The Idea of Iran: From Khorasan to the Eurphrates

The Iranian Revival in the Parthian Period

Dr Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis, Curator of Ancient Coins, the British Museum, and Secretary of the British Institute of Persian Studies

The Arsacid Parthians, who were Iranian nomads from the northeast of the Caspian Sea, entered the political arena around the middle of the third century BC and remained in power for over four hundred years. They succeeded in bringing together the artistic traditions of Achaemenid Persia, the ancient Near East and their own nomadic background. At the same time they adopted Hellenistic styles and artistic motifs. Some of the most important features of Sasanian and Islamic art, e.g. the eyvan, and stucco decoration, have their origin in Parthian art.

Gondophares and the Indo-Parthians

Professor David Bivar, Professorial Research Associate, Department of Art and Archaeology, SOAS

The Indo-Parthian kingdom came into being from the special status of the Parthian Suren family, the premier lineage of the six noble houses of the Arsacid state. At the enthronement of the first Arsaces, about 238 BC, this family placed the royal tiara on the king’s head, a function thereafter exercised by his descendants. The head of the house also acted as commander-in-chief of the royal armies. In c. 130 BC the nomad tribes of the Sacaraucae (‘Itinerant Sacae’), displaced from modern Kazakhstan by the arrival of the Tocharians, collided with the Parthian eastern frontier, and in 128 BC destroyed a Parthian army, killing the king, Phraates II. The greatest of the Indo-Parthian kings was Gondophares, reigning from AD 19 to AD 45, and celebrated for his encounter with the Christian apostle Thomas.

The Fascinating Foe: Images of the Orient in Imperial Rome

Professor Rolf Michael Schneider, Professor of Classical Archaeology, Ludwig-Maximilians University

The perception of each visual culture is defined by two different sets of images: one set is shaped within the culture itself whereas the other is forged outside its boundaries. The most dominant culture outside Parthia in the Mediterranean world was Rome. She produced powerful images of Orientalism based on earlier Greek models and articulated by specific Roman needs. From the time of Augustus onwards in the visual narratives of Rome, no other non-Roman was so omnipresent as the (Pathian) Oriental. This lecture approaches the Roman imagery of the Parthians as a crucial medium representing central western views on the cultures of the East. The imagery of Rome reflects more than any other ancient medium the complexity which shaped Roman perceptions of the Parthian Other – and occidental preoccupations with the Orient down to our present day.

Parthia and China: A Historical and Archaeological Investigation

Dr Wang Tao, Senior Lecturer in Chinese Archaeology, SOAS, and the Institute of Archaeology, University College London

The Parthian empire was the most dominant power in Central Asia between the third century BC and the third century AD. During this time China had also seen its own course of empire building. Both empires contributed to the opening of the ‘Silk Road’ and ambassadors and envoys were sent from one empire to the other. Numerous accounts of the remains have been cited in the previous studies of the cultural exchanges between China and the Parthians. Does this mean we should question the written records? Or have we missed obvious archaeological evidence perhaps owing to a lack of unerstanding? This paper aims to highlight the historical information in the Chinese records, to discuss its significance in the cultural history of ancient Iran, as well as China, and to re-examine recent archaeological finds.

Fars under the Seleucids and the Parthians

Professor Josef Wiesenhöfer, Professor of Ancient History, University of Kiel

Until recently, the history of Persis (Parsa/Fars) under the Seleucids and the Parthians was one of the least known subjects of Ancient History. Consequently, the ‘dynasts’ (Frataraka) and ‘kings’ who governed the former Achaemenid heartland after Alexander’s conquest, were mostly considered stakeholders of an anti-Hellenistic or anti-Arsacid spirit. Today, we know that the Frataraka started as sub-Seleucid dynasts at the beginning of the second century BC, and we have a better idea of their relationship with their overlords, their predecessors and other historical background. We are only recently able to understand the specific role of this sub dynasty in the pre-Sasanian political history of Fars. The lecture aims to shed light on the dark ages of Fars between c. 323 BC and AD 224.

The Videvdad: Its Ritual-Mythical Significance

Professor Prods Oktor Skjærvø, Aga Khan Professor of Iranian Studies, Harvard University

The Videvdad is an Avestan text recited in ceremonies of purification. The myths that structure the text go from Ahura Mazda’s creation of the ordered world, via the original relapse into chaos caused by the imperfections introduced by the Evil Spirit, to the final healing of the world. This muth is the common Zoroastrian one, which also underlies the Yasna, of the rebirth of the sun and the ordered cosmos from chaos by the removal of the forces of darkness. I shall discuss various aspects of the text:

• Its age and transmission. It is not a ‘post-Achaemenid composition’.
• The place of the text in the purification ritual and the ‘Videvdad Sade’.
• Its structure.