A Companion to the Achaemenid Persian Empire, 2 Volume Set. Группа авторов. Читать онлайн. Newlib. NEWLIB.NET

Автор: Группа авторов
Издательство: John Wiley & Sons Limited
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Жанр произведения: История
Год издания: 0
isbn: 9781119071655
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Photo depicts the plan of Pasargadae.

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

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

Photo depicts 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 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