The Age of the Parthians

The Age of the Parthians: The Idea of Iran

[...]

The following chapters are based on a collection of six papers delivered at a symposium held at the School of Oriental and African Studies between March and May 2005, and generously sponsored by the Soudavar Memorial Foundation. They can broadly be divided into two categories. Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis, David Bivar and Josef Wiesehöfer discuss aspects of the Parthian period drawing on new evidence gained from the fields of art and numismatics, archaeology and historical documents. The remaining three authors, Rolf Michael Schneider, Wang Tao and Oktor Skjærvø use their material to describe the power of representation. Skjærvø discusses the different approaches adopted by scholars to the dating of the Avesta and the impact these views have had on our understanding of this religious corpus. Schneider and Wang Tao explore the political propaganda employed by Imperial Rome and China, respectively, towards Parthian Iran...

Contents

List of Figures / vi
Acknowledgements / ix
Map of the Parthian Empire / x
Introduction / 1

1 - The Iranian Revival in the Parthian Period / 7
2 - Gondophares and the Indo-Parthians / 26
3 - Fars under Seleucid and Parthian Rule / 37
4 - Friend and Foe: the Orient in Rome / 50
5 - Parthia in China: a Re-examination of the Historical Records / 87
6 - The Videvdad: its Ritual-Mythical Significance / 105

List of Abbreviations / 142
Bibliography / 143

Introduction

Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis (The British Museum) and Sarah Stewart (The London Middle East Institute at SOAS)

The Parthian era is worthy of considerable attention, partly because of the survival of many artistic expressions and styles. his evaluation by E.J. Keall of Parthian artistic expressions and styles and the impact these had on the Islamic art of later centuries was an innovative approach in 1977. More than forty years before, Michael Rostovtzeff had also drawn attention to the importance of Parthian art as an art style in its own right, but such views have largely been ignored by the majority of scholars in the field.

By far the most prevalent attitude to the post-Hellenistic era, including the Parthian period, is encapsulated in a passage about the architecture of the site of Khurha in western Iran written by Ernst Herzfeld in 1941:
When the Iranians attempted to accept everything Greek, as they do with everything European, they did not grasp the significance and proportion, but were entirely satisfied with semblance. The depth of things remained hidden to them. The result is a hybrid art, if art it can be called, which is neither Greek nor Iranian; it is of no inner or aesthetic value, and is worthy of study only for historical or psychological interest… It is amazing to see how quickly, in not more than two or three generations, a handicraft of unlimited power can be completely lost, and with the mere technical skill the artistic judgement also.

Such a negative view of Parthian artistic representation is the result of a number of factors. First, the Parthian era and its art have mainly been the preserve of classicists who naturally analysed and evaluated Parthian material culture from the viewpoint of classical archaeology and Hellenistic and Roman art. Similarly, archaeologists working in the Near East were not interested in the Parthian period and largely ignored Parthian levels on sites where they did exist preferring to reach more ancient structures below...

The Age of the Parthians
The Idea of Iran
Volume II

edited by
Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis and Sarah Stewart

Published in 2007 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd
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Copyright © London Middle East Institute, 2007

The right of Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis & Sarah Stewart to be identified as
editors of this work has been asserted by the editors in accordance with the
Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988.

The publication of this book was generously supported by the Soudavar
Memorial Foundation.

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part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval
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ISBN 978 1 84511 406 0

The Idea of Iran Vol. 2

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Editors: Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis is Curator of Islamic and Iranian Coins at the British Museum. Sarah Stewart is Deputy Director of the London Middle East Institute at SOAS and teaches Zoroastrianism in the Department of Religions at SOAS.