Читать книгу A Companion to the Achaemenid Persian Empire, 2 Volume Set - Группа авторов - Страница 119

Cyrus chose Pasargadae as his royal residence in Persia probably soon after his accession to power before 550. The main part of the site is organized and built in order to make visible the king's power. Located in an intermountain plain at 1850 m above sea level, Pasargadae benefits from permanent water resources in a rather mild climate in summer. The archeological site covers 300 ha. The known residential area (Figure 15.1) covers some 100 ha, in which a half‐dozen stone buildings are scattered. The most famous monument, isolated in the southwest, is universally recognized as the tomb of Cyrus (Figure 87.1). This is a free‐standing structure made of ashlar masonry, with large blocks carefully fitted and bound by iron clamps embedded in lead. It is house‐like (6.40 × 5.35 m) with a gabled roof, resting on a plinth of six tiered steps (13.35 × 12.30 m on the ground). The inner burial chamber, which Alexander visited twice, intact in 330 and plundered in 327, measures 3.17 × 2.11 m and is 2.11 m high (Stronach 1978: pp. 24–43).

Figure 15.1 Plan of Pasargadae.

Source: Reproduced by permission of the Joint Iran–France Mission at Pasargadae.

At 1300 m northeast there are two rectangular columned halls with respectively four and two pillared porticoes, and two small pavilions with columns (Figure 15.2). Beyond a bridge crossing the stream, a monumental gateway is also a pillared rectangular hall. In the opposite direction, a 14 m high tower (Figure 15.3) has been interpreted as a grave or a temple, which are unlike functions, given the very small size of the inner chamber placed in the upper part of the building without windows. According to a unique source (Plut. Artax. III, 1–2), to be cautiously dealt with (Binder 2010), this tower could have been the place of dynastic ceremonies, such as the coronation of the new king (Sancisi‐Weerdenburg 1983). Northeast of these stone buildings, the 30 m high natural hill is crowned by a large platform, called Takht‐i Solaiman, 14 m high, made of huge stone blocks carefully dressed and bound by clamps. It was probably planned to be the seat of Cyrus' residence. This project was given up and replaced under Darius I by a mudbrick defense wall and series of rooms (Stronach 1978: pp. 11–23).

Figure 15.2 Pasargadae, aerial view of Palace P.

Source: Reproduced by permission of the Joint Iran–France Mission at Pasargadae; photography B.N. Chagny.

Figure 15.3 Pasargadae, aerial view with Palace P and Zendan‐e Sulaiman.

Source: Reproduced by permission of the Joint Iran–France Mission at Pasargadae; photography B.N. Chagny.

The ashlar masonry is a new technique in southwest Iran. After his conquest of Asia Minor, Cyrus imported from Ionia and Lydia craftsmen, architects, and sculptors, who realized an architecture strongly influenced by art and techniques of these regions (stone cutting techniques, bases and column shafts, floors). These techniques are implemented in hypostyle halls which are, for the first time in Iran, equipped with stone column bases made of two square plinths supporting a torus, and in the two main buildings, with columns made of stone shafts, which replace the wooden poles known before in the northwest and west (Nylander 1970; Stronach 1978; Boardman 2000). The plan of these buildings is a Persian creation, especially the hypostyle hall. Architecture and decoration also incorporate elements from Mesopotamia. Representations of animals and monsters on bas‐reliefs and sculpture flanking the gates in Assyrian sculpture are also used at Pasargadae, perhaps at the main doorways of Gate R, but certainly on top of the columns of this building in the shape of double protomae which formed part of the capitals. The gatehouse, a hall with two rows of four columns – also a Persian innovation – shows a remarkable bas‐relief forming the jamb of a side entrance: a man (Cyrus or a genius?) wearing an Elamite dress with an Assyrian double pair of wings wearing an Egyptian crown (Figure 94.1). This relief intends to show the diversity of the empire, and this policy, born at Pasargadae, will find its grandiose representations in the sculpture of Persepolis and the architecture of that site, and in Susa as Darius made known in several inscriptions.

The whole flat area of the site from the tomb to the hill is crossed by an artificial stream derived from the river Pulvar. This surface of c. 100 ha is now interpreted as a park, a “paradise” (Greek paradeisos), a term of Old Persian origin (*paridaida) and a Persian invention that the Greek authors admired in various places of the empire, but not in Pasargadae, which was unknown to them until Alexander's conquest (Boucharlat 2011). According to their testimonies the Persian paradise is a place with vegetation, of very variable dimensions, and various functions, such as orchards or gardens, or for recreation or crop production (garden, orchard, hunting park, zoos) (Tuplin 1996: pp. 80–131). At Pasargadae, the British and later Iranian excavations have revealed in the central part of the park a place very precisely planned by stone water‐courses forming a rectangle of 250 × 150 m (the south side is lacking); they are surrounded on three sides by another series of stone canals. A square basin (0.90 m a side and 0.50 m deep) is set at a regular distance of 14 m. The upper part has partly preserved the slot of a sluice aiming to regulate the water flow and allowing dipping for irrigation. Beyond this central garden, series of parallel or perpendicular anomalies detected by geomagnetic survey likely correspond to a network of fences and ditches organizing the space and made for distributing water in the park (Benech et al. 2012). As a matter of fact, the Greek authors (Str. XV 3.7; Arr. VI 29.4–9) actually mention a “paradise” around the tomb of Cyrus, but they do not specify its extension. They quoted the “eye witnesses,” Alexander's companions, who may not have visited the whole site.

Beyond Tall‐i Takht‐i Solaiman hill, geomagnetic surveys have recently recognized a series of large, regularly oriented buildings partly covering the 20 ha of the depression which was protected by a mudbrick rempart. The function of these buildings, up to 40 m long, remains to be established: were they for housing workers, the administration, or the guard? And which date?

The surface reconnaissance and rescue excavations in the surroundings of Pasargadae between 1999 and 2009 revealed that Cyrus' project for his residence greatly exceeded the limits of the site with a development within a radius of over 20 km. Upstream, several dams were built across the Pulvar river and its tributaries. These dykes, measuring several hundred meters long, are made of earth reinforced with unhewn stones. Two of them located at 2000 m above sea level show a sophisticated control device consisting of a wide conduit over 1 m high, divided into six small channels that can be closed by sluices. This technology is perhaps borrowed from Assyria or Urartu, but developed with Lydian‐Ionian stone techniques, very similar to the monuments of Pasargadae (2 m long blocks joined by the anathyrosis technique and carefully polished on the visible faces; use of iron clamps). These dams were not used to irrigate the restricted surface nearby but were primarily intended to regulate the flow of the river, especially during the flash floods which may happen in winter and spring. At the same time, they might have retained water for summertime.

The aforementioned other function was performed by the canals, which to the south of the tomb of Cyrus run on both sides of the Pulvar river, extending respectively over 10 km and 17 km. They are partly cut into the rock in the narrowing of the valley, partly built on an earth and stone levee. These canals were managed for irrigating the wider part of the valley downstream (9 × 3 km). On the left bank, the canal supplied water to a small residence, a multiroom pavilion with two opposite porticoes. In the valley, several farms, a village, and an area protected by an enclosure were excavated in 2005–2007 by an international project on behalf of the Persepolis Pasargadae Research Foundation (Boucharlat et al. 2009). These varied structures reflect the development of this region in the Achaemenid period and give an idea of the agricultural activities, echoing pieces of information provided by the inscribed clay tablets of Persepolis.