ARC 118 Dr. Patrick Hunt Winter Quarter 2019 [email protected] Stanford University CSP https://www.nationalgeographic.com/expeditions/experts/patrick-hunt/ Art and Archaeology of Persia Wednesdays, 7:00-9:05 pm, January 15 - March 4, Syllabus & Course Outline

Course Aims: Persia has had one of the longest, most glorious, and fascinating histories in the world, well over 5,000 years. Too often neglected by the West, Persia’s rich and complex culture was jealously admired by the ancient Greeks and later by the Byzantines. Its imposing monumental sites range from Achaemenid Persepolis to Safavid Isfahan as well as the garden city of Shiraz. In this course, we will examine millennia of rich textiles, precious gemstone seals and metalworking, and engineering marvels like desert qanat aqueducts. Each week we will encounter treasures well known to archaeologists and art historians but unfamiliar to most well educated Westerners. Course highlights will include the fabulous Oxus Treasure hoard, discovered in the 19th century with its gold griffins, silver simurghs, and other fabulous animals, as well as some of the oldest metallurgical treasures in the world from Proto-Elamites dating to 3100 BCE, before the Bronze Age. We will explore Sassanian silk and the story of deciphering cuneiform with the Behistun Rock. We will read Herodotus on Cyrus the Great and literary masterpieces such as the medieval epic Shahnameh (Book of Kings) in which Rustam is a beguiling Persian hero. Such poignant tales, illustrated by incredible Safavid miniature paintings, predate the legendary stories of the beautiful Persian heroine Scheherazade.

Course Requirements: Students attend the nine lecture sessions - including one museum visit - and complete assigned readings from assigned or recommended texts, and supplemental texts as provided. If taken for credit (as MLA or prospective students must fulfill), a brief 10 page critical paper will be completed with topic having prior instructor consent.

Course Readings: Relevant linked online readings are assigned per session for a total of 200+ pages as occasional supplemental handouts are also provided. ARC 118 ART & ARCHAEOLOGY OF PERSIA Course Outline

1/15 Neolithic Iran: Animal Domestication, Early Agriculture, Pottery Reading: Tia Ghose, “Evidence of Ancient Farming in Iran Discovered” Live Science 7/5/13 (http:// www.livescience.com/37963-agriculture-arose-eastern-fertile-crescent.html)

1/22 Proto-Elamites and the following Bronze Age of Iran - Luristan Reading: Mark Ronan, “The Puzzle of Proto-Elamite”, History Today 63.1 (http:// www.historytoday.com/mark-ronan/puzzle-proto-elamite); “Bronzes of Luristan” Encyclopaedia Iranica (http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/bronzes-of-luristan)

1/29 Cyrus the Great and Rise of the Achaemenid Persian Empire Reading: Herodotus, History, Book 1, begin at 1.108.1-1.129.1 Click forward through to 1.129.1 by hitting on forward arrow (please be patient, as it takes time to load): (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/ hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook% 3D1%3Achapter%3D108%3Asection%3D1)

2/5 Darius and Persian Expansion, Road System and Satrapies Reading: Patrick Hunt, “Achaemenid Persian Griffin capital at Persepolis” Stanford Archaeolog (2008) (https://www.stanford.edu/dept/archaeology/cgi-bin/archaeolog/?p=225)

2/12 Alexander and Persia, Oxus Treasure, Behistun Stone Reading: Tom Holland, “Darius III: Alexander’s Stooge,” The Spectator 2/15 (http:// www.spectator.co.uk/2015/02/darius-iii-alexanders-stooge/)

*2/15 Saturday 1-3 pm: Museum Visit, Ancient Persia Gallery, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco

2/19 Parthian Culture and the city of Ctesiphon, Sasanian Persia: Seals and Silks Reading: Edith Porada, “The Art of Parthians”, Iran Chamber (http://www.iranchamber.com/art/ articles/art_of_parthians.php); Reading: Blair Fowlkes-Childs, “The Sasanian Empire 224-651 AD”, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY (http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/sass/hd_sass.htm)

2/26 Safavid Persia: Isfahan Monuments and Shahnameh Miniatures Reading: Rudi Matthee, “Safavid Dynasty 1501-1722” Encyclopaedia Iranica (2008) (http:// www.iranicaonline.org/articles/safavids)

3/4 Persian Carpets and Textiles Through History Reading: Lydia Pine, “An Object History of the Persian Carpet” JSTOR Daily 6/16/16 (http:// daily.jstor.org/object-history-persian-carpet/); Patrick Hunt, “Persian Paradise Gardens”, Electrum Magazine (http://www.electrummagazine.com/2011/07/paradise-gardens-of-persia-eden-and- beyond-as-chahar-bagh/)

Note: Instructor reserves right to amend schedule as needed.