Posted on 09/17/2005 4:48:03 PM PDT by F14 Pilot
An early reference to Alexander of Macedon is the first hint of where the British Museum is heading in its new exhibition, "Forgotten Empire: The World of Ancient Persia." After all, to Persians then and Iranians now, there was nothing great about the Alexander who crushed the largest empire the world had yet known. Indeed, his burning of Persepolis in 331 B.C. was considered an act of vandalism.
But the show, which runs through Jan. 8, goes further, challenging the version of history that ancient Greece, starting with Herodotus, bequeathed to the West. Put simply, in that version Greece heroically resisted the marauding barbarians from the east during the Persian wars of 490 B.C. to 479 B.C. Then, by defeating the Achaemenid empire, as it was also known, the "West" scored its first important victory over the "East."
It is this victors' account, then, that the British Museum has set out to "correct." By presenting some 450 ancient objects, from stone reliefs and lapis lazuli heads to gold statuettes and jewelry, it aims to blur the political fault lines that have long separated East and West and give ancient Persia its proper place - between Assyria and Babylon on the one hand and Greece and Rome on the other - in the chronology of early civilizations.
In that sense, "Forgotten Empire" is also highly topical.
In a foreword to its catalog, Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, wrote that "the exhibition clearly gives the lie to the common Western perception that the Achaemenid empire was a nest of despotism and tyranny that was swept away by Alexander."
John Curtis, the show's curator and keeper of the museum's ancient Near East department, added in a statement: "It may also be important at this time of difficult East-West relations to remind people in the West of the remarkable cultural legacy of a country like Iran."
As it happens, although four years in the making, the show has coincided with current wrestling between the West and Iran over Tehran's nuclear development program. There were even fears that Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, might block the loan of 80 objects from the National Museum of Iran and the Persepolis Museum. In the end, Iran's participation in "Forgotten Empire" was approved.
Yet the politics of this show run still deeper. If the exhibition leans heavily on the collections of the British Museum and the Louvre, it is because European archaeologists played a central role in unearthing the remains of ancient Persia in the late 19th century. From the 1920's on, Iran's Pahlavi dynasty mobilized this past for its own glory, climaxing with the Shah of Iran's extravagant celebration of 2,500 years of Persian monarchy in 1971.
Now Mohammad-Reza Kargar, director of the National Museum of Iran, has also chosen to emphasize continuity. Writing in the catalog, he noted: "The traditional civilization, art and culture of Iran, despite contacts with other cultures throughout the centuries, has not lost its characteristic features and has continued to keep its own identity."
Still, in peering into the past, this show dwells on the period between 550 B.C. and 330 B.C., when, starting with Cyrus the Great, followed by Darius and Xerxes, the Persian empire was built, flourished and was defeated. Inevitably, its influence continued to be felt long after, but the works displayed here - squeezed somewhat uncomfortably into a small temporary exhibition space - date from its brief era of glory.
The opening object, a gray granite statue of Darius (its head and shoulders are missing), sets the tone. This was an empire that exuded self-confidence. Its military might led it to dominate an area from today's Libya to Central Asia, from the Aral Sea to the Persian Gulf. It constructed roads into Central Asia and a canal linking the Nile and the Red Sea. And it built cities - Susa and Pasargadae as well as Persepolis - that matched its sense of destiny.
Their grandeur is apparent from both late-19th-century casts of reliefs on temple walls (now said to be in better condition than the originals), ornate stone slabs depicting priests, servants and tributaries, and multicolored glazed bricks showing guards. There are magnificent stone heads, kneeling bulls back to back and a large mastiff in polished black limestone. The Persians also worked with bronze; one stunning object depicts three prowling lions, conjoined.
Many smaller pieces underline the wealth of the empire's rulers. Silver bowls are embossed with animal and flower designs, but there are also bowls made of bronze and glass. Gold and silver horn-shaped containers, or rhytons, carry figures of lions and griffins; a delicate leaping ibex serves as the handle for some vases.
Gold was evidently in good supply: the show includes numerous gold bracelets and armlets, many showing animal heads, and charming miniature chariots and horses. Votive plaques, with images of men in Persian dress stamped on small sheets of gold, are thought to have religious significance. These, as well as votive statuettes in gold, form part of the Oxus Treasure, the most important gold and silver collection linked to the Achaemenid era yet.
The ancient Persians were, of course, literate, with cuneiform script found on many objects, including plaques and coins. The text on a clay tablet describing the construction of Darius's palace at Susa opens with due pomp: "Saith Darius the king: Ahuramazda, the greatest of the gods - he created me; he made me king; he bestowed upon me this kingdom, great, possessed of good horses, possessed of good men."
But the premise of this show - that the ancient Persians were not tyrants - rests most firmly on the Cyrus Cylinder. A stone cylinder covered with cuneiform writing, it describes Cyrus's conquest of Babylon in 539 B.C. and his order that all religious cults be tolerated and that deported peoples be freed. According to the Book of Ezra, this included the captive Jews in Babylon who were allowed to return to Jerusalem.
There is, though, another twist to the title, "Forgotten Empire." The Greeks may have given ancient Persia something of a raw deal, but its empire is a great deal more forgotten today than a generation or two ago when the study of ancient Greek and Latin classics was considered essential to a good education. Now, it seems, it is left to museums to fill in the gaps. In that sense, at least, the British Museum has lived up to its mandate: to enlighten.
ping
The way I've been taught is that Alexander saw himself as the heir to Darius III, and therefore a Great King of Persia himself. He was the new Ruler of Asia, not its destroyer. He enjoyed far more power in Persia than he ever did back in Greece. As for his burning of Persepolis, sources indicate that this was undertaken in a drunken stupor (Alex was drunk often) and remained one of his deepest regrets.
Shortly we will hear from the crowd that's still a little irritated that the Persians sent the Jews back to Jerusalem where, over a course of centuries, they could provide the foundation for the new religion of Christianity that subverted the Roman empire.
Rather an odd association in defense of benevolent, non-tyrannical conquest.
U.S.A.: Chicago - Sculptor Donato Bastiani working on the restoration of the colossal bull's head in the Iranian Hall of the Oriental Institute Museum. Photograph ca. 1939.
By Robert Graves
Truth-loving Persians do not dwell upon
The trivial skirmish fought near Marathon.
As for the Greek theatrical tradition
Which represents that summer's expedition
Not as a mere reconnaissance in force
By three brigades of foot and one of horse
(Their left flank covered by some obsolete
Light craft detached from the main Persian fleet)
But as a grandiose, ill-starred attempt
To conquer Greence -- they treat it with contempt;
And only incidentally refute
Major Greek claims, by stressing what repute
The Persian monarch and the Persian nation
Won by this salutary demonstration:
Despite a strong defence and adverse weather
All arms combined magnificently together.
The Persians are just upset that Oliver Stone's going around saying they were overthrown by a gay guy.
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