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The
magnificent ruins of Persepolis lie at the foot
of Kuh-i-Rahmat, or "Mountain of Mercy,"
in the plain of Marv Dasht about 400 miles south
of the present capital city of Teheran.
The
exact date of the founding of Persepolis is not
known. It is assumed that Darius I began work
on the platform and its structures between 518
and 516 B.C., visualizing Persepolis as a show
place and the seat of his vast Achaemenian Empire.
He proudly proclaimed his achievement; there is
an excavated foundation inscription that reads,
"And Ahuramazda was of such a mind, together
with all the other gods, that this fortress (should)
be built. And (so) I built it. And
I built it secure and beautiful and adequate,
just as I was intending to."1 But the security
and splendor of Persepolis lasted only two centuries.
Its
majestic audience halls and residential palaces
perished in flames when Alexander conquered
and looted Persepolis in 330 B.C. and, according
to Plutarch, carried away its treasures on 20,000
mules and 5,000 camels rom the time of its barbaric
destruction until A.D. 1620, when its site was
first identified, Persepolis lay buried under
its own ruins. During the following centuries
many people traveled to and described Persepolis
and the ruins of its Achaemenid palaces. Many
of their observations were later condensed and
published by George N. Curzon in Persia and the
Persian Question (London and New York, 1892).
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But
scholarly and scientifically planned work was
not undertaken until 1931. Then Ernst Herzfeld,
at that time Professor of Oriental Archaeology
in Berlin, was commissioned by James H. Breasted,
Director of the Oriental Institute of the University
of Chicago, to undertake a thorough exploration,
excavation and, if possible, restoration of the
remains of Persepolis. Thus, Herzfeld, in 1931
became the first field director of the Oriental
Institute's Persepolis Expeditions.In 1931-34,
assisted by his architect, Fritz Krefter, he uncovered
on the Persepolis Terrace the beautiful Eastern
Stairway of the Apadana and the small stairs of
the Council Hall. |
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He
also excavated the Harem of Xerxes. When Herzfeld
left in 1934, Erich F. Schmidt took charge. He
continued the large-scale excavations of the Persepolis
complex and its environs until the end of 1939,
when the onset of the war in Europe put an end
to his archaeological work in Iran. During the
last years of excavating, the University Museum
in Philadelphia and the Museum of Fine Arts in
Boston had joined the Oriental Institute in order
to cope with the tremendous work at hand |
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