TEHRAN -- To many historians, ancient Persian art is still a mystery to unravel. It developed and evolved at a crossroads of ancient civilizations and cultures.  

The land we call Iran today was on a highway connecting Africa to the Indian subcontinent and beyond from very early times. Modern man also crossed Iran to get to the plains of Central Asia. Those who settled in what is present-day Iran left their artistic mark in the caves of the west of Iran and the formidable Zagros range settlements in the shape of early tools and petroglyphs.

Some of these ancient peoples formed early civilizations in ancient Iran that were parallel to those of Mesopotamia in power and culture. These early civilizations soon produced art that was compatible with that of Mesopotamia and Egypt. The art produced was on par with art forms anywhere in the ancient world. With an abundance of sites existing across northeastern, northern, and northwestern Iran, Bronze Age Elam dominated the scene in southwestern and southern parts of Iran.

 

The Elamites

The Elamites were the indigenous people of the Iranian plateau who had surpassed other rivals in some art forms. They excelled in metallurgy and pottery as well as embroidery and glazing. 

In Art history, a life-size bronze statue of the Elamite Queen Naparisha, as well as a tremendous number of data-x-items were recovered from excavations carried out in Elamite cities such as Susa. Some of these include pendants offered to the Elamite God Inshushinak, found in the rubble beneath the deity’s temple dating from the 12th century BC. Yet, the already exquisite art forms of the Elamites were to be advanced upon with the arrival of a migrant race of people infusing their art form and interacting with neighboring regional powers.

The Indo-Europeans began to arrive on the Iranian plateau in multiple influxes from the 3rd millennium BC with the 2nd millennium B.C influx being the most major one. Tappeh Sialk, a much earlier settlement, can perhaps serve as their most acclaimed early settlements of the central plateau with artifacts as elaborate as the bridge-spouted vessels of the early 1st millennium BC. These artifacts resemble birds and the spouts were also drawn out dramatically to resemble bird beaks.

The remains of metal-smelting furnaces at the site and pottery workshops testify to the artistic taste of these long-forgotten people. The necropolis or Sialk VI was where a large number of great undamaged artifacts were retrieved. Sialk comprises two mounds; the northern and the southern. Pottery shards still litter both mound surfaces. The level of craftsmanship in both mounds is significant and the existence of painted pottery dating back to much earlier periods is abundant. A continuation of artistic talent persisted throughout those distant periods. Ancient Persian art traditions had not yet flourish, but with the arrival of the Indo-Europeans, ancient Persian Art was only around the corner.

 

Luristan Art 

Luristan is famous for its late 2nd-millennium early 1st-millennium art which includes a great variety of funerary data-x-items including axe-heads, mace-heads, and women’s hairpins. Horse bits with amazing cheek-pieces and horse harness ornaments were also common. The archeologists obtained these data-x-items mainly from necropolises that flanked springs where skeletons of horses lied. This indicates that there was a belief in the afterlife. Standards, as well as effigies of deities, have also been found in the same graves. Mesopotamian deities such as Sin, the moon God of the Mesopotamians, and Shamash, their Sun God are often depicted on such artifacts.

 

The Caspian Region

In the southwest of the Caspian Sea, sits the 1st millennium B.C site of Marlik, which once enjoyed an advanced civilization producing artful pieces of golden, silver, and bronze artifacts that included various vessels as well as weapons of war, and ceramics which demonstrated high levels of ancient technology. Polished ceramics, Bulls on wheels, and hunched-back bulls indicate a rich pastoral mode of life. Job division had long existed and the quality of the art attests to that. The high levels of precipitation in the region ensured a prosperous agrarian existence which allowed artistic expenditure.

 

Merging Artistic traditions

In the 8th century B.C, a fusion of a number of different cultures such as Urartian, Median, and Assyrian art cultures combined. They produced art forms sometimes attributed to Mannaeans, who lived south of Lake Urmia, in northwestern Iran and were sometimes allied with the Assyrians. Amongst some of the better-known sites identified with the Mannaeans are Ziwiyeh near the town of Saqqiz where in 1947, ivory, gold, and bronze objects came to light. They probably fell to an invasion by the Scythians, whose early artwork resembles Mannaean artifacts. Scythians, a people of the steppes of central and northwestern Asia, were themselves artistic in nature. They soon incorporated Urartian art, as well as other cultures they encountered.

 

Median Period

The Medes first appear on the historic scene as the Amadai in Annals of the Assyrian king, Shalmaneser III in 836 B.C together with the Persians (Parsuas).

The Median king, Cyaxares, sacked the Assyrian capital, Nineveh in 612 B.C .The Medes  have left us architectural feats artwork such as their magnificent capital, the legendary Ecbatana mentioned by Herodotus.

 

Achaemenian Period

The Achaemenid period is perhaps the first great era of ancient Persian art of the historic period. Firstly, the Medes, the overlords of western Asia after their decisive victory over the mighty Assyrians inherited the great artistic heritage of the various peoples of their empire. Subsequently, the Persians inherited the artistic wealth and tradition of these earlier civilizations.

The Achaemenids incorporated an international and eclectic approach in their art and architecture, culminating in the magnificent palaces of Pasargadae and Persepolis where ancient Persian art has borrowed from Mesopotamian art and architecture. Although some Egyptian ideas were explored, ancient Persian art and architecture is for the most part Persian & Elamite in origin.

 

Persian Art of Achaemenids

The architectural Persian art carries a unique signature that is overwhelmingly Persian even if all the elements were not. The architects made use of the best of everything available to them, which is a trait found only in true empire builders. Persepolis was a place of peace, not violence, where delegates and noblemen stood graciously in harmony. This was the true spirit of the Persians, which one also finds on the Cylinder Seal of Cyrus the Great. Where the ancient world disregarded tolerance of different ideas, the Persians embraced this virtue in their art and architecture.