During the Achaemenid empire (550–330 BCE), the provinces, known as satrapies, produced material culture that showcased a multicultural style. The satrapies’ artistic production followed local traditions along with the empire’s new artistic ideas. This lecture will seek to demonstrate how the new Achaemenid architectural and figurative language was created as part of the dynasty's agenda while local traditions in the satrapies continued. It will show how the adoption of elements of non-Persian origin in the art of the empire should not be seen, as previously thought, as a lack of creativity but rather as a skillful tool of governance. This will be achieved through a study of the site of Persepolis, which, after the recent discovery of the Gate of Tol-e Ajori, provides an example of the multiculturalism of the empire from Cyrus (550– 530 BCE) to Alexander (331–323 BCE).
Pierfrancesco Callieri is professor of ancient Iranian archaeology at the University of Bologna, Ravenna campus, Italy. Since 2005, he has been the Italian director of the joint Iranian-Italian Archaeological Mission working in Fars at the sites of Tang-e Bolaghi, Pasargadae (Tol-e Takht), and Persepolis West/Tol-e Ajori. His main interests focus on the archaeology of pre-Islamic Iran and Central Asia, from the Achaemenid to the Sasanian period, with special attention to the study of the encounters between Hellenism and the cultures of the Iranian and Indian worlds. Professor Callieri has conducted archaeological fieldwork on the North-West of the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent (1977–2001), Fars (southern Iran, 2005–2023), and Armenia (2024).
This lecture is generously supported by the Tina and Hamid Moghadam Fund.
Image: Relief Depicting Persian Guards and Tribute Procession, Persepolis, Apadana, North Side, West Wing of Ceremonial Stairway. Ernst Herzfeld Papers. FSA.A.06. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of Ernst Herzfeld, 1946.
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