subsequent development of Persepolis embodied Alexander’s idea of a union between Macedon and Persia to enable control of Asia. When Alexander returned to Babylon, he organised a joint religious ceremony officiated by both magi (Zoroastrian priests) and Greek diviners. In 317 BCE, Peukestas copied (Turkmenistan) before entering Central kingdom. He also opened up relations with Alexander with a massive joint ceremony of magi Asia. As a result, Persia was becoming a Europe and these visitors started to leave and diviners attending the altars of Alexander relative backwater and Persepolis itself was their impressions of Iran in travel accounts. and Phillip at Persepolis. Archaeologists have supplanted by neighbouring . At some also found a Greek religious precinct near point, the ruined city of Persepolis became These early European visitors were clearly Persepolis with dedications to Zeus, Athena, mythologised as the capital of Yama, the first impressed by Persepolis. An anonymous Apollo, Artemis, and Helios (Callieri 2007). king of Iran, and therefore the birthplace of 17th century author proclaimed: “There Immediately to the south of this complex Iranian civilization. The city’s true history stood, in stately solitude, the pride of ages, appears to be a with a relief panel was being progressively lost. which appear almost fabulous from their showing a magus holding the (sacred distance.” Dom Garcias de Silva Figueroa wood) that he is offering to the holy fire. Starting in the 16th century CE, Iran emerged (the Spanish Ambassador to Abbas I) as a Middle Eastern superpower under the proclaimed the monument as greater than Over time, Persepolis again faded to obscurity. Safavid kings. As a young king, Shah Abbas any in Rome as it “was the only monument The Roman geographer Strabo (64 BCE - 24 I (1587 - 1629) reached out to his British allies without imposture”. He appears to be the CE) correctly recounted the climate of Persia to help evict the Portuguese from the Persian first European to correctly identify the site as but was much more interested in the fertility Gulf and his Uzbek enemies in Central Asia. Persepolis (Mousavi 2002). Ouseley credited of Susa and Babylonia. Isidore of Charax (1st Following his military success, Abbas I started the venerable monument with inspiring century CE) described the Silk Road passing to expand the Iranian economy with a new even sober-minded judges. At the ruins of from Seleucia-on-the-Tigris (the Hellenistic port on the Persian Gulf to capture part of Persepolis, these visitors were encountering capital of southern Iraq) to (western the East Indies trade and a series of 999 royal the romance of the Orient, irrefutable proof Iran) and then through the north of Iran to that spanned the breadth of his of the legacy of Persia.

T A A S A R E V I E W VOLUME 19 NO.3 13 , Persepolis, 5th century BCE. Photo: Kourosh Mohammed Khani

Persepolis was the leading city of its era, the height of Persian luxury and sophistication. Despite, or perhaps as a result of, his destruction of the city, Alexander chose Persepolis as an important site to implement his policy of political unification between Persians and Macedonians. As time progressed, Persepolis faded in the historical literature and became a mythological landmark - the city of Yama, first king of Iran.

Starting in the Safavid times under Shah Abbas I the ruined city of Persepolis again became an emblem of the magnificence of ancient Persia. It functioned as a pilgrimage site of sorts for learned European travellers who recognised its symbolic importance. During the 19th century, the city’s ancient heritage was intensively recorded through drawing and photography but the site remained largely hidden beneath the piles of ancient dirt. In the 20th century, it became the first major American archaeological project in Iran and subsequently an important site for Iranian archaeologists working to uncover their own heritage.

Initially, the site took on biblical undertones art market in England. In 1842, Texier took In sum, Persepolis was a city of firsts and (Vaux 1855). Visitors were greeted at the a more scientific approach, using chemical in each era it was reinvented as new people gate by lamassu (winged guardian spirits analysis to document colour on the original encountered this magnificent capital of in the form of a bull). The winged bulls relief panels. French artists Flandin and ancient Persia. were compared to Ezekial’s descriptions of Coste visited the site in the 1840s and they monstrous animals or Daniel’s half-human, are credited with the earliest accurate and Tobin Hartnell is a Ph.D Candidate in Iranian half-bestial prince. The Apadana was known reliable drawings of Persepolis. The Italian Archaeology, University of Chicago. He is currently as the Chehel Minar (or Forty Minarets), a Luigi Pesce was the first known photographer co-director of an archaeological project at Persepolis. strange coincidence as neighbouring Istakhr of Persepolis in 1857, an early example of preserves the first purpose built photography in archaeology. The ancient REFERENCES in and possibly Iran (c. 660 ruins were becoming famous in Europe. Yet, Arrian,. 1983. Anabasis of Alexander, Indica, Volume II, translated CE: Whitcomb 1979). In the royal tombs by the turn of the 20th century no scientific by P.A. Brunt. Harvard University Press, Cambridge. overlooking the site, Kaempfer saw the Ark excavations had taken place at the site. Callieri, Pierfrancesco, 2007. “L’archéologie du Fars à l’époque of the Covenant. Even after making a detailed hellénistique: Quatre leçons au Collège de France” 8, 15, 22 et description of the monument in the early It was only after World War I that Persepolis 29 Mars 2007, Persika, Volume 11. 19th century, Porter described the Hundred became the subject of intense archaeological Diodorus Siculus, 1946 - 1967. Bibliotheca Historica, Translation by C. H. Oldfather, Harvard University Press, Cambridge. Column Hall of Artaxerxes II as a temple speculation. Herzfeld petitioned the new Fergusson, James, 1851. The Palaces of Nineveh and Persepolis for the performance of Mithraic Mysteries. (1925 - 1979) to open Iranian Restored: An Essay on Ancient Assyrian and Persian Architecture, Fergusson (1851) drew a reconstruction of archaeology to a wide range of international John Murray Publishers, London.

Persepolis after the fashion of ’s projects in return for a share of the finds. Mousavi, Ali, 2002. “Persepolis in Retrospect: Histories of house. These biblical impulses derived from He and his rival, the American art historian Discovery and Archaeological Exploration of Ancient Parseh”, the religious symbols carved into the walls, Arthur Upham Pope, both wanted to work Ars Orientalis, Volume 32, pp. 209 - 251. though the primary function of Persepolis at Persepolis because of its importance to the Vaux, William Sandys Wright, 1855. Nineveh and Persepolis: was to host public meeting halls, private royal history of Persia. Herzfeld won the day and Sketch of Ancient Assyria and Persia, Arthur Hall, Virtue, and Co. residences, and administrative buildings of a started to excavate for the Oriental Institute Publishers, London. royal capital. of Chicago; in the process the site became the Whitcomb, Donald, 1979. “The City of Istakhr and the Plain”, Archaeologische Mitteilungen aus Iran, Ergänzungsband 6, first major American archaeology project in pp. 363 - 370. Persepolis started to come into its own Iran. After World War II, Iranians continued again in the 19th century (Mousavi, the archaeological work with important 2002). Grotefend started the translation of excavations by Ali Sami, the first Iranian Persepolis’ inscriptions in 1802 by recognising director of Persepolis, and Dr Tajdivi, as the royal names of Darius and Xerxes. The well as important historical publications earliest excavations in the early 19th century by Dr Shapur Shahbazi. All of these works were at best highly unethical, as Morier culminated in the choice of Persepolis as the appears to have excavated Persepolis without site of the ill-fated celebration of 2500 years of permission in search of objects to sell on the Persian kingship in 1971.

14 T A A S A R E V I E W VOLUME 19 NO.3 l o v E t h y n E i g h b o r : t h E i n t i m a t E a r t o f d i P l o m a C y i n t h E PE r s EP o l i s P r o CE s s i o n a l s C u l P t u r E S

Stephanie Reed Medes and Persians approach the Royal Throne Room, Persepolis, 5th century BCE, stone relief. © Oriental Institute, Chicago

n the 6th century BCE the Achaemenid I Persians, an Indo-Iranian tribe and former vassals of the Medes, became the new rulers of the , founding the first Iranian empire. For roughly 200 years, from about 550 to 330 BCE, Cyrus II (the Great) and his successors controlled the largest territory in the ancient world before the advent of Rome. During the reign of Darius I (c. 522-486 BCE), Persian dominance extended from Libya in the west to the Indus River in the east. The Persian kings constructed new cities and palaces in strategic imperial centres, including Babylon, Pasargadae, Susa, and Ecbatana. But it is Persepolis, the masterpiece of Darius I, which became the heart of the empire. Its imposing, sophisticated monuments represent the height of ancient Iranian art and architecture, and are a tribute to Achaemenid royal ideology.

The brilliance of Persepolis is in its subtle appropriation of the symbols of conquered lands. The Persians were relative newcomers imperial strength in the ancient Near East enemy. For the first time in the history of Near to Iran, and with no known traditions of (Barnett 1982). Their palaces at Nimrud and Eastern art, a monarch seems to have initiated monumental art and architecture, they Nineveh were decorated with monumental a decorative program centred on cooperative engaged the talents of foreign craftsmen to wall reliefs narrating the king’s duties and relations between ruler and ruled, “elevating” build their imperial palaces. This approach achievements, and most famously, battle the status of the conquered. not only created a distinct multi-national campaigns illustrating the details of the style, but also promoted a sense of inter- assault and the enemy’s ignominious fate. Darius’ message is conveyed through the nationalism, a visual culture celebrating the Assyrian processions were typically “after body language, gifts, and accoutrements of disparate traditions of an immense realm. the battle” scenes, showing vassals delivering royal courtiers and foreign peoples, and in tribute-gifts, soldiers bringing booty and their interactions with one another. At the Achaemenid royal inscriptions and prisoners to the king, or deported peoples on Apadana, the largest and highest palace of the administrative texts tell us little about the forced march to other parts of the empire. The Persepolis precinct, grand tribute processions belief systems, rituals, and court life of reliefs were designed to instil fear and awe— grace two sets of monumental stairways on this period, which leaves many questions by depicting what happened to rebellious the northern and eastern sides of the building. concerning the function and symbolism kingdoms that dared to challenge the king, On the left side of each stairway are rows of Persepolis and its sculptures, while viewers might be dissuaded from conspiring of gift-bearing delegations representing the magnifying the importance of the visual against the Assyrian crown. conquered peoples of the empire. Median record. Whatever the Persian kings intended and Persian ushers grasp the hand of each to convey, the complex reformulation of Near The Achaemenids emulated the majesty of leading delegate, guiding the group toward Eastern iconography reveals a unique socio- the Assyrian sculptures, borrowing images of their royal audience The nationality of each political philosophy, and a revolutionary the king enthroned, battling fierce beasts and delegation is carefully distinguished by mode approach to imperial identity-making in the receiving tribute in ceremonial processions. Yet of dress; hats and hairstyles alone are useful ancient world. the Achaemenid versions are symbolic rather indicators of ethnicity. The gifts borne by than literal, abbreviations of royal idioms each group are also specific to their land The dominant theme of Persepolis is the lifted from their original narrative context. The and special skills. Almost all of the gifts, tribute procession, an ancient Near Eastern realities of imperial conquest, such as warfare, including jewellery, gold vessels, and textiles, idiom of religious celebration or royal victory. forced submission, and the extraction of correspond to actual objects found in the Although Iranian or Elamite processions may material resources do not appear in the known remains of the Persepolis Treasury, and in have had some bearing upon Darius’ choice sculptures of Achaemenid palaces. With the archaeological finds like the well-known of subject matter (Porada 1965: fig. 41), the possible exception of a monument erected Oxus Treasure (Porada 1965: 173-4, 184). Persepolis reliefs are most heavily influenced early in Darius’ reign - the Behistun relief in by works from imperial Neo-Assyria. The the Hamadan mountain pass (Porada 1965: fig. The climactic processional relief, once Neo-Assyrian kings (9th to 7th centuries 77) - there is a continuous, conscious effort in seen in mirror image in the centre of the BCE) left an indelible legacy of imperial Achaemenid court sculpture to show subject Apadana staircases, featured the enthroned art—perhaps the most dynamic display of nations as loyal supporters rather than as the king awaiting his guests. Here we witness the

T A A S A R E V I E W VOLUME 19 NO.3 15 The King awaiting approaching ambassadors, Persepolis, 5th century BCE, stone relief. © Oriental Institute, Chicago

first usher, in Median dress, bowing before by both the ruler and privileged members of bearers, are led into the presence of the Darius and the crowned prince Xerxes, who his court and/or the members of his extended king by their Iranian hosts. Similarly intimate looks on from behind the throne. The Mede family. It may be seen as a token of royal and conversational gestures are perhaps best is bent slightly at the waist, his fingertips allegiance and kinship, and the importance known in processional Greek sculpture, most shielding his mouth in a gesture of obeisance. of the court structure that supported the famously in the Parthenon marbles, which His head, however, is tilted upward, meeting Persian monarchy. The alternating Median date over a half-century after the founding the eye of his sovereign. The scene signals and Persian costumes also suggest the united of Persepolis. While Greek sculptors were the introduction of the first delegation, yet strength of the Aryan (Iranian) peoples likely employed at Persepolis, it is difficult to the absence of any foreign group suggests and the imperial core, in the same way establish the path of influence. Certainly, this that none are especially favoured, and all that Assyrian art highlights alliances with ethos of camaraderie between ruling elites, would have the opportunity to present their Babylon, the cultural heart of Mesopotamia, and between ruling and subject peoples, was gifts directly. This can be contrasted with and the Egyptians intertwined the symbols an innovation in the Near Eastern imperial Assyrian gift processions, in which a row of of Upper and Lower Egypt, illustrating the context (Boardman 2000; Root 1985). court officials traditionally buffers the king unification of the two lands. and his foreign tributaries. At the same time, The cooperative message of the Apadana the “genericism” of the Achaemenid version The special connection between the Medes processions is complemented by “atlas” motifs marks the exclusivity of the king, his heir, and and Persians is emphasised by their body of Achaemenid subjects placed in the doorways attendants of his inner court, who represent language. Often they are clasping hands, or of the Throne Hall, or “Hall of 100 Columns”, the only other figures in the scene. Variations one is turned toward the peer behind him, and on the royal tombs of Naqsh-i Rustam of this image are found throughout the empire giving or acknowledging a touch upon the (Root 1979: Pl. XIII, 13a; XI). The uppermost on cylinder seals. It seems to have been a shoulder. The intimate gestures between panels of the Throne Hall reliefs are abbreviated favourite of ambitious provincial officials, for subjects are one of the most striking features audience scenes, showing the king enthroned it was synonymous with royal authority and of the Achaemenid processions, and have been attended by a single fan-bearer. The three suggested close ties to the king. largely reinterpreted from the pious imagery panels beneath form an imitation of the three- of Mesopotamia and Egypt. The grasping tiered legs of the throne above, supported The processional sculptures on the right side of hands, for instance, is found in Egyptian by three rows of atlas figures representing of Apadana staircases represent those closest funerary art, where a line of supplicants or various peoples of the empire. This motif is to the king, or the peoples of Iran. The royal lesser deities wait to greet the gods of the likely borrowed from Neo-Assyrian reliefs, in entourage includes lance-bearing Susian underworld (Root 1979: pls. LXIV, LXV). which ’s throne struts, for instance, guards, groomsmen, charioteers, and local were supported by the repetition of a single dignitaries dressed alternately in Persian robes In Mesopotamian “introduction” scenes, a atlantid figure in Assyrian dress (Root 1979: pl. and Median riding habits These noblemen, or popular cylinder seal motif, a petitioner is XLII). Near Eastern kings commonly showed Peers, do not carry gifts, but ceremonial lotus led into the presence of a god through an defeated peoples underfoot (Strommenger buds and blossoms, an ancient Near Eastern intermediary or lesser deity. In these images, 1962: figs. 138, 39), and although the Persian emblem of special status. Lotus blossoms however, the intermediary will usually throne-bearers are clearly subordinate to their were normally the symbols of gods and grasp the petitioner by the wrist, rather sovereign, the peoples of the Achaemenid rulers; in Neo-Assyrian art, for instance, only than by the hand as seen in the Apadana realm, once again in their individual costumes, kings are shown with the flower (eg Barnett reliefs. There are no intermediary deities are depicted with arms lifted, carrying their 1982: 105). At Persepolis, however, it is borne in Achaemenid art; the petitioners, or gift- ruler as a unified nation.

16 T A A S A R E V I E W VOLUME 19 NO.3 In ancient Near Eastern art, portrayals of king delegations (by merit of their gifts, or symbols changes in human action and interaction, and subject were ubiquitous, refined over of loyalty) were also a part of, or might aspire creating an idyllic vision of international the millennia through warfare and exchange to, the elite ranks of the king’s Peers. collaboration, unity-in-diversity, and an of ideas. Subject nations were traditionally asymmetrical, yet mutually beneficial bond depicted as the enemy - weaker peoples The Persepolis program might be summarised between a king and his peoples. with lesser gods, and rightfully subject to as persuasive rather than coercive: it suggests the conqueror. Tributary processions were that devoted subjects were treated with Stephanie Reed is a PhD candidate studying a common medium for illustrating foreign dignity, that each individual’s identity and Achaemenid art at the University of Chicago. conquests. The context of these scenes, as special skills were valued, even essential to the well as the humbled postures and pleading unified whole, and the general benevolence of REFERENCES gestures of individual figures, typically Achaemenid rule. This is not to say that the Briant, Pierre. 2002. From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the conveyed forced submission. The proper Persian monarchy was less autocratic than its Persian Empire, Winona Lake, Eisenbrauns, Indiana. body language for foreign processions in the Near Eastern predecessors; taxes and tribute- Barnett, R. D. 1982/1960 (rev. W. Forman et al.). Assyrian Palace time of Ashurnasirpal II of Assyria (883-859 gifts were required from vassal nations, and Reliefs and their Influence on the Sculptures of Babylonia and Persia, Batchworth Press, London. BCE), for instance, was a slight stoop and the Persians were at war with Greece while raised, supplicating hands. Moreover, the Persepolis was under construction. Boardman, John. 2000. Persia and the West: An Archaeological Investigation of the Genesis of Achaemenid Art, Thames and body posture or use of social perspective Hudson, London. further distinguished “Us” (the ruling body) Yet while Persepolis couches the realities Porada, Edith. 1965. The Art of Ancient Iran, Crown, New York. and “Them” (the ruled). of imperialism in a political encomium, Root, Margaret Cool. 1979. The King and Kingship in history also testifies to an ethnically diverse Achaemenid Art: Essays on the Creation of an Iconography of The Persepolis subjects, when not in the direct Achaemenid empire, where foreign customs, Empire. Acta Iranica 19, E. J. Brill, Leiden. presence of the king, are always depicted cults, and local governments flourished _____. 1985. The Parthenon Frieze and the Apadana Reliefs at erect, and with the exception of the king alongside a competitive system of loyalty Persepolis: Reassessing a Programmatic Relationship. American and crowned prince, the figures are all the and reward; one in which exemplary service Journal of Archaeology 89:1, Centennial Issue (Jan., 1985), same height. Whether the subject is bearing to the crown, even by non-Persians, was 103-120. tribute-gifts or making a sign of respect, recognized with lavish gifts such as lands, Strommenger, Eva. 1964. 5000 Years of the Art of Mesopotamia, Harry N. Abrams New York. the formal placement of his hands imparts titles (including “The King’s Friend”), and reverence rather than fear. The use of local personal adornments in the Persian court ushers as processional guides imparts a sense style (Briant 2002: 347ff.). Persepolis reflects of community, and implies that the foreign this administrative approach through subtle

visit Sabratha, Leptis Magna Ptolmais and Cyrene and some WW11 sites. Tour leader is Leonie Hayne. Land Only price per person, twin share: $5,740 TURKEY: LURE OF THE EAST We offer over 20 study tours each year, of which the following scheduled during 21 MAY - 09 JUNE 2011 2010 and 2011, may be of interest to TAASA members. From Turkey's lush Black Sea coast, through dense pine forests and hidden valleys, this tour visits some of Turkey's most dramatic scenery. Even more striking are the layers of civilisation revealed here, LAOS including Gobleki Tepe, a religious sanctuary dating from c9000BC. Also includes Trabzon, Erzerum, 19 NOVEMBER – 11 DECEMBER 2010 Kars, Dogu Beyazit, Van, Mardin, Sanliurfa, Gaziantep, Antakya and Adana. Tour is led by Rob Lovell. Led by Gay Spies this tour takes you inside the culture of the gentle Lao and includes the annual That Land Only price per person, twin share: $6,995 Luang Festival in Vientiane, an extended stay in Luang Prabang and an overnight in a local house to experience true Lao hospitality. SRI LANKA: AN ADVENTURE IN SERENDIPITY Land Only per person, twin share: $4,695 23 MAY - 13 JUNE 2011 Sri Lanka's Buddhist legacy of dagobas, relic fortresses, statues and temples awaits to be explored along BURMA: LAND OF TEMPLES with national parks, colonial architecture, tea plantations and elephant orphanages. Bawa officionados 25 JANUARY – 09 FEBRUARY will be satisfied. John Barclay will be your tour leader. TAASA member Terry Bisley leads this comprehensive exploration of a troubled country whose people Land Only per person, twin share: $4,975 have undergone so much misery because of political circumstances. Visit bustlingYangon, Sittwe and Mrauk U, Bagan, Heho, Inle Lake, Indein, Kakku, Mandalay, Amarapura and Mingun. KOREA: NORTH AND SOUTH Land Only per person, twin share: 4,840 06 - 24 SEPTEMBER 2011 Compare both the Communist north and the extremely capitalist south of this riven nation. By train from EGYPT: FROM ALEXANDRIA TO ABU SIMBEL the Chinese border into Pyongyang with local touring and one of the spectacular parades. In the south 07 - 28 FEBRUARY 2011 explore the three great dynasties, the beautiful autumn colours of the mountains on the eastern side of This comprehensive tour of Egypt includes cruising from Luxor to Aswan, for the Luxor temples and the peninsula and the unique cuisine. Tour is led by Simon Gentry. Valleys of Kings and Queens. You will also visit Abu Simbel. Time to explore the ancient sites around Land Only per person, twin share: $8570 Cairo but also the Islamic Cairo as well. Visit Alexandria’s UNESCO Library and travel to the fabulous Siwa Oasis. The tour is led by Melanie Pitkin. IRAN Land Only price per person, twin share: $7,495 NOVEMBER 2011 John Tidmarsh (Near Eastern Archaeology Foundation) leads his second tour to Iran for us, exploring TUNISIA AND LIBYA pre-historic sites, the cities of the Persians and Sassanians, whose sophisticated society challenged the 02-22 MARCH 2011 Byzantines and laid the foundations for an advanced Islamic succession. Includes fabled and . In Tunisia explore some of the best Roman sites in North Africa including Dougga, El Djem, Bulla Regia Land Only per person, twin share: $TBA and Sbeitla, but also take in , soukhs, and Kairouan, the fourth holiest city in Islam. In Libya,

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T A A S A R E V I E W VOLUME 19 NO.3 17 SASANIAN RO CK r E l i E f P a n E l s

Ali Asadi

The Battle of Hormozgan, Tangab Gorge, Southern Iran, c. 224 CE, rock relief. Photo: Ali Asadi

he Sasanian dynasty (224 – 654 CE) T represents a new golden age in Iranian civilization, emerging more than five centuries after the fall of the Achaemenian Empire (330 BCE). The Sasanians started their expansion from Istakhr city, located about five km north of the ruined city of Persepolis. Ardeshir (224 – 240 CE), the founder and first king of the dynasty, conquered the lands of a multitude of neighbouring rulers and with the final defeat of the Parthian king Artaban V in the Battle of Hormozdgan (location unknown), all of Parthian territory came under Sasanian control. Some of the most famous Sasanian kings, like and II and Khosro I and II, extended the borders of the empire from western India and Afghanistan in the east to Iraq in the west. The lasted for more than four centuries until the end of the Arab invasions.

During the Sasanian period, Iranian culture and traditions again started to evolve after a depicted but the relief shows Ardeshir, his son horseback, symmetrically as mirror images, long depression under the Parthians (c. 147 Shapur I and one of his nobles at the moment and the kings often receive the beribboned BCE - 224 CE). Sasanian textiles, metallurgy, each has defeated his Parthian adversary. The diadem, the divine symbol of power from the and glass manufacturing gained a strong relief is carved rather flat in a style known as hand of the gods or . reputation amongst contemporaries and these “line drawing” and has often been compared crafts were exported to the farthest points with similar panels from the Parthian dynasty at Even in the lifetime of Ardeshir, Sasanian of the known world. However, one of most Tang-e Sarvak (Bakhtiari Mountains, southwest relief art showed dramatic development. The innovative fields of art in the Sasanian period Iran) and (western Iran). However example at Firuzabad is crude and rigid, was in one of the most traditional mediums - the Tangab relief is more detailed than previous whilst the two other panels (one at Naqsh-e rock relief panels. Parthian examples, showing a higher degree of Rajab and Naqsh-e Rustam) are more fluid artistic development. The costumes, headdress, in style. At Naqsh-e Rajab, the flat panel is Today about 30 Sasanian rock relief panels are weapons and insignia of the individual figures replaced by a greater sense of depth, with known from the lands of their empire. More and of their mounts are treated carefully. members of the court gathered around to than 80% of these artworks are located in Fars The sculptors do not represent their fallen watch Ardeshir taking a beribboned diadem Province (southern Iran), the homeland of the adversaries convincingly but the overall from the hand of Ahura Mazda. dynasty. Other important works are found at impression of the scene is effective. Taq-e Bostan in Kermanshah (Western Iran) Ardeshir’s Naqsh-e Rustam investiture scene and at Salmas (northwest Iran) and a recently Three other relief panels of Ardeshir show is one of the most magnificent carvings from discovered relief in Afghanistan. The majority investiture scenes. In the history of Near Eastern the 1st century of Sasanian rule. Apart from of these relief panels were carved during the Art, Sasanian investiture scenes may represent the high quality of carving, it is also the first 1st century of Sasanian rule (between 224 the last and most complex examples of an time that god and king are shown mounted and 309 CE). The most important subjects of ancient tradition. The Sasanian examples show on their horses in the Ancient Near Eastern these carvings are investiture scenes, victory a very intimate connection between the concept rock relief tradition. This relief shows one scenes over Sasanian enemies, especially of kingship and god. In previous periods, gods figure handing the beribboned diadem of Romans, and the king with dignitaries and were depicted differently from kings but here kingship to the other with defeated enemies his family. This article will review these relief their mannerisms are very similar. Because of lying dead beside them. Prior to the reading panels chronologically from the Early to Late this similarity there is still occasional debate of the trilingual inscription carved on the Sasanian period. about which figure is a god and which a king. horses’ shoulders, various interpretations of Indeed, one of the main sources for Ferdosi’s this scene had been proposed. For instance Approximately 50 km south of Shiraz (modern epic, the Shahnameh (History of Kings) was some travellers such as Sir William Ouseley capital of Fars Province), Ardeshir built a city the Khodaye Namak (Letter of God), which (Ouseley 1819, I, 285-6; 1821, II, 294) and Sir and a palace at Firuzabad before the overthrow shows the equal situation of god and kings in Robert Ker Porter (1821 I: 556-7) suggested of the Parthian kings in 224 CE. Near this new the Sasanian period. the subject of this relief as a handover of city, he chose a huge flat rock in the Tangab power by Ardeshir to his son Shapur I rather Gorge and commissioned the carving of the In these investiture scenes, the king and god than as an investiture scene. Battle of Hormozdgan. The actual battle is not are shown as either standing or mounted on

18 T A A S A R E V I E W VOLUME 19 NO.3 The Mounted King and God with enemies underfoot, Naqsh-e Rustam, 3rd century CE, rock relief. Photo: Ali Asadi

Technically, the relief is very deep, resembling Sasanian compositional forms first developed After Shapur I, the development of Sasanian sculpture in the round. The symmetrical under Ardeshir, Shapur I introduced Roman relief carving continued for a few generations gesture of the god and Ardeshir and the imperial iconography in his designs. During before it started a long period of decline. calmness of their horses standing face to face his victories, Shapur I captured many Roman ’s (273 – 276 CE) divine equestrian create a serene composition. The concept of sculptors who were forced to work in the royal investiture scenes at and Sar divine kingship was an old tradition in the workshops. The later relief panels of Shapur , and Bahram II’s (276 –293 CE) relief Ancient Near East. Seleucids (c. 305 - 147 showing emperor (i.e. after 260 CE) showing the submission of an Arab delegation, BCE) and Parthians depicted divinity on their represent a high point in Sasanian reliefs: in are the last examples of considerable artistic coins and seals with images of Nike, their vitality and sense of movement, their value. The main subject of subsequent relief and Anahita as gods or goddess of war or increased detail and richness of decoration panels was jousting, such as ’s (293 victory (Shepherd 1983:1080). Ardeshir used and their elaborate and lavish treatment of the concept of divine right to affirm his the folds of the diaphanous garments. The rule over the country. Indeed, the symbol of billowing garments effectively suggest a sense double snakeheads is shown on the forehead of arrested motion: one can easily imagine of an enemy lying beside Ahura Mazda’s that Shapur’s horse has suddenly stopped horse. These snakes are a link to the legendary dead as the desperate Philip rushes forward history of Zahhak, an evil king who grew two to beg for mercy (Shepherd 1983:1084). snakes on his shoulders. It is still not easy to understand who originally Shapur I (240 – 272 CE), son of Ardeshir, designed Shapur I’s relief panels. If Roman defeated three Roman emperors and sculptors composed these works, then they commemorated these victories with seven ignored classical western standards such as rock relief panels at three different sites proportionality and the realistic depiction of in Fars Province (southern Iran). Near to motion. For example, the defeated Valerian Shapur I’s new city of Bishapur there is a standing at the king’s side is reduced to less narrow gorge called Tang-e Chugan, which than normal size. Instead these scenes adhere preserves a major group of relief panels. to time-honoured Near Eastern concepts where The main subjects of these carvings are the stress is placed on symbolic values over realism three defeated Roman emperors: Gordion (Shepherd 1983:1084). In this case, Iranian III, and Valerian. They are artists probably designed the outlines of the respectively shown slain, kneeling and relief panels and the Roman sculptors were captured (Ghirshman 1962:159). While typical used as technicians to work on the details.

Hunting scene, Taq-e Bostan, Western Iran, late 6th/early

7th century CE, rock relief. Photo: Tobin Hartnell

T A A S A R E V I E W VOLUME 19 NO.3 19 Valerian pleads for mercy, Naqsh-e Rustam, c.260 CE, rock relief. Photo: Ali Asadi

– 302 CE) and Hormozd II’s (302 – 309 CE) floating over the spandrels of the arch and This final stage of Sasanian relief carving panels at Naqsh-e Rustam. These later works acanthus leaves framing the lower portion. under Khosro II represented a conscious are not considered as important artistically, revival of an ancient Sasanian art form and compared to the achievements of Ardeshir Inside Khosro II’s cave are preserved two shows a renewed mastery of the medium, and Shapur I. seemingly unrelated motifs. The upper with both bold and delicate compositions scene shows the king receiving a diadem created side-by-side. In the following three centuries after Hormozd from Anahita (Fukai & Horiuchi 1972: pls. II, there are only three relief panels created and IV, XXIII-XXIV) and from Ahura Mazda. Ali Asadi works at the Parsa-Pasargadae Research none show any development in the quality of Beneath the king and gods is a mail-clad foundation and is a PhD student of Tarbiat Modares their carving. The most likely reason is that knight on horseback, who appears to protect University (Tehran). the centre of the Sasanian Empire moved the investiture scene. The sidewalls of the to Mesopotamia (modern Iraq). The new grotto were covered with scenes of royal REFERENCES capital of stood near the Roman hunts. The one on the left takes place in a Curzon, G. N., 1892. Persia and the Persian Question II, London. frontier, away from the Zagros Mountains or paradise, surrounded by hedges. The king (publisher?) other comparable ranges. It appears that the stands erect in a boat shooting at wild boars. Flandin, E and P. Coste, 1843-54. Voyage en Perse, pendant les Early Sasanian relief panels were replaced On the right wall is a stag hunt, with the anne‚es 1840 et 1841: Perse Ancienne I, Paris. (publisher?) by stucco art in these centuries, with artists king on horseback, surrounded by musicians Fukai Sh and K. Horiuchi, 1969, 1972. Taq-I Bustan I-II, Tokyo. using plaster to create relief sculpture for and singers (Ghirshman, 1962:193). The relief Sh. Fukai, J. Sugiyama, K. Kimata and K. Tanabe, Taq-i Bustan III, Tokyo, 1983. Sh. Fukai, K. Horiuchi, (?) urban contexts. carving combines the traditional bold relief of Ghirshman, R, 1962. Iran. Parthians and Sassanians, Trans. by Early Sasanian art with a new fine, detailed, Stuart Gilbert and James Emmons, Paris, (publisher?) In this period, under Ardeshir II (379 – 383 low relief used to tell the story of the hunt. Sir Robert Ker Porter, 1821. Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, CE), the site of Taq-e Bostan (near modern Ancient Babylonia, etc. during the years 1817, 1818, 1819 and Kermanshah, western Iran) was selected for a Khosro II’s monument at Taq-e Bostan is 1820, London. (publisher?) new series of rock relief panels. The carvings one of the most significant later monuments Sir William Ouseley, Travels in various Countries of the East, more of Taq-e Bostan overlook an important large of Sasanian art. However the monument’s particularly Persia, London, 1819-1821. (date of publication, spring, situated on the old silk trading route. meaning has never been fully interpreted. publisher?) Under Shapur III (383 – 388 CE), an artificial Traditionally, the scenes have been considered Shepherd, D, 1983. ” Sasanian Art,” Cambridge , cave was created in the shape of an aivan (open as a miniature pleasure palace in which the pp1077-1087. archway). On the back wall of this small cave, principal motifs were the king’s investiture, S. Shahbazi, 1987. “Studies in Sasanian prosopography,” AMI N.S. 16, 1983, pp. 255-68. Idem, “Ardashir II,” Encyclopaedia Shapur III is shown standing by his father. his portrait as a knight on his favourite Iranica II, pp. 380-81. Two centuries later, Khosro II (590 – 628 CE) steed, and hunting scenes representing royal L. Vanden Berghe, 1959. Archeologie de l’Iran Ancien, significantly expanded the site of Taq-e Bostan pastimes (Shepherd 1983:1086). Collectively, Leiden.. (publisher?) by creating a larger cave; the facade shows they show the rich complexity of Sasanian Roman-inspired designs with two great angels society, art, and government.

20 T A A S A R E V I E W VOLUME 19 NO.3 i n t h E P u b l i C d o m a i n : A P E R S I A N S H A H N A M A F O L I O F R O M T H E N G V

Susan Scollay A page from a Shahnama manuscript: Siyavush undergoes the ordeal by fire, 15th - 16th century, Persia, opaque paint and

gold on paper. National Gallery of Victoria. Purchased, 1946

his year marks the 1000th anniversary register of the painting behind T of the completion of the great Persian the rocky setting of the ordeal. epic, the Shahnama, or Book of Kings. Written The flickering fire is shown by the poet, Abu’l-Qasim Firdausi of Tus, engulfing Siyavush’s helmeted in northeast Iran, the work’s 50,000 couplets head and white-robed body, had a significant impact on the culture and forming a symbolic echo of the identity of the Persianate world from the time flaming aureole surrounding of its writing right up to the present day. figures of the prophets, so widely depicted in Islamic Originally presented to the great Central Asian manuscripts. Turkic leader, Mahmud of Ghazna, who was aggressively expanding his rule into eastern As in most illustrations of Persian territory, the Shahnama recounts the episodes from the Shahnama, history of the ancient kings of Iran. Rousing the figures are not presented as verses extol their heroic deeds and romances, historical characters. Instead the glorify their ethical behaviour and praise their robes, headgear, royal canopy exemplary leadership from the beginning of and tiled pavilion from which human history right up to the destruction of the women watch in the upper the Persian Empire by invading Muslim Arab right hand corner of the scene, armies in the early 7th century CE. reflect the contemporary style of Persian court life. In illustrated Over time the book was seen as a guide to manuscripts this courtly style royal image and decorum, numerous copies is characterised by the delicate being made for distribution among the courts plant forms that dot the arid of the various non-Persian dynasties that landscape, the distinctive cloud subsequently ruled Iran and its neighbouring forms suspended in the distance empires. From the 13th century onwards, behind the line of figures and, these outsiders justified their imperial above all, by the vigorously ambitions in Iran and beyond by absorbing drawn cloud-band formation the legendary history and courtly demeanour of the fire itself. This fusion of of the ancient Persian kings. No wonder then Turkoman and Timurid style that resulted leaves from the Bodleian Library travelling that so many copies of the Shahnama were from the reunification of eastern and western to the State Library of Victoria for what will made, and that a relatively high number of Iran in the early 16th century formed the be the first large-scale exhibition of Persian them have survived – many embellished by foundation for the later flowering of the arts manuscripts to be shown in Australia. The exquisite miniature paintings illustrating the of the book under the Safavid Dynasty and Oxford loan will be augmented by selected romantic and much-loved heroic tales that its neighbouring empires in Ottoman Turkey works from the SLV’s rich holdings that are make up the body of the work. and Mughal India. European in origin, yet echo Persian literary and historical themes. Additional books and The National Gallery of Victoria has a The Fitzwilliam Museum at the University manuscripts, centred on classic Persian tales number of disbound leaves from Shahnama of Cambridge will mark the Shahnama’s and poems of human and divine love recently manuscripts in its Asian collection. One millenium with a major exhibition of books acquired by the SLV, and loans from other elegant example, dated by the NGV to the late and manuscripts from a wide range of Australian collections including several works 15th century/early 16th century, depicts in periods and sources. Works from Cambridge from the NGV, will complete the display. graceful detail the legendary Persian prince, collections will be augmented by others from Siyavush, who was the son of Kay Kavus, one the Royal Collections of Britain and from the Epic of the Persian Kings: the Shahnameh of of the earliest . A symbol of innocence Bodleian Library at Oxford, amongst others. Ferdowsi, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, and purity in Persian literature, Siyavush At the conclusion of the Cambridge exhibition, UK. 11 September 2010 – 9 January 2011. risked false accusation of serious crime rather some of the Bodleian Library’s magnificent than succumb to the sexual advances of one plates from an early 15th century Shahnama Love and Devotion: from Persia and Beyond, State of his father’s wives. Subjected to an ordeal will be prepared for loan to the State Library Library of Victoria, Melbourne. 9 March – by fire to prove his innocence, Siyavush rode of Victoria for its major exhibition of Persian 1 July, 2012. into the flames on his black horse, Siah. manuscripts in March, 2012: Love and Devotion: From Persia and Beyond. Susan Scollay is an independent art historian In the NGV work the intensity of the flames specialising in the art and culture of the Islamic world. is accentuated by the way their tendrils reach The disbound Bodleian Library Shahnama She is guest co-curator of Love and Devotion: From up to almost lick the faces of the watching folios selected for travel to Australia will form Persia and Beyond, State Library of Victoria, 2012. courtiers and pages arranged in the upper the nucleus of about 70 rare manuscripts and

T A A S A R E V I E W VOLUME 19 NO.3 21 s i l K S OF SASANIAN PE r s i a

Heleanor Feltham

he Sasanian Empire (224-654 CE) was became a visual lingua franca, found dispersed to Persia and Byzantine Syria, where it T founded by Ardeshir I, who claimed from Japan to Europe. The lion, symbol of was then dyed and woven into twills and descent from the old Achaemenid rulers of kingship, power, prestige and the protection brocades. These value-added textiles were Persia. With popular support, he spearheaded of sacred spaces, was a dominant motif, either then re-exported back along the trade routes a movement to restore Persian rule after as the dying lion which confers status on its to China and beyond to Japan or shipped several centuries of first Seleucid Greek and royal hunter or as the guardian lion of the westward to Byzantium and the emerging then Parthian rule. Under Ardeshir and his empire. Other traditional images of power, kingdoms of Europe (Volbach 1969). As more successor, Shapur I, the Sasanian empire especially deer, rams and wild boar and the and more Central Asian and Western cultures expanded to include most of Central Asia mythical senmerv with its lion’s head, wings acquired knowledge of sericulture, the designs and areas of North India. and peacock tail; the winged horse, symbol were widely copied. The most common form of the Persian god of war, ; birds is a silk weft-faced compound twill (samit), While the Gandhara style was developing under such as peacocks, pheasants, cocks and ducks, though tapestry weaves, often of wool or wool the Kushan rulers of Central Asia, Christianity often wearing jewelled collars and imperial and linen, are also found, and gold thread was evolving in the divided Roman Empire scarfs; the ubiquitous ‘tree of life’ and images brocades are recorded as a luxury commodity. and Buddhism was establishing itself in the of the King hunting on horseback are all The most common decorative motifs are equally divided empire of China - Sasanian recurring themes. contained within a circle of pearl rondels, Persia became the most entrepreneurial and usually paired, with squares or crescents at politically significant power within Eurasia. Only around two dozen textiles that can the points where the circles touch. Between It was their luxury goods and their imagery, be unequivocally traced to Persian sources the circles are vegetal motifs in geometric based on earlier Persian models of power, actually survive, many in European cathedrals arrangements, usually of stars or discs. protection, and status, that came to dominate where silks were the material of choice for the arts of Silk Road countries, and would wrapping relics. However, literary references Sogdiana (modern Uzbekistan) was a centre of continue to do so long after the last of the both Western and Eastern, and sculptural and trade both in raw silk from China and in textiles. dynasty had fled to China. silverware images substantiate designs, while Part of the Sasanian Empire until the mid 6th ‘copy’ textiles from Coptic Egypt, Byzantium, century, its oasis cultures traded in and copied Imperial ateliers at the centre of the empire Spain, Central Asia, China and Japan in both luxury goods, particularly silks, developing produced trade items and diplomatic gifts, silk and wool are well documented. looms and techniques designed to produce especially silks and metalwares (Harper the highly desirable international style. In the and Meyers 1981). Their distinctive style, Initially raw silk was imported along the Silk late 6th century, the Sogdian merchant and a stylised heraldic image within a circle, Road from China to the near East, mainly weaver, He Tuo, arrived in Nanjing, China.

Princely child’s coat with lining, Sogdiana, c.8th century CE, weft-faced compound silk twill lined with Chinese silk damask. Cleveland Museum of Art

22 T A A S A R E V I E W VOLUME 19 NO.3 DOUBLE-WEFTED (TWO-SIDED) SILK REPRESENTING

THE TREE OF LIFE FLANKED BY WINGED LIONS, Silk simurgh (phoenix) from the Reliquary of St Leu

EARLY ISLAMIC PERIOD, 7TH OR 8TH CENTURY, FROM RAYY, in Paris, Sasanian Persian, c.7th century CE, now in the

TEHRAN PROVINCE, ISLAMIC MUSEUM, TEHRAN Victoria and Albert Museum

His skill in weaving gold thread brocades and his financial acumen helped him amass a considerable fortune, allowing him to launch his younger son on a career in the Chinese bureaucracy. His nephew, He Chou, was sent to Chang’an where he obtained a post in the court ateliers, eventually becoming head of the imperial wardrobe due to his ability to teach the imperial weavers to produce “fabrics adorned with medallions surrounded by pearls which constitute the usual tribute of was centred on and possibly helmets (Krenn and Karcheski 1992). Within the Persian empire” (De la Vaissière). anxious to repair their heretic status with a generation, a complex system of symbols the Byzantine church, brought the secret of had evolved from fanciful designs on tunics, It is now believed that the majority of Persian- sericulture to Constantinople. The emperors flags and shields, studied and controlled by style textiles excavated in the Tarim Basin of Byzantium established workshops there to heralds. Lions, boars, deer, eagles and other are of Sogdian rather than Persian origin produce their own silks, usually copying the Persian-influenced motifs abounded, issued (Compareti 2003), though the spread of actual coveted trade items (Mango 2002). by national authorities such as the Scottish Persian textile is attested to by a spectacular Court of the Lord Lyon or the English College Syrian cushion cover featuring lions on leashes Under the Umayyads (661-750), Islamic armies of Heralds founded in 1484. Today the coat of on either side of a date palm from the Shoso- swept across the Mediterranean to Spain in 711. arms - personal, public or promotional - is as in depository in Nara, gifted by the Emperor Defeated in 732 by Charles Martel, and effectively popular as ever. Shomu in 754 (Ryoichi 1975). Fascinatingly, stopped from further advances into Europe, the wherever the textiles are produced, ones Umayyads established a remarkable intellectual Sasanian silks utilised traditional Persian showing the king hunting on horseback almost and courtly culture centred on Cordoba, where symbols and images dating to at least the invariably include the elaborate Persian royal the last Caliph of the Umayyads died in 1031. 5th century BCE, using principally imported crown. These differ from king to king, allowing They spread both sericulture and Persian-style silks and creating a commodity which was a comparison with Persian coins and giving a weaving westward, further increasing European greatly valued across the Eurasian world specific identity to the hunter. access to Persian motifs. from Germany to Japan. Widely copied, the designs became part of an international Wealthy Sogdians wore kaftans woven with Despite these developments, imported silks repertoire and came to influence other arts rondel designs featuring Persian senmurvs, continued to be the most desirable. Whether and designs including western heraldry and boars’ heads and occasionally camels. produced in the Islamic world, in Byzantium, Chinese sculptural motifs. Traded along the Samarkand frescos showcase well-dressed or in Hispano-Moresque Spain (El Andaluz), Silk Road, they encouraged the spread of ambassadors while an 8th century Sogdian the style of the textiles and other luxury complex weaving techniques along with their child’s jacket featuring ducks in rondels (in goods almost always followed that of the distinctive styles. the Cleveland Museum of Art), and images of Sasanian Persians. bedecked camels indicate wide-spread use of Heleanor Feltham has a PhD from UTS these lovely and expensive textiles. They can As late as the 14th century, Western textiles (International Studies) and specialises in Central also be found pictured in Dunhuang covering continued to be imported, often from China Asian material culture. She was a founding member the cushions on which the Buddha sits. A and still incorporating elements of Sasanian of TAASA and the first Editor of the TAASA Review. recently discovered Tibetan 7th century silk design. The Wilton diptych panel showing the riding coat with confronted stags, of Sasanian coronation of Richard II, now in the National REFERENCES or Sogdian origin, featured in the US art market Gallery of London, has the king kneeling Compareti, M. 2003. “The role of the Sogdian Colonies in the in 2007 with an asking price of USD$1.2 million. accompanied by saints, one of whom wears a silk diffusion of the pearl roundels pattern”, Transoxiana on-line robe with confronted Chinese phoenix. The king journal available at http://www.transoxiana.org. The advent of Islam and its conquest of the himself wears a robe with roundels containing Harper P. and Meyers P., 1981. Silver Vessels of the Sasanian Period. Vol 1. Royal Imagery, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Persian Empire in the 7th century did little to kneeling deer, his own heraldic motif, but one New York, and Princeton University Press, New York. disrupt the silk and silver trade, or radically also originating in the Near East and spread Hayashi, Ryoichi,1975. “The Silk Road and the Shoso-in”. alter the designs. Even the iconoclastic strictures through Persian textiles and silverware. Heibonsha Survey of Japanese Art vol 6. Weatherhill/Heibonsha, of Islam at its most austere failed to transform New Your/Tokyo. the design of luxury goods or the enthusiasm By the 12th century a new form of image, Krenn P.and Karcheski, Jr W. J., 1992. Imperial Austria: Treasures of the growing Western markets. Moreover echoing earlier Sasanian designs, had of Art, Arms and Armor from the State of Styria, Art Exhibitions the spread of sericulture and commercial silk- emerged in Europe, that of heraldry. The Australia Ltd, Melbourne. weaving technology to Byzantium in the 6th Crusades, which lasted until the late 13th Mango C. (ed), 2002. The Oxford History of Byzantium, Oxford century, and the integration of silk textiles, often century, brought Western knights into a University Press, Oxford. replicating or reprising Persian designs, into the more direct contact with Islam and its riches, Muthesius, A., 1995. “ Studies in Byzantine and Islamic Silk Byzantine diplomatic culture (Muthesius 1995), including vastly improved metalworking Weaving”. Silken Diplomacy, The Pindar Press, London. ensured that the same imagery that had already techniques reflected in the development of Scott, P., 1993. The Book of Silk, Thames & Hudson, London. travelled eastward as far as Japan, now spread new forms of arms and armour, notably the Vaissière É. de la (Trans. J. Ward), 2005. Sogdian Traders, a History: Handbook of Oriental Studies, Section 8: Central Asia, equally far westward. closed helmet and plate mail. vol. 10 Sogdian Traders, Brill, Leiden and Boston, citing He Chou’s biography in the Suishu (Dynastic history of the Sui Dynasty).

According to Procopius, enterprising Heraldry was one means of identifying Volbach W. F., 1969. Early Decorative Textiles, Paul Hamlyn, London. monks, possibly Nestorians whose diocese armed warriors in their new face-concealing

T A A S A R E V I E W VOLUME 19 NO.3 23 b o o K r E v i EW: PARA d i SE LOST. PERS I A FROM ABOVE

John Tidmarsh

After a gap of almost 40 years, during 1976– from Khorasan, Fars, Azarbijan, and the 1978, Georg Gerster, another pioneer of aerial Caspian and Gulf coasts. These variations are photography, undertook a similar series often much more apparent from the air. of aerial reconnaissance flights over Iran totalling some 300 flying hours. Although A number of the great Persian cities and accompanied by a German archaeologist archaeological monuments are also included, (shades of Schmidt!), Gerster’s main aim although often not as strikingly depicted was to record Iran’s “natural and cultural as they were by Schmidt in the 1930’s. landscape…predestined to be viewed from Nevertheless, it is instructive to compare the air, with its salt deserts, gardens like slices the present state (Google Earth) of these of paradise, and waterless wind-sculpted monuments and their surrounds with their wastes”. The result is a striking and nostalgic appearance in the late 1970’s (Gerster) and the collection of colour images (slides taken with 1930’s (Schmidt). Paradise Lost Nikon cameras on Kodachrome film), from Persia from Above the last years of the Shah, encompassing Some of these sites (eg Takht-e Soleyman, By Georg Gerster. Ed by Maryam Sachs all of Iran from Khorasan and Baluchistan Pasargadae) show evidence of much Phaidon, 2009 in the east to Azarbijan, Kermanshah, and archaeological clearing and reconstruction rrp USD$59.95 Khuzistan in the west. during the 40 years between the images of Schmidt and Gerstner. Others (eg Susa, In June 1931, the University of Pennsylvania The images are arranged according to Firuzabad) appear relatively unaltered whilst Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, geographical region. They are accompanied the surrounding towns and villages have along with the Pennsylvania (later by a foreword from Gerster, a short and fairly grown significantly. A comparison between Philadelphia) Museum of Art launched their superficial introductory section by Iranian- Gerster’s images and those of Google Earth Joint Archaeological Expedition to Persia. A born Maryam Sachs on some of the natural suggest that this latter state of affairs has young German-born archaeologist, Erich F. and cultural features of these regions along largely continued over the last 30 years, Schmidt, was chosen to direct excavations with brief comments on some of the aerial although things may well change if the at the Bronze Age site of Tepe Hissar, along photographs themselves, and then three pages current increase in archaeological activity with the Sasanian Palace nearby. Schmidt of poems (selected by Sachs) by Ferdowsi, jointly undertaken by Iranian and overseas commenced work in late June of the following Rumi, Sa’di, Hafez, Farrokhzad and others. institutions is maintained. Finally, it is year, and from this time on, his archaeological pleasing (although sad) to see such a fine career was largely focussed on Iran, Among the images it is the landscapes that photo of the citadel of Bam, taken well before culminating in his directing three seasons of are the most compelling. The sheer diversity the tragic earthquake of December 2003. excavation at Persepolis. and beauty of Iran can often be difficult to As with quite a few images in this book, comprehend when travelling long distances however, its power is somewhat diminished Arguably just as important as his fieldwork, by road through apparently featureless by its spread over two pages, making the was Schmidt’s remarkable series of aerial and unchanging countryside. Google Earth central part of the image hard to read. explorations conducted during the middle cannot hope to compete with images such period (1935–1937) of the first Shah’s reign. as Gerster’s views of the cloud-covered Although it is now some 30 years since Gerster In his Waco cabin biplane, accompanied by Elburz dominated by Mount Damavand, the took the photos that appear in this book, their his wife Mary-Helen, pilots Lewin Barringer wonderfully fertile and heavily exploited attraction is in no way diminished. This book and (later) William Benn and a Lieutenant of Caspian coastline, the sparsely populated should certainly appeal to anyone interested the Iranian Air Forces, Schmidt was able to Zagros foothills of Luristan and, to my eyes in the wider world and, especially, to the ever- cover much of Iran. As well as photographing the most striking of all, the superb patterns increasing numbers of travellers who, rather existing excavations and known sites, Schmidt created by the ever-moving sand dunes of than relying on biased or frankly ignorant aimed to explore those parts of the country as Sistan and Baluchistan or by the constant accounts in the local press, wish to see the yet archaeologically unknown. salt erosion along the shores of the Gulf to real Iran for themselves. To get the most out the south. of it, however, I recommend that it be read At a time when surveys of this nature were very in conjunction with the wonderful black-and- rare and not particularly methodical, Schmidt’s Also beautifully documented from the air white photos of Schmidt discussed above. well-planned aerial reconnaissance was both are the villages of Iran. With their cisterns remarkably innovative and highly successful and adjacent fields often nourished by Dr John Tidmarsh is President of the Near Eastern as can be gauged by his magisterial Flights (underground water channels), these villages Archaeological Foundation at the University of over the Ancient Cities of Iran published in 1940. may seem uniform and timeless but, as Sydney. He has travelled widely in Iran and has led Although Flights is now out of print, many of Gerster’s images so clearly demonstrate, there numerous tours to that country. Schmidt’s aerial photographs have been made were (and, to a diminishing degree still are) available through the website of The Oriental marked regional variations in organisation Institute of the University of Chicago. and architectural forms amongst the villages

24 T A A S A R E V I E W VOLUME 19 NO.3 E x h i b i t i o n P R E v i EW: BEAUT Y A N D B E T R AYA L : an c i ent je w eller y at t h e N i c h olson

Elizabeth Bollen and Tobin Hartnell

he lure of jewellery, its beauty, the desire objects are artefacts of Iran’s nomadic These Luristan bronzes are also evocative T to create it, to possess it, to adorn a loved tradition. The exhibited pieces include two forerunners to the jewellery of ancient Persia. one with it, is common to us all and provides bronze torcs and a thick ring that served as The circle of the ring was deliberately left a strong connection to the people of the past. an anklet, armlet or . Excavations of incomplete. The two ends were then engraved Through time and across cultures people burials and depictions in art indicate that both with geometric markings, similar to those have found gold, silver and polished stones men and women wore anklets, either singly found on the bronze sculpture of Queen attractive. The continued appeal of ancient or in stacks of two or three, while rings worn Napir-Asu (dated to the late 14th century jewellery, an attraction that prompted emulation on the upper arm was a dress convention of BCE). As time would pass, this nomadic style in the 18th and 19th centuries, propels this Assyrian and Persian men. of jewellery would be re-interpreted with rings exhibition. Today we can look at the jewellery of silver or gold finished with animal heads. worn over 2000 years ago and not only recognise The Luristan bronzes are amongst the most- Persian kings would give them out as presents its beauty but even think I would wear that. lively pieces of ancient jewellery from Iran. to court favourites. In essence, armlets and These pieces represent the tradition of Iranian became the height of fashion in the Jewellery can be a potent symbol of protection or nomads to wear their wealth because they Achaemenid court of Persepolis. The influence of power. It can speak of the individual’s status, were moving with every season. The choice of Persian design in the West is demonstrated of their wealth, their good taste, their education, of torcs and arm decorations for display is in this exhibition by a silver bracelet with their international connections. Jewellery can meaningful because necklaces and bracelets gilded dog heads and a pair of animal-headed be intensely personal; it can represent strong still function as the centrepiece of an Iranian earrings from 5th century BCE Greece. bonds of unity between individuals or within woman’s wedding service (a present given to a group. Or it can be desired and worn simply her by the husband to mark her transition into The final part of the exhibition concerns the because it is beautiful. a new stage of life). They probably served as a Neo-Classical world. These displays investigate similar marker of status in the tribe. how the ancient designs of the Greco-Roman Collected together in this exhibition and world were reinterpreted as part of the 18th catalogue are over 70 objects from the Ancient jewellery also functioned as a kind and 19th century Neo-Classical movement. Nicholson Museum, other Australian of currency. Before coined money was These later versions symbolise the continued university museums and public and private introduced in the 6th century BCE, metals attraction of the ancient world in modern times. collections. Each piece displays the techniques held their value according to their weight. In of the jeweller, its varied purpose and above all, Iran, gold and silver is still valued this way. Beauty And Betrayal: Ancient And Neo-Classical captures something of the appeal of jewellery. In some cases, excavations have found hoards Jewellery is being held at the Nicholson of scrap metal buried under the doorstep of Museum, The University of Sydney from For those interested in ancient Iranian ancient houses. In others, there is evidence for 30 June – 28 November 2010. jewellery, this exhibition includes three cutting pieces from metal objects, presumably objects from Luristan, western Iran. From the to serve as payment. Thus a woman’s bride Elizabeth Bollen is Assistant Curator at the 12th-8th centuries BCE, the area produced price, when offered as jewellery, could serve Nicholson Museum, Sydney University and curator many decorative bronzes: horse trappings, as financial insurance against hardship, just of this exhibiton. Tobin Hartnell is a PhD candidate standards, weapons and jewellery. These as it does in modern Iran and India. in Iranian archaeology at Chicago University.

Arm ring or anklet, Luristan, Iran, early 1st millennium BCE, bronze, Bangle with dog-head terminals, Greece, 5th century BCE, silver and gold,

Nicholson Museum, University of Sydney. Photo: Phil Rogers COURTESY OF John Elliot Classics Museum, University of Tasmania, GX19

T A A S A R E V I E W VOLUME 19 NO.3 25 t r a v E l l E R ’ s t a l E: C ARPET MUSEUM OF I RAN

Helen Holmes and Ros Hunyor Knotted pile rug, Chahar Mahall Province, West Iran, late 19th century, wool and silk, 178 x 126 cm,

Carpet Museum of Iran. Photo: Ros Hunyor

inging our way into Tehran we were Designs also vary from town to town but W alerted to a story in the Economist about the ubiquitous garden designs predominate: a mid 17th Century Kirman ‘vase’ carpet from rectangular panels of motifs such as summer southern Persia, formerly in the collection of houses, grape vines, stylised flowers, large the Comtesse de Behague, sold at Christie’s cypress trees and weeping willows, as well London auction in April 2010 for a staggering as boteh (or paisley motif) and vase. They USD9.59 million, far exceeding any record of use a symmetrical knot known as Turkish an auctioned work of Islamic art. This was and an asymmetrical knot known as Persian. a fitting introduction to the delights of the Predominantly natural were used until Carpet Museum of Iran. the end of the 19th century, and both the are usually cotton. There were many The museum was to reveal many beautiful glorious, brilliantly coloured carpets from this Kirman carpets amongst other treasures, area in the museum, the most notable being a including a copy of the famous Pazyryk with cypress tree motif, embraced carpet believed to date from the 4th century by trees of life laden with fruit and flowers BCE, the subject of an article by Leigh Mackay and bordered with a floral scrolling pattern. in the December 2009 TAASA Review. Back into the Zagros mountains to Shiraz, the The Carpet Museum of Iran, designed by next nomadic carpet makers we visited were the Queen Farah Diba Pahlavi, is located in Laleh Qashqai, a confederation of tribes who speak a Park in Tehran. Built in 1978, its modern tent- Turkic dialect. Their 19th century carpets are like façade resembles a carpet-weaving loom. made from the softest wool from under the chin With the aim of reviving and developing the of the sheep, which take up a deeper shade of are from the Shah Abbas period, and one in art of carpet weaving, it has two exhibition colour when dyed. These carpets are commonly particular stood out from the others, not least galleries displaying carpets from the 17th to an all wool construction of ivory coloured warp for its grand size. We admired the amazing mid 20th century as well as a fine library and and dark or red dyed weft using mostly an detail of this silk and wool central medallion space for teaching carpet weaving, design and asymmetrical knot and strong deep colours. carpet surrounded by pairs of tigers, leopards, restoration. Modern village carpets produced in the region monkeys, deer and wild goats swirling are known as Shiraz, with geometric “floribunda” amongst scrolling vines and flowers, with The museum represents about 60 different style designs, typically with rows of three or five ornate vases filled with flowers in each corner. carpet weaving centres in Iran of which only diamond shapes down the middle (or centre four are covered here, based on the places we and corners), or the whole field covered with Our route took us finally to the town of visited on our recent trip. small geometric motifs. They use birds, tree of Kashan, once on an important caravan route, life and two-headed animal motifs. The museum whose carpets saw an export driven revival From Tehran, we travelled into the Zagros displayed a number of geometric Qashqai carpets. during the second half of the 19th century. Most mountains to Kermanshah and south to the use a very fine weave and follow a medallion- plains of . Here, we skirted the area Travelling northwest, we reached the city of and-corner pattern, sometimes referred to as of the Bakhtiari carpet-makers, settled tribes Esfahan. Shah Abbas 1 (r. 1587 to 1629) was the “book-cover” or Qur’an design. Amongst of Armenians, Kurds, Lurs and others. The responsible for bringing Armenian weavers from many Kashan carpets seen in the museum was quality of their carpets varies, with the finest the town of Jalfa in the Caucasus to “New Jalfa” a splendid double-sided scrolling vines and carpets, with floral medallion/ all-over motifs, in Esfahan where he established the weaving garden patterned carpet made from silk and coming from the town of Chahal Shotur. trade. During his reign, carpets reached the cotton. The border of this carpet appeared to pinnacle of artistic achievement and many were have a similar feathered leaf pattern to that of sent as gifts to western rulers. The extraordinary the auctioned Kirman carpet. Safavid period designs are reflected in the symmetrical patterns evident in modern carpets The Carpet Museum of Iran constantly rotates from the region and include overall floral, its display and is well worth a visit just for the vase, palmettes and hunting designs. The most sheer beauty of its carpets. At a deeper level popular use a circular medallion/dome design it set the context for our travels, allowing us said to have been derived from the famous to appreciate the connections between carpet mosque of Sheikh Lotfollah in Esfahan. design and so many aspects of life in ancient and modern Persia – its nomadic herdsmen, its Esfahan carpets are made of the most landscapes, gardens and its architectural styles. consistently fine wool pile and silk, using an asymmetrical knot construction, with mainly Ros Hunyor and Helen Holmes are Volunteer Guides silk warps and often two wefts. Many of the in the Asian Galleries of the Art Gallery of NSW. numerous Esfahani carpets in the museum

Façade of Carpet Museum of Iran.

Photo: Malcolm Holmes

26 T A A S A R E V I E W VOLUME 19 NO.3 N EW l E a d E r s h i P f o r t a a s a

TAASA is very fortunate to be able to expert leadership in Gill and Christina. welcome Gill Green and Christina Sumner Judith and Ken Rutherford have been given as its new President and Vice President, life membership of TAASA as a mark of following the resignation of Judith Rutherford gratitude for their contribution, and a gift of after 9 years of sterling service to TAASA. a celebratory dinner at well-known Sydney Judith’s wise leadership will be sorely missed, restaurant, Aria. but we can look forward to committed and

o u r t h a n K s t o J u d i t h r u t h E r f o r d

Judith first ‘experienced’ Asia in Brunei where she and Ken Rutherford, employed by Shell, were transferred as newly-weds. Asian traders came to the door with enormous bundles containing everything from antiques to contemporary items. Her interest was particularly piqued by items of Chinese dress and that is where her career in collecting, dealership and research took off.

Having joined TAASA right at its beginning labeled as ‘Chinese’, as a distinct category. in 1991 she approached then President Carl She managed to put together a small Andrews with the idea of starting a Textile representative collection dating from the Focus Group. This was a rather radical idea 18th to19th century and donated them to in those days when textiles did not enjoy a the AGNSW where they remain, arguably, high profile. From this beginning emerged the largest collection of Vietnamese rank many TAASA -devised seminars and insignia in a public institution worldwide. lectures devoted to textiles from all regions of Asia. Soon after, a Textile Study Group based But TAASA has not had an exclusive call in Sydney and hosted by the Powerhouse on Judith’s time. Over the same period, Museum, was initiated in 1994. It continues she was involved in and became the to this day – a testament to Judith’s foresight President of the Nordhoff-Robbins Music in an emerging field of interest. Therapy organisation in Australia; she has for many years acted as an independent Over the years, Judith’s expertise was called Councillor on Willoughby Council on on to advise and assist major institutions Sydney’s northshore, becoming Deputy such as the Art Gallery of NSW with such Mayor at one time. She and Ken are well- major events as Dancing to the Flute in 1997, known and respected participants and and Celestial Silks in 2004. Her knowledge experts in antique fairs both in Australia of collections and collectors abroad were and abroad, notably in the annual Asian seminal to this last event, where her arts fairs in New York; and she serves on relationship with the movers and shakers the VisAsia Council. The culmination of all encouraged their confidence to allow the these activities was the award of the AM, most significant examples of amazing Member of the Order of Australia, to Judith Chinese robes, one dating back to the 6th in the Australia Day Honours List in 2010. century, to be brought to Australia. In 2001 she succeeded Jackie Menzies, Head Curator Her wise counsel and experience has been of Asian Art at the AGNSW, as President of a significant asset to TAASA in all this TAASA and has held this position until she time and has certainly been a benchmark stepped down in mid-2010. for the TAASA Committee and all those who sought her advice over the years in so Judith recounts that another highlight has many capacities. We look forward to seeing been her research into Vietnamese textiles Judith and Ken around and about and not and rank insignia. Her initial interest in least the TAASA End of Year parties! Chinese rank insignia led her to recognizing Vietnamese examples, usually incorrectly Gill Green

T A A S A R E V I E W VOLUME 19 NO.3 27 28 T A A S A R E V I E W VOLUME 19 NO.3 R ECE n t t a a s a a C t i v i t i E S

TAASA QUEENSLAND TAASA NSW

Exhibition floor talk onBatik of Java: Textile Study Group meeting - 9 June Poetics and Politics Carole Douglas, an expert on the traditional On Thursday 8 July, TAASA members textiles of the tribal women of Kutch in attended a preview of this exhibition at the Northwestern India, brought in a lavish array Caloundra Regional Art Gallery. On display of examples to illustrate her well attended talk were from the collection of Greg Roberts on the place of Kutch and its traditions in the and Ian Reed and paintings by Indonesian larger picture of Indian textile trading history. artist, Dadang Christanto, curated by TAASA member Maria Wronska-Friend (see exhibition Textile Study Group meeting - 28 July preview in the TR June 2010 issue). Terry Bisley and Sue-Ann Smiles covered the fascinating topic of lotus stem fibre weaving at Lake Inle in northern Burma (Myanmar). Together they travelled there in April and documented and collected an array of fabrics and scarves made from this precious fibre with its important Buddhist connotations.

Kutch textile study group meeting. L- R Carole Douglas,

Greg Roberts at the of Java exhibition. Soraya Raju, Dianne Schultz-Tesmar examining some of the

Photo: Deborah Halls textiles on display. Photo: Gill Green

t a a s a m E m b E r s ’ d i a r y SEPTEMBER – NOVEMBER 2010

TAASA NSW EVENTS Dr Kate Radford discusses the significance 10 November: Sally Powell and Gill Green Trade Ceramics in Southeast Asia. of imagery depicting female forms on focus on dress and adornment of Papua New Lecture by Rehfuss, Freer Museum, Sasanian period (224 – 654 CE) silver bowls. Guinea as seen on their recent travels there. Washington DC. Dr Heleanor Feltham will focus on All enquiries, contact Gill Green on 7 pm on Tuesday 14 September at Nomadic magnificent Sasanian silk textiles using 9331 1810 or [email protected]. Rug Traders, 123 Harris Street, Pyrmont. examples archaeologically recovered Numbers are limited so bookings essential. along the Silk Road. TAASA QUEENSLAND EVENTS Please contact Ann Proctor Leigh MacKay completes the program Wayang Kulit - Shadow Puppet at [email protected] elucidating visual symbols found on Persian Drama of Java carpets, particularly garden designs. 6.30 pm on Friday 3 September in the Iranian Arts and Craft - a one-day foyer of the Queensland Conservatorium, TAASA Seminar on Saturday 30 October A small exhibition of contemporary South Bank. Coles Theatre, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney Iranian art is planned on the day. Detailed Our guest speakers will include: information on the day’s program will The performance will be presented by Joko Dr John Tidmarsh providing an be available in September. All enquiries, Susilo (Dhalang - puppet master) and the introductory overview. contact Gill Green on 9331 1810 or at Queensland Conservatorium Gamelan Dr Stefano Carboni, Director, Art Gallery [email protected]. Ensemble with guest artists Pak of Western Australia - previously Curator Hardjodikoro Soegito, (musician in of Islamic Arts at the Metropolitan Museum Textile Study Group residence, Embassy of Republic of of Art, New York - on Iranian glass. 6-8 pm, Briefing Room, Powerhouse Museum , Canberra) who will lead Nasser Palangi on traditional and 15 September: Kate Johnston talks about the gamelan, Ilona Wright (Melbourne contemporary Persian calligraphy. As a her recent trip to West Timor and will bring Community Gamelan) and Julia Pope. practising artist, he will also demonstrate how the many exciting textiles she collected. This performance of approximately 1.5 contemporary Middle Eastern artists integrate 13 October: Chris Reid (Australia Museum) hours’ duration will present an episode traditional Persian and Arabic calligraphy into discusses an unusual Sumatran traditional from the epic Mahabharata entitled “Bima their own work with dramatic effect. tampan cloth featuring a European style ship. Founds the Kingdom”.

T A A S A R E V I E W VOLUME 19 NO.3 29 W h a t ’ S ON IN AUSTRALIA AND OV E r s E a s : SEPTEMBER - NOVEMBER 2010 A S E L E C T I V E R O U N D U P O F E x h i B I T I O N S A N D E V E N T S

Compiled by Tina Burge

AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY Connections QUEENSLAND National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Life, death and magic - 2000 years of 1 October 2010 Simryn Gill: Gathering Southeast Asian ancestral art Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Connections explores the synergies between 28 August – 17 October 2010 13 August – 31 October 2010 works of art across cultures, place and time. Islamic works of art are paired with others in Simryn Gill’s work explores questions of Life, death and magic assembles some of the the NGA’s collection under themes such as place and history, and how they might finest and rarest works of Southeast Asian calligraphy, geometry, colour and the garden intersect with personal and collective animist art, showing the ancient and enduring to develop an understanding of their influence. experience. Born in Singapore, Gill lives in links between the arts of the Philippines, Sydney and Port Dickson, Malaysia. She Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam and A series of lectures is scheduled including uses objects, language and photographs to East Timor. The exhibition features dramatic a talk on the exhibition by Frances Wild, convey a deep interest in material culture sculpture, jewellery and textiles revealing the Gallery educator and curator of the and the ways that meaning can transform power of art made for rituals of life and death exhibition on 5 October 12.45 pm. On 7 and translate into different contexts. from prehistoric to recent times. October at 12.45pm Australian–Iranian artist Hossein Valamanesh will share the stories of For further information go to: A series of talks will take place in association his art, which poetically combines Australian www.qag.qld.gov.au with the exhibition: and Persian experiences. The Zhongjian: Midway Lucie Folan, Curator Asian art speaks about For further information go to: Cairns Regional Gallery the art of the Yami people from Taiwan on 9 nga.gov.au/connections 29 October – 5 December 2010 September at 12.45 pm NEW SOUTH WALES A travelling exhibition from the Wollongong Robyn Maxwell, Senior Curator, Asian Art, City Gallery continues in Cairns. Leading and curator of the exhibition will discuss art The Indian empire, multiple realities - Australian and Chinese contemporary artists and the cycle of life in ancestral Southeast Selections from the Portvale Collection provide insights into questions of personal Asia on 14 September at 12.45pm. The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney and cultural identity, and the implications of 19 August – 7 November 2010 finding oneself ‘midway’ between cultures. Textile conservators from the NGA will give a general overview of the conservation of Southeast This ambitious exhibition presents aspects For further information go to: Asian textiles and cover a number of different of the Indian empire when artistic patrons www.cairnsregionalgallery.com.au/exhibitions conservation treatments on 21 September at were as diverse as Indian maharajas, East 12.45pm and 12 October at 12.45pm. India Company employees, and the military VICTORIA and administrative personnel of the British Dr Hwei-F’en Cheah, Lecturer, Art History, Raj. When foreigners started arriving in Giuseppe Tucci - Explorer and ANU, will discuss the ritual textiles from India centuries ago, they were captivated Extraordinary Scholar Sumatra on 19 October at 12.45pm. by the people, architecture, customs and Monash University, Melbourne costumes of the subcontinent. By the late 1 October 2010, 10am - 5pm Professor James Fox, Professor of 18th century, when the British presence Anthropology, ANU College of Asia and was more widespread through India, artists The Monash Asia Institute, the Italian the Pacific will lecture on ‘Life from death: were commissioned to portray the world the Institute of Culture (Melbourne) and the sacrifice for creation’ on 21 October at foreigners had encountered. Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente have 12.45pm. organised a symposium on the work of The imaging of India coincided with the Giuseppe Tucci (1894–1984), the inveterate Niki van Heuvel, Exhibition Assistant, development of new, multiple printing scholar and explorer. Ahead of his time, will discuss the sumptuous gold objects techniques such as lithography and, from Tucci recognized the internationalist made for the veneration of ancestors in the the 1850s, photography. At the same time, nature of Buddhism, and charted its exhibition on 23 October at 2.00pm. local traditions of painting and embroidery spread into areas that scholarship had continued. not yet investigated. The symposium will Dr Peter Bellwood, Professor of Archaeology, particularly highlight his contribution to ANU will lecture on ‘Tracing the deeper Art After Hours program on Wednesday the study of Tibetan culture, history and ancestries of Southeast Asian peoples - evenings until 9pm will focus on the religion, fields in which he was the pre- archaeology, languages and genes’ on 28 exhibition on 1, 8 and 15 September. Expert eminent scholar over several decades. October at 12.45pm. talks in the exhibition at 5.30pm are followed by celebrity events at 6.30pm and live Indian For more information on For lecture details and other music in the Artbar from 7.30pm. Celebrities the symposium go to: cultural activities go to: include Claire McCarthy, writer and www.arts.monash.edu.au/mai/tucci www.nga/gov.au/lifedeathmagic director of The Waiting City (2009), the first Australian feature-length film entirely filmed in India, on 8 September.

www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au 30 T A A S A R E V I E W VOLUME 19 NO.3 Fluid Borders – Ways of Seeing Oriental Rugs and Eastern Asia. The symposium aims to HONG KONG The Johnston Collection Gallery, Melbourne further debate on regional stylistic schools, 5 July – 22 October 2010 stylistic development, the relationship of The Grandeur of Chinese Art Treasures – The iconography to religious doctrines and key Min Chiu Society Golden Jubilee Exhibition By exhibiting rugs from a wide range of cross-cultural and international links. Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong traditions and styles, Fluid Borders will 25 September 2010 – 2 January 2011 explore the impact of oriental rugs on For further information go to: western décor, art and thinking, and how www.vam.ac.uk Founded in 1960, the Min Chiu Society is a history has placed oriental rugs in the group of local collectors who possess eminent scholarship of oriental textiles. Susan Scollay USA collections of Chinese art. This year, to has curated the exhibition with selected celebrate its 50th anniversary, the Min Chiu works from The Johnston Collection and Chinamania Society is collaborating with the HK Museum private collections in Melbourne. Freer Gallery of Art, Washingon of Art to present an exhibition showcasing 7 August 2010 – 7 August 2001 over 300 fine Chinese art treasures from For further information go to: prehistory to the Qing dynasty, including www.johnstoncollection.org Blue-and-white Chinese porcelain became excellent examples across all media. a hot item in London in the 1870s, a Important paintings and calligraphy by INTERNATIONAL craze the British press mockingly dubbed renowned artists from the Tang to the Qing “Chinamania.” James McNeill Whistler, an dynasties and early modern masters will be UNITED KINGDOM early collector of Chinese porcelain, helped a feature of the exhibition. stimulate this fad by depicting such wares New Research on Buddhist Sculpture - in his paintings. Featuring 23 works of art, For further information go to: Symposium the exhibition explores Chinese porcelain in www.lcsd.gov.hk/ce/Museum/Arts/english The V&A Museum, London Whistler’s England, where it was first valued 8-9 November 2010 as aesthetic inspiration but soon proliferated as a commodity. This two day symposium will bring together new research by 15 leading scholars in the For further information go to www.asia. field of Buddhism and Buddhist arts. The si.edu/exhibitions/current/Chinamania first day will concentrate on South Asia and the Himalayas, the second on South East

SRI LANKA AND KANDY BURMA: THE ESSENTIAL CAMBODIA: ANGKOR EXPLORING CAMBODIA ESALA PERAHERA EXPERIENCE WAT AND BEYOND AND LAOS

July 2011 28 October – 16 November 2011 October - November 2011 November – December 2011 Mountains, jungles, ruined cities, vast Designed and hosted by TAASA Angkor’s timeless grandeur is unmissable. This program offers a relaxed but lakes, impressive Theravada Buddhist contributor Dr Bob Hudson, our Combining it with majestic Preah comprehensive tour of two destinations, temples and statuary, fertile uplands: Sri longstanding annual Burma program Vihear and other Khmer sites results both slowly emerging from tumultuous Lanka’s tapestry of landscape, people features extended stays in medieval in an unforgettable travel memory. recent history and containing memorable and culture overwhelms and delights the Mrauk U, capital of the lost ancient Yet Cambodia offers a host of other yet highly contrasting UNESCO World senses. Kandy and the pageantry of the kingdom of Arakan (now Rakhine State) important cultural and travel experiences: Heritage listed sites. Visit Vientiane and Esala Perahera Festival, with its ancient and Bagan, rivalling Angkor Wat as outstanding ancient, vernacular and romantic Luang Prabang in landlocked procession of robed elephants, dancers Southeast Asia’s richest archaeological French colonial architecture; spectacular Laos plus Cambodia and its capital and acrobats, forms the centrepiece of precinct. Exciting experiences in Yangon, riverine environments; a revitalising urban Phnom Penh and the superb Khmer sites our Sri Lankan circuit. Before and after Inle Lake, Mandalay and a private capital in Phnom Penh; interesting cuisine at Angkor plus other less well known Kandy we explore World Heritage listed cruise down the mighty Ayeyarwady and beautiful countryside. Expatriate travel experiences. Join our enthusiastic and other sites such as Colombo; the are also included. museologist, author, Siem Reap resident and knowledgeable team of author, art important Cultural Triangle cities of Land Only estimated cost per person and TAASA contributor Darryl Collins has historian and TAASA Committee member Anaradhapura, Polonnaruwa and Sigiriya; twinshare ex Yangon $3995 designed and hosts this latest, updated Gill Green and Darryl Collins, museologist, the groomed tea estates of the Hill version of his annual program. author and Siem Reap resident on an Country around Nuwara Eliya; the gem Land Only estimated cost per person interesting and worthwhile journey. town of Ratnapura; and the south-west twinshare ex Phnom Penh $3775 Land Only estimated cost per person coast around Galle. Fighting between the twinshare ex Phnom Penh $4500 Sri Lankan military and the LTTE (Tamil Tigers) has ceased and travellers are returning. Archaeologist Dr Bob Hudson is leader. Register your interest now and qualify for a special early discount. Contact Ray Boniface Land Only estimated cost per person at Heritage Destinations on +61 2 4228 3887 or email [email protected] twinshare ex Colombo $3900 or visit our website www.heritagedestinations.com.au

PO Box U237, University of Wollongong NSW 2500 Australia H ERITAGE D ESTINATIONS p +61 2 4228 3887 e [email protected] NATURE • BUILDINGS • PEOPLE • TRAVELLERS ABN 21 071 079 859 LIC NO TAG 1747

T A A S A R E V I E W VOLUME 19 NO.3 31