Читать книгу A Companion to the Achaemenid Persian Empire, 2 Volume Set - Группа авторов - Страница 124

On these archeological remains, we are very poorly informed. We have an idea of several deities worshipped in this region from the contents of dozens of Persepolis tablets. They mention food to sanctuaries of Elamite, Babylonian, and Persian deities (Henkelman 2008). None of the corresponding places is known, but those places did exist, despite Herodotus I, 121 who had said that places of worship for the Persians were under the open sky.

Hypotheses have been put forward to recognize places of ritual ceremonies in some buildings of the Persepolis terrace, related to religion and/or to the dynastic cult, since the king is the intermediary between men and gods. This reinterpretation (Razmjou 2010: pp. 231–245) speculates that most buildings would be concerned, especially those called “palaces” by archeologists, given the representations of “offerings bearers,” who would be priests and servants bringing liquids and small animals for sacrifice. A single case of ritual seems convincing, near Darius' tačara. The western flight of stairs has been adapted to manage a small room containing a pool of 30 m² and a small canal. Such an installation is suitable for ritual libations or liquid offerings.

Places for funeral ceremonies must have existed near royal tombs like that of Cyrus at Pasargadae. This is suggested, for example, by Arrian, who mentions one horse per month as a sacrifice to Cyrus (Arr. VI, 29.4–7). No installation is visible near the tomb in this unexcavated area, which has been severely disturbed. Four tablets from the Persepolis Fortification Archive mention sacrifices near installations called šumar (probably meaning grave), one for Cambyses, perhaps near Niriz, 100 km east of Persepolis (Henkelman 2003), another for a certain Hystaspes, who may be identified with some probability with the father of Darius. The latter building may be recognized in the platform halfway between Persepolis and Naqsh‐i Rustam, but the only related building there is a columned hall. The sacred area of barely excavated Naqsh‐i Rustam remains unknown; the only candidate there for a religious or funeral building is the Ka’ba‐ye Zardosht. This stone tower erected in front of the cliff is an exact replica of the Zendan‐i Solaiman tower at Pasargadae. The assumptions on the function of the two towers, which contain a very small room without windows in the upper part, have been brilliantly disputed – tomb or shrine? – without decisive argument. A third attractive but rather vague hypothesis is that the tower of Naqsh‐i Rustam was erected by Darius for preserving the royal insignia (Sancisi‐Weerdenburg 1983).

The only known graves of this period are the freestanding monument of Cyrus at Pasargadae, the rock‐cut graves of Darius and his three successors carved into the 60 m high cliff at Naqsh‐i Rustam, and the tombs of Artaxerxes II and III overlooking the Persepolis terrace. A cemetery excavated by E.F. Schmidt north of Persepolis contained dozens of individual burials in pits or in clay coffins, but they are usually dated to the late or rather the post‐Achaemenid period. A unique grave was discovered in 2009 at the foot of the Persepolis terrace. A skeleton in a flexed position was put into a brick‐walled pit and covered by two courses of mudbricks. The few items accompanying the dead have not yet been published.

An Achaemenid tomb was found at Susa, dating from the fifth or the middle of the fourth century. A brick vault protected a bronze sarcophagus. It had preserved the skeleton surrounded by rich grave goods, including gold and bronze jewelry, and semiprecious stones for torque, bracelet, necklaces, earrings, a silver bowl, and two alabastra (Frank 2013). As in Persepolis, it is hardly understandable that this royal residence, which was occupied throughout the Achaemenid period, has not left traces of other graves. Mazdaism, a religion which recommends the exposure of the bodies to prey birds, does not suffice to explain the absence of elite or mundane graves. There is no evidence that this religion or the Zoroastrian reform reached these areas, not even the royal family, whose members are apparently buried and probably mummified; moreover, it is certain that the other contemporaneous religions requested different burying customs.