BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Arthur M. Sackler Gallery -- Exhibit: Heart of an Empire: Herzfeld's Discovery of Pasargadae

DC -- Arthur M. Sackler Gallery -- Exhibit: Heart of an Empire: Herzfeld's Discovery of Pasargadae:

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Description of Pictures: Heart of an Empire: Herzfeld's Discovery of Pasargadae
February 13, 2016 – July 31, 2016
Located in the dasht-i murghab, or “plain of the water bird,” in southwestern Iran, Pasargadae was the first capital of the ancient Achaemenid Persian Empire (circa 540 BCE) and the last resting place of Cyrus the Great. Impressed with its ruins, German archaeologist Ernst Herzfeld (1879–1948) briefly surveyed the site for the first time in 1905. Having completed his PhD thesis on Pasargadae in 1907, he returned in 1923 and 1928 to conduct more extensive excavations. The result was the first map of the site and the identification of its major extant structures. Featuring selections from the Freer|Sackler Archives’ rich holdings of Herzfeld’s drawings, notes, and photographs—among the world’s largest collections of archival materials on Pasargadae—this exhibition illuminates one of the most important sites of the ancient world.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. HEART_160222_001.JPG: Heart of an Empire: Herzfeld's Discovery of Pasargadae "I am Cyrus, son of Cambyses, who founded the Persian Empire and was King of Asia. Grudge me not this monument." According to the Greek historian Strabo (circa 64 BCE–21 CE), these words were inscribed on the tomb of Cyrus the Great, founder of the Achaemenid Empire of Iran (reigned 550–530 BCE). Before his untimely death, Cyrus laid the foundation of the ancient world's first empire in his birthplace, Anshan (Parsa), in southwestern Iran. He had overthrown the Medes, a kingdom in northwestern Iran, and had captured Sardis, the capital of the Lydian kingdom in Anatolia. In 539 BCE, Cyrus conquered Babylon and allowed the Jewish community to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the second temple. At the same time, he chose Pasargadae as the heart of his multilingual, multifaith empire and transformed it into a magnificent symbol of Achaemenid power. The site also became Cyrus's final resting-place. Located in the fertile plain known as the dasht-i murghab, or "plain of the water bird," Pasargadae comprised palaces, gardens, pavilions, and a number of structures with not-yet-identified functions. Although several classical Greek authors mention Pasargadae, the site gradually fell into neglect after the fall of the Achaemenid Empire in 330 CE and was largely forgotten in favor of nearby Persepolis, built by Darius I (522–486 BCE). In the early thirteenth century, materials from the palace grounds were used to transform Cyrus's mausoleum into a mosque. Western travelers to the site after the fifteenth century referred to the structure as a woman's burial place using its local designation, "Tomb of the Mother of Solomon." Although some scholars suggested the tomb might be Cyrus's, it was not until 1908 that the German archaeologist Ernst Herzfeld (1879–1948) devoted his dissertation to Pasargadae and proved conclusively that it was the royal capital of the Achaemenid Empire. This exhibition focuses on Herzfeld's discovery of Pasargadae and explores his meticulous work to restore the site's historical and archaeological importance. Heart of an Empire is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Rolf G. Scherman (1928-2015).
2. HEART_160222_006.JPG: The First Map Herzfeld's survey of Pasargadae produced the first map of the site, which Krefter drew up. It accurately records the topography of the palace grounds. In addition, the map illustrates how the Achaemenids carefully calculated their buildings' locations to take full advantage of available water for the gardens. Excavation of Pasargadae: General plan of the ruins Friedrich Krefter, 1928
3. HEART_160222_020.JPG: Plain of the Water Bird Throughout his career, Herzfeld kept a large supply of narrow sketchbooks for recording images, texts, and measurements in the field. Herzfeld apparently lent Sketchbook 10 to his talented assistant Friedrich Krefter during the 1928 survey. Although tasked with recording artifacts and monuments, Krefter seems to have taken a break to sketch panoramic landscapes of the site. Krefter's skillful drawing of dasht-i-murghab elegants depicts the enormity of the landscape on which the ancient capital was built. These drawings, together with the panoramas, helped Herzfeld situate Pasargadae's original structures and capture their relationship to the environment.
4. HEART_160222_038.JPG: Ernst Herzfeld, Archaeologist A foremost scholar in the field of Iranian studies, Ernst Herzfled (1879-1948) explored Near Eastern archaeology from the prehistoric period to Islamic times, devoting much of his scholarship to the Achaemenid period. Born in Celle, Germany, Herzfeld studied architecture at the University of Munich, and Assyriology and art history at Berlin's Friedrich-Wilhelm University. In 1905, he made a preliminary survey of Pasargadae; this led to his 1908 doctoral dissertation, which unequivocally confirmed the site as the capital of Cyrus the Great. Herzfield briefly returned to Pasargadae in 1923 and, in 1928, spent about four weeks surveying and excavating the monuments. Accompanied only by his drafter Friedrich Krefter (1898-1995) and a cook, Herzfeld compiled an astonishing volume of notes, measurements, photographs, drawings, and other data. Together, Herzfeld and Krefter developed the first scientific survey of the site and identified its major surviving structures. To this day, Herzfeld's published findings remain critical to any study of Pasargadae. Many of his original field records are kept in the Freer|Sackler Archives, one of the largest repositories on Pasargadae's archaeological history.
5. HEART_160222_044.JPG: Ernst Herzfeld and Friedrich Krefter (left to right), 1933
6. HEART_160222_047.JPG: Ernst Herzfeld and Friedrich Krefter (left to right), ca 1933
7. HEART_160222_051.JPG: Herzfeld, Krefter, and Bulbul the Boar Herzfeld and his drafting assistant Friedrich Krefter, pictured at left, had met only briefly before the 1928 Pasargadae excavations. Nevertheless, the two made an effective team and went on to work together on the much more extensive 1933 excavations in nearby Persepolis. Some described Herzfeld as exacting and reserved. He seems to have enjoyed animals, however. As the right-hand photograph shows, he found time for his pet boar, Bulbul, Persian for "nightingale."
8. HEART_160222_054.JPG: Evidence of CHange Herzfeld's panorama captures Cyrus's mausoleum, isolated in the heart of the fertile Murghab plain, the early twentieth century. About seven hundred years earlier, the mausoleum had been transformed into a mosque, whose gateway and column stumps surrounding the monument. The mosque also reused pillars that were carried over from the palace precinct. In the background on the left is the walled village of Madar-i Sulayman (Mother of Solomon). 1905-28
9. HEART_160222_077.JPG: A King's Neglected Tomb Around 1900, famed photographer Antoin Sevruguin took these two photographs, which are among the earliest known images of Cyrus's tomb. The mausoleum's broken stpes and invading vegetation confirm the years of neglect it had suffered. As the photograph on the right implies, however, the site was still frequented by itinerant travelers and small caravans. Sevruguin's photographic images, which appeared in many Western journals, travelogues, and archaeological accounts of the Near East, helped to revive interest in ancient Iranian monuments, including Cyrus's tomb. ca 1900
10. HEART_160222_084.JPG: Palace Precinct: New Design One of Herzfeld's critical discoveries was that Pasargadae was the first ancient Near Eastern capital to abandon the standard architectural plan of strictly linear royal hallways. Instead, the Achaemenids adopted an ingenious open design defined by extensive, lush garden spaces surrounded by palaces and audience halls. In essence, Pasargadae was an opulent foursquare garden complex lined by halls rather than a series of symmetrical, contiguous roofed enclosures. This particular layout continued well into the Islamic period, and designers used it for palace compounds in Iran, Central Asia, and Islamic India for centuries.
11. HEART_160222_087.JPG: Palace P: Herzfeld's reconstructed ground plan and elevation of the ruins 1928
12. HEART_160222_091.JPG: Palace P: Cyrus's Private Quarters Herzfeld named the complex's innermost structure "Palace P," short for the German term Pfeiler (pier), after its most visible relic: a tall pier, or structural support. Based on the scale and layout, archaeologists have proposed that Palace P functioned as Cyrus's private quarters. It may have taken the form of a large pavilion overlooking an elaborate garden space, which became a standard feature in later Persian architecture. The fragmentary carving on the doorway represents the emperor followed by an attendant and is identical to those at Persepolis. Based on its style, leading scholars have suggested that Palace P was completed by Cyrus's successor Darius the Great (522-486 BCE). Like other structures at Pasargadae, Palace P consisted of a columnar hall, a building type that was found elsewhere in western Iran at the time time. While mud, wood, and brick walls were the most common materials for such buildings, the palaces at Pasargadae used finely jointed cut stone brought in from a nearby quarry.
13. HEART_160222_094.JPG: Palace P: pier flanking long southeast portico
14. HEART_160222_098.JPG: Palace P: fragment from entrance's right-hand jamb
15. HEART_160222_130.JPG: The Double-Headed Lion At Pasargadae, Herzfeld discovered the earliest-known Achaemenid stone capital in the form of a double-headed lion. Such capitals, also seen in monumental form at Persepolis, became one fo the Achaemednids' most distinctive architectural features. Typical of their working methods, Herzfeld and Kerfter meticulously recorded, measured, photographed, and described the lion protome (a representation of an animal head and neck used to decorate sculpture or pottery), which was made out of black stone. Krefter sketched the lion's head using various degrees of shading, while Herzfeld photographed it from slightly different viewpoints to capture the shape and volume.
16. HEART_160222_142.JPG: Palace S: drawing of fragmentary black stone capital
17. HEART_160222_155.JPG: Cyrus or Darius? "I, Cyru, the king, the Achaemenid [built this]" The translation of the so-called "foundation inscription" carved into various architectural features at Pasargadae confirmed Herzfeld's theory that the site was the original capital of Cyrus the Great. Modern scholars, however, have proposed that Darius I (reigned circa 550-486 BCE), who build Persepolis, added the inscriptions to commemorate Cyrus as the founder of Pasargadae and the first ruler of the Achaemenid Empire. Reflecting the empire's multiethnic makeup, the declaration is carved in three languages: Old Persian, Elamite, and Akkadian.
18. HEART_160222_158.JPG: Entombed in Gold In 530 BCE, when Cyrus marched into Central Asia to protect the empire's northeastern borders from the invading Massagetae tribe, he was killed in battle. According to Greek sources, Cyrus's body was returned to Anshan, mummified, and placed in a gold coffin on a table of pure gold inside his mausoleum. Today, the tomb's simple, imposing structure towers more than 32 feet tall, making it the largest and most striking surviving feature of the Pasargadae complex. It is also the only structure from Pasargadae that is described in both classical and later Western travel accounts. Situated outside the palace precinct and in the southern part of the Murghab plain, the mausoleum comprises two distinct parts: a high plinth made up of six receding tiers and a tomb chamber with a steep gable roof. The tomb's construction combines different styles and building techniques, and demonstrates how their recent conquest of the Lydian kingdom had brought the Achaemednids into contact with Greek architecture. The overall form, however, has no prototype in the ancient world; rather, it represents a unique and skillful combination of architectural elements to suggest both power and sanctity.
19. HEART_160222_159.JPG: Mausoleum of Cyprus
20. HEART_160222_163.JPG: Mausoleum of Cyrus: stone lintel with Arabic inscription
21. HEART_160222_166.JPG: Appropriating a Forgotten Icon Worshipers would have entered the mosque built around Cyrus's tomb through an inscribed stone lintel. The Arabic inscription refers to Sa'd bin Zengi (died 1226), the local ruler of the Fars province, who brought great prosperity to the region and patronized the celebrated poet Sa'di.
22. HEART_160222_170.JPG: Mausoleum of Cyprus: Ground plan
23. HEART_160222_174.JPG: Prints Fit for a Dig The "blue prints" are exmaples of the cyanotype process, used throughout the twentieth century to make inexpensive copies of photographs and engineering drawings. The process involved coating a piece of paper with chemicals, superimposing the negative on it, and exposing it to sunlight. Fine arts photographers avoided cyanotypes for their intense blue pigments and lack of fine detail. Produced on regular notebook paper, however, cyanotypes proved far more resilient in the rough conditions of an archaeological dig than delicate darkroom prints. These five cyanotypes show different views of Cyrus's mausoleum and were made from glass plate negatives that Herzfeld took between 1905 and 1928. They survived the excavation and are now part of Herzfeld's archives at the Freer|Sackler.
24. HEART_160222_215.JPG: Gate R: Emblem of Power This panorama, which Herzfeld took before the excavations, shows the most visible feature of Pasargadae's ceremonial entrance: a lofty pillar or doorjamb carved with the extraordinary figure of four-winged deity. Stylistically, the figure recalls Assyrian sculptural forms, but it wears Persian robes and an Egyptian crown. Each of these featured referred to an artistic tradition of a region under Achaemenid rule; combined, they symbolized the power and grandeur of the Persian Empire for visitors to the palace.
25. HEART_160222_234.JPG: The Myth Continues The writer Jane Dieulafoy (1851-1916) accompanied her husband, the French archaeologist Marcel-Auguste Dieulafoy, to Iran in the 1880s. She took many photographs of sites -- including Pasargadae -- that the couple later used to illustrate their publications. Although the two knew that these were part of Cyrus's capital, Mrs. Dieulafoy followed the prevailing view that the tomb belonged to a woman. Here, she transformed the columns of the thirteenth-century mosque into an imaginary ancient reconstruction.
26. HEART_160222_246.JPG: Modern Appreciation takes Flight The masterful proportions and elegant simplicity of Cyrus's tomb have continued to inspire artists, such as the Swiss photographer Georg Gerster. Recognized as a pioneer in aerial color photography. Gerster took more than one hundred flights over Iran between April 1976 and May 1978. His evocative photograph of Cyrus's resting-place builds on Herzfeld's work to memorialize one of Iran's earliest and most powerful architectural masterpieces.
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