Excavation sheds new light on mysterious capital of Medes in Ecbatana
Archaeologists have unearthed new cultural relics and architectural vestiges that sheds a new light on the mysterious capital of Medes, which is widely believed to be in Ecbatana, an ancient city on the site of which stands the modern city of Hamadan in west-central Iran.
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Credit: IRNA |
“Cultural elements, estimated to date back to Iron Age II C (700 – 586 BC), which was almost concurrent with the Median era (around 678 BC–around 549 BC), were unearthed during the 22nd archaeological season recently carried out in Tepe Hegmataneh (also known as Ecbatana) …. In this season we seem to have succeeded to answer an old question: ‘Are there any signs of the Median period in Hegmataneh?’ Yes, we have discovered relatively satisfying signs of Median architecture and pottery,” ISNA quoted senior Iranian archaeologist Mehrdad Malekzadeh as saying on Tuesday.
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The Greek historian Herodotus described the city in the 5th century BC as being surrounded by seven concentric walls. Ecbatana was captured from the Median ruler Astyages by the Persian king Cyrus the Great in 550 BC, and it was taken from the last Achaemenian ruler by Alexander the Great in 330 BC.
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“We realized that this wall appeared about four meters lower than the architectural relics that [Iranian architects] Dr. M.R. Sarraf and Dr. Masoud Azarnoush had excavated in Hegmataneh in previous archaeological seasons,” he said.
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Credit: IRNA |
According to a scientific article co-authored by Azarnoush, Tepe Hegmataneh, which located in the eastern edge of Central Zagros mountain range, faces some tricky questions: When and by the order of whom, a “Standard Architectural Pattern (SAP)” was built there? Or, what was the function of SAP?
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“Specialized tests, such as radiocarbon dating, have not been performed on the newly excavated materials yet, and by performing physical and chemical tests, we can express with a more reliable coefficient of the history of the obtained cultural materials,” Malekzadeh added.
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Credit: IRNA |
Herodotus writes: “Deioces bade them build for him a palace worthy of the royal dignity and strengthen him with a guard of spearmen. And the Medes did so: for they built him a large and strong palace in that part of the land which he told them [...]. He built large and strong walls, those which are now called Ecbatana, standing in circles one within the other. And this wall is so contrived that one circle is higher than the next by the height of the battlements alone. And to some extent, I suppose, the nature of the ground, seeing that it is on a hill, assists towards this end; but much more was it produced by art, since the circles are in all seven in number. And within the last circle are the royal palace and the treasure-houses.
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Credit: IRNA |
According to the Greek historian Xenophon of Athens (c.430-c.355), Ecbatana became the summer residence of the Achaemenid kings. Their palace is described by the Greek historian Polybius of Megalopolis. He writes that the city was richer and more beautiful than all other cities in the world; although it had no wall, the palace, built on an artificial terrace, according to Livius, a website on ancient history written and maintained since 1996 by the Dutch historian Jona Lendering.
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Polybius, a Greek historian of the Hellenistic period noted for his work The Histories, tells that the builders used cedar and cypress wood, which was covered with silver and gold. The roof tiles, columns and ceilings were plated with silver and gold. He adds that the palace was stripped of its precious metals in the invasion of the Macedonian king Alexander the Great, and that the rest was seized during the reigns of Antigonus and Seleucus. Later, Ecbatana was one of the capitals of the Seleucid and the Parthian Empires, sometimes called Epiphaneia.
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Credit: IRNA |
Sarraf could not find reliable answers for the already mentioned questions. Second round of excavation (12th to 15th seasons) was undertaken by Azarnoush for four seasons from 2004 to 2008, the aim of these excavations was “to clarify the dating and stratigraphically sequence of the site”.
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Credit: IRNA |
Author: Afshin Majlesi | Source: Tehran Times [June 30, 2020]
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