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An Introduction to the Archaeology of pre-islamic Iran and to its development Lezione I Whenever we talk about Iran it’s important to stress the fact that it is a universalistic belief that goes beyond differences in language, costumes, traditions and so on. Indeed, the people who share this belief are part of the umma, which in Arabic means community. Moreover, it’s important to consider the world both from the pre-islamic and the Islamic point of view. On the map we can see the Islamic Republic of Iran, which is a bridge between Western Eastern Asia. On the south there is the Persian Gulf and on the north the Caspian Sea. It’s hard to trace the borders of Iran and that is one of the biggest problems for archaeologist. Iran, known officially as the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a country located in the Middle East. With an area of an area of 1,648,195 km2 (636,372 sq mi), Iran is the 17th largest country in the world and the second largest in the Middle East after Saudi Arabia.

Iran shares a border with seven different countries: Afghanistan: 936 km (582 mi) Armenia: 35 km (22 mi) Azerbaijan (two separate borders): 432 km (268 mi) Iraq: 1,458 km (906 mi)

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Pakistan: 909 km (565 mi) Turkey: 499 km (310 mi) Turkmenistan: 992 km (616 mi)

It shares the longest border with Iraq and the shortest border with Armenia with just 22 kilometres. Iran also borders three bodies of water: the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman, and the Caspian Sea. Iran’s topography is very mountainous. The main mountain chain is the Zagros Mountains along its western side with peaks over 3,000 meters (9,843 feet) above sea level. Mount Damavand, part of the Elburz Mountains in northern Iran, is the country’s highest peak and Asia’s highest volcano with an elevation above sea level of 5,609.2 meters (18,403 feet). At the centre of Iran is the Central Plateau1 with two large salt deserts (Dasht-e Lut and Dasht-e Kavir) on its eastern section. They represent a barrier for communications and there’s no “material culture”. At the deltas of the Rud-e-Gaz and Rud-e-Hara rivers sits an important wetland for wintering waterbirds (Ramsar Convention site #75). Lake Urmia, an endorheic salt lake, is the largest body of water in Iran that once had a surface area of 5,200 square kilometres (2,000 square miles). Drought and water demands on the lake have shrunk it by 80%. Rains from the fall of 2018 and winter of 2019 have helped to increase the surface volume of the lake to 3,000 square square kilometres (1,200 square miles). Moreover, water is usually extracted from the soil in order to avoid the high elevation of the mountains and the incredibly hot climate. They were originally called “qanat”, that allowed the water not to evaporate. The climate is a continental one and therefore very difficult to live in. In order to, adapt, it has been necessary to create proper buildings in appropriate zones. One way was for example living underground or building with crude bricks, that preserve all the isolation characteristics of uncooked clay. Iran is also characterized by nomadism and semi-nomadism movements 2. The latter characterizes the Iranian Plateau. The geographical perspective is very important as Iran is characterized by a very peculiar landscape. Nowadays scientific methods have been applied to the studies of archaeology and helped in making huge steps forward in discovering early Iran. It is very important to recreate the context in order to place a testimony from the past in a specific geographic place, point in time, cultural frame. This is achieved through different disciplines, such as environmental reconstruction or stratigraphic research. Lezione II

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1 Iran Plateau or the Persian Plateau is a geological feature in Central Asia, South Asia and Western Asia. It is the part of the Eurasian Plate wedged between the Arabian and Indian plates, situated between the Zagros Mountains to the west, the Caspian Sea and the Kopet Dag to the north, the Armenian Highlands and the Caucasus Mountains in the northwest, the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf to the south and Indo-Gangetic Plain to the east Pakistan. 2 A member of a people living usually in portable or temporary dwellings and practicing seasonal migration but having a base camp at which some crops are cultivated.

Whenever we refer to the term Iran, we can either talk about the specific population that inhabited the Iranian Plateau, or refer to the “external Iran”, that is to say the much broader influence that the population had outside its country. Moreover, it’s important to stress that our perspective is strongly influenced by the Greek culture, from which the romans and therefore us adopted the entire way of living. Meaning that it’s pretty difficult for us to grasp some aspects of the cultural identity and peculiarities in the Iran context. This kind of point of view acted as a fuel in the creating of an antagonistic narrative between East and West, where the latter represents the light of democracy, while the former represents the violence of tyranny. IRON AGE III  800-550 BC ACHAEMENIDS  550-330 BC ALEXANDER  333- 323 BC SELEUCIDS  312- 250 BC ARSACIDS  247 BC – AD 224 SASANIANS  AD 224 - 651 The first issue we have to face is to ask ourselves which population inhabited the Iran Plateau before the Achaemenids. This is actually still an ongoing discussion between archaeologist and historians of Iran, as it’s pretty difficult to collect enough evidence to support one argument over another. The Iranian world was populated by people who spoke Iranian languages, which is a branch of the Indo-European languages.

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Iranian languages spoken nowadays are for example Persian (Farsi). These languages have histories and we know that on the Indo-Iranian Plateau there are not only Indo-European communities, but

also people that are called Elamites3, which are the only population pre-iranic that developed their own writing -there are other population that didn’t leave much documentation-. Starting from the beginning Iron Age III far the last phase before starting history. From an archaeological perspective actually Achaemenids represent Iron age IV.

PERIODIZATION:        

800 000 BC Palaeolithic 9600 BC Mesolithic 6000 BC  Neolithic 2200 BC  Bronze Age 800 BC  Iron Age 52 BC  Antiquity 500  Middle Ages 1453  End of Middle Ages

THE COEXISTENCE ISSUE  As we can see from the map, however, the Iranian Plateau was both inhabited by the pre-Iranian population of Elamites and by the Indo-European communities of Medes, Parthians and Persians. It’s very hard to understand how these very different populations found themselves sharing the same land as we have both east ad west documents that state different point of view. It’s therefore important to examine the historical context of the Iron Age and there are two main theories to which we can refer. 1. According to an historical point of view, during that period of time, in fact, Indo-European communities at the end of the Bronze Age came about and defeated the previous populations, starting what we now call the “Iron Age”. 2. Though largely diffused, nowadays the archaeological community shares more or less the belief that, even with migrations of populations, there was to a certain extent a coexistence of the two communities -as it is shown by the pottery evidences- . However, after coexisting, apparently the cities -populated by pre-Iranian communities entered in a crisis due to the lack of water that resulted in poorer and poorer agriculture and allowed the shepherds from the countryside to take over. This way the Turkish populations, such as

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3 Elam, Elamite Haltamti or Hatamti, Akkadian Elamtu, also called Susiana, ancient country in southwestern Iran approximately equivalent to the modern region of Khūzestān. Four prominent geographic names within Elam are mentioned in ancient sources: Awan, Anshan, Simash, and Susa. Susa was Elam’s capital, and in classical sources the name of the country is sometimes Susiana.

Medes, which were nomads -and therefore mainly shepherds, along with a tougher nature with an inclination to adjusting everywhere-. THE ELAMITES  In order to get a deeper look on the roots of the Iranian history is now important to delve in the description of the Elamites population. This population is very important because they used to write quite a lot and this documentation represent an exciting new source through which history has been studied again reshaping the past Greek point of view. (Greek sources paint the Iran Empire as un-democratic compared to Athens, but that’s not the whole story!) THE PERSIAN EMPIRE  Whenever we refer to the Persian Empire, we talk about the Achaemenid Empire, which was founded by Cyrus the Great around 559 BC and carried on by different dynasties until 331 BC, up to Alexander the Great -who’s considered the last sovereign of the Persian Empire, even if he’s Macedonian, by the most updated historiography-. Actually, there’s also a problem in the historiography around Alexander4, who represents a unicum and is either painted by the sources as a saint or a really bad guy. He conquers the Persian Empires but doesn’t incorporate it in the Macedonian Empire, on the contrary he proclaims himself as its heir. Indeed, the Persian Empire didn’t fall apart because of its fragility, but it had to bend in front of the greatness of Alexander. Taking a step back, we can analyse the first dynasty: 1. Cyrus II also called Cyrus the Great (558 – 530 BC): He is considered the first emperor of the Persian Empire and therefore the Achaemenids Empire. However, today he’s regarded not as a proper Achaemenid, but as a Teispid -which is the only relevant ancestor mentioned in the inscriptions-. Around 550 BC he defeats his maternal grandfather, who was the head of the Medes. Then he starts conquering territories such as Lydia -in Anatolia- around 545 BC. This is relevant as

Lydia was near to Greek’s colonies such as Mileto or Samo. He also conquers Babylon in 539 BC and frees the Jews captivated by the Babylonians, creating 2 4 Alexander the Great was an ancient Macedonian ruler and one of history's greatest military minds who, as King of Macedonia and Persia, established the largest empire the ancient world had ever seen

therefore a deep connection between Persians and Jews. At this point the Empire takes on many cultural influences by Mesopotamia. He dies fighting the nomads in central Asia in 530 BC. 2. Cambyses II (530 – 522 BC): He conquers Egypt. Both Greek and Persian sources however refer to the death of Cambyses II as a coup d’etat architected by Darius I. 3. Gaumata (522 BC) 4. Darius I (522 – 486 BC): Even though it’s difficult for us to understand whether he got the power by killing Cambyses II or not, the doubts are valid. However, he can be considered as the co-creator of the Persian Empire as he’s the one who bears the Achaemenid ancestor in his bloodline. He also instituted the satrapies, which was the province rules by the satrap. He’s usually appointed by the Emperor basing on a relationship of trust and had the role of representing the Emperor all over the Empire where the head of the power couldn’t be present everywhere. So, the satrap where invested with all the power of the emperor to the point where they dressed just like him and could even be mistaken by the people of the provinces. This genius political move not only benefited those who acquired the king-like power, but also the Emperor himself, who could in fact consistently extend his power all over the territories. He then proceeded in creating three administrative capitals:

 Susa – Elamites  Ecbatana – Medes  Babylon Persepolis was the ideological capital of the empire, but not the official capital on an administrative level. Of course, at Achaemenid time there is no concept of Persia -which is the Greek version of the way Achaemenids define themselves, which is ‘parsa’-, but there’s the concept of Airyanam, which takes in account the identity of Iranians. The organization that Darius gave to the Empire was impressive, as for examples in the postal exchange, which was extremely fast. [Some TMI in the lesson: Pierre Briant created Achaemenet; Wiesehofer wrote interesting stuff] 5. Xerxes I (486 – 465 BC): 6. Artaxerxes (465 – 424 BC): 7. Xerxes II (424 – 423 BC): 8. Darius II (423 – 404 BC): 9. Artaxerxes II (404 – 359): 10. Artaxerxes III (359 – 338 BC): 11. Arses (338 – 336 BC): 2

12. Darius III (336 – 330 BC):

13. Alexander the Great (333 – 323 BC) He conquered the Achaemenid Empire in a tricky way as he simply started from Babylon and then, together with his few but ferocious soldiers decided to push forward into the Persian Empire. The decisive Battle of Gaugamela on the 1st October 331 was fought and Alexander defeated Darius III. On one hand Darius III, King of Kings, didn’t fight, as he was above any of those activities, on the other hand Alexander was in the first line, leading with his example his soldiers. Furthermore, the Persian fled5 when he realised his defeat, gaining the adjective “coward” by the Greek literature. He was the son of Philipp II of Macedon, who conquered the rebellious cities in Greece and gave to his son a marvellous education. Indeed, Alexander had as his teacher Aristotle and Theofrastus and many more.

Furthermore, his education taught him that the Indian Ocean should’ve been just after India, but when he got to Punjab’s rivers6 his informers tell him that there’s still a great chuck of earth to cross (Indian) and his soldiers mutiny -even if he wanted to go on-. On the way back he becomes more and more Persianized as he killed Darius III and assumed the power of the Emperor, but the Macedonians wanted to destroy the Empire. The civil conflict is so tense that Alexander comes to the point of putting to death some of the people who opposed him in his project of an Empire both Eastern and Western. This is the greatest feature of Alexander. In order to accomplish his projects he marries two Persian women and also marries Seleucus with a Persian princess, Apama (also soldiers were obliged to marry Persian women). The idea was to birth a mixed generation with loyalty to him. He dies in 323 BC with the symptoms of arsenic poisoning and all the soldiers repudiate their Persian spouses, with the only exemption of Seleucus, who was one of the diadochi.

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5 Pagliaro talks about it and argues that Darius III fled not because of his cowardness, but because of his KHVARENAH, that is the divine power that makes him King of the Kings. Indeed, he must not be capture in order to not lose his khvarena. 6 Punjab is located in India on the border with Pakistan and is known as “the land of the five rivers”.

In the end, Seleucus gets the eastern part of the Empire and starts a new dynasty.

 SELEUCIDS  The Seleucid Dynasty governed onto Mesopotamia, Siria, Persia and Anatolia from 312 BC to 63 BC Seleucus’ son is Antiochus was clearly of mixed blood, so the Empire had mixed influences, even if it was Greek in culture. There is a great osmosis of the Greek culture in the Seleucid dynasty and also in the Arsacids, who are also nomads.

 ARSACIDS  Arsaces I was the first king of Parthia, as well as the founder and eponym of the Arsacid dynasty of Parthia, that lasted from 247 BC to 224 AD and actually managed to supplant the Seleucids. The most important sovereign was Mithridates I (170-140), who conquered the province on the border between Iran and Turkmenistan. By conquering the Mesopotamia territories and Seleucia on the Tigris7, Arsacids decide to leave Greeks alone. Indeed, in order to calm the Greeks, Mithridates decides to put on the coins “Philellen”, which means friend of Greeks. However, they don’t manage to conquer Fars or the Arsacids made a deal with them. We can point out two moments: 1. Arsacids bring forward a Greek century ideology from the III to the I BC 2. Arsacids re-evaluate their own traditions from the I to the III AD The last king in the Dynast of Fars was Ardashir, who in 224 uprises and decides to take Arsacid king’s place, becoming King of Kings. To declare war against a divine king is actually a blasphemy but Ardashir needed to justify his power, by telling that the defeated kingdom had become evil.

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7 Seleucia on the Tigris, Greek Seleukeia, Hellenistic city founded by Seleucus I Nicator (reigned 312–281 BC) as his eastern capital; it replaced Babylon as Mesopotamia’s leading city and was closely associated with the spread of Hellenistic culture in Mesopotamia.

This negative definition can also be found in the Zoroastrian religion, whose name comes from the Zarathustra prophet since Ardashir asked the alliance with the clergy, offering in exchange a path towards power.

 SASANIANS  The Sasanian, officially known as the Empire of Iranians, was the last Persian imperial dynasty before the arrival of Islam in the mid seventh century AD. It lasted from 224 to 651 AD succeeding the Parthian Empire and re establishing the Iranians as a superpower in late antiquity, alongside their rival Roman-Byzantine Empire. Moreover, the Sasanian created a bad publicity for the Arsacids in order to justify their command. Most recent historians explained that Arsacids are a dynamic and nomadic population coming from north east of Iran and therefore who belonged to the territory, on the contrary of what the Sasanians publicized. Sasanian Empire History can be divided in three parts: 1. EARLY SASANIAN PERIOD (3rd and 4th century)  In this period is somehow possible to individuate a slow change, that can’t be in any way regarded as a clear turning point. In this period Shapur I defeated three Roman Emperors and Shapur II rebuffed the attack of Julian the Apostate. 2. MIDDLE SASANIAN PERIOD (5th century)  This is a period of weakness because Peroz was defeated by Hephthalites, who imposed a tribute to Persia. Moreover, there also was a period of famine and environmental problems. Mazdak, who was a preacher, wanted to impose communism and wanted to put in common women. He was supported by the sovereign because he saw an opportunity to get rid of the aristocracy. Mazdak was then poisoned. 3. LATE SASANIAN PERIOD (6th and 7th century)  The King, Khosraw I, had the possibility then to do big reforms on the tax system because in the old system farmers had to wait to harvest until approved which resulted in mass spoilings of crops. Plots of land were taxed with a fixed amount, rather than by their specific yields. This made a state budget possible. The second reform was the introduction of a new class of nobles, who were receiving land in exchange of the participation in the army. Under Khosraw II there was maximus expansion. The armies conquered Siria, Palestine, Egypt and almost reached the extension of the Achaemenid empire. He was killed by his own son and then there was an impressive alternation of sovereigns, trying to find back a unity. Two women were also appointed as queens but the empire desegregate. Khosraw II eliminated the baffled buffer kingdoms between Mesopotamia and the Arab Peninsula: Lakhmids -with the sasanids- and Ghassanids -with the byzantine-. The Arab conquered Mesopotamia in 639, when the Sasanian Emperor was defeated. -Yazdegrad III the last king was killed-. Also a fast conversion happened and Zoroastrianism converts to Islam. This is due to the fact that Islam decided to put a tax on all Zoroastrians. Islam replaces Zoroastrianism with a more egalitarian culture. 2

Lezione III

ARCHAEOLOGIST AT THE SITE OF SUSA A turning point in the history of archaeology is for sure the use of a stratigraphic method, which started at the beginning of the second world war, so around the 40s. Sir Mortimer Wheeler was a British archaeologist who wrote some books where he provided an explanation of the methodology. Another British archaeologist, Harris, perfected it without changing the basic concept. When we dig fro...