Nushijan TepeNushijan tepe

8/10/2019 Nushijan TepeNushijan tepe

1/10

* -w

WS

-:-

s.

Tepe

Nush-i

Jan

rom

the

south.

The

ummit

f

the

mound

tands

more

han

36

meters

s Z

8 eet)

abore

he

e:vel

f the

plain

-

-

g-

-r

f

S

v

w

T e p e

N u sh i

J a n

o u n d

n

e d i a

DAVID

STRONACH

Director

f

The

British

nstitute

f

Persian

tudies,

Teheran

Given

the

long-established

ame

of

the

Medes,

t is

not

a

little

surprising

o

find

that

scarcely

ny

Median

ites

have

been

ex-

cavated,

nd

that

we

canstill

point

to

only

three

xpeditions

hat

are

beginning

o

reveal

more

r

ess

certain

Median

emains.

squite

the

equal

of

their

Iranian

ousins-

he

Per-

sians-for

most

of

the

first

half

of

the

first

millennium

.C.,

the

Medes

hemselves

ere

already

the

mighty

Medes"

r

"the

distant

Medes"

n

the

Assyrian

nnals

f

the

ninth

century

.C.;

they

contributed

n

no

small

measure

o

the

overthrow

f the

Assyrians

n

6r2

B.C.;

andevenwhenAstyages,he astof

the

Median

oyal

ine,

was

defeated

y

Cyrus

the

Great

n

550

.C., it

was

till

he

combined

strength

f"the

Medes

nd

he

Persians"

hat

created

nd

sustained

he

far-flung

chaeme-

Eman

plre.

Several

elated

actors

may

help

o

explain

why

the

Medes,

with

a

still

longer

history

than

he

Achaemenians,

ave

only

ust

begun

to

attract

limited

numberf excavatorso

their

ites.

n

the

first

place,

t has

ong

been

known

recisely

here

he

Median

apital

ay,

and,

secondly,

t

has

always

een

recognized

that

his

onsiderable

ettlement

ancient

c-

batana,

ow

modern

amadan

would

e

one

of

the

few

sites

n

Media

apable

f

rivaling

the

appeal

f

either

Pasargadae,

he

early

Ach-

aemenianapitalbuiltby Cyrus he Great

(559-539

.C.),

or Persepolis,

he

still

later

capital

built

by

Darius

he

Great

522-486

B.C.).

Thus

n

the

one

hand

he

core

f

Hama-

Participation

y

The

Metropolizan

Museumof Art tn the excarations

at

Nush-i

Jan

was

made

possible

by

the

continuing

upport

f

H.

Duns-

combe

Colt,

Jr.

I77

- i - l - -

-*

; v-

te--z=et;0


2/10

VLAE

* HASANLU

danwasa brillianture hatthe archaeologist

couldnever orget,and,on the other-as an

integral artof a growingmodern own its

full-scalexcavationlwayshreatenedo pro-

vide nnumerableroblemsoranywould-be

excavator.

The firsthint that certain therprospects

might be at least as rewardingamewhen

RobertDysonandVaughnCrawfordarried

out the first controlled xcavations t the

seventh-century ountaintoptronghold f

Ziwiyen Kurdistann

964,

for,whileZiwiye

canhardly e said o lie at the veryheartof

Media, ts terraced emainstill produced

series f diagnostic ottery ypes hatprom-

ised to act as a reliable uideto othercon-

temporary ounds earHamadan.

A series f more outherlyurveysollowed

soonafterward,ndan encouragingumber

of seventh-centuryitesarenowknown rom

centralMedia tself.Excavationst such ites

haverevealed hatwould ppearo be either

Achaemenianr Median tone-footed alls

near hegreat ock f Bisitun; small eventh-

century ortress t BabaJanTepe n eastern

Luristan; nd still more elaborate eventh-

centurymud-bricktructurest bothGodin

TepeandTepeNush-iJan.

At GodinTepe alone,T. CuylerYoung,

Jr.'s, xcavationsf

I967

revealedhe planof

an impressiveeventh-centuryalacecom-

plete with a spacioushirty-columnedall.

Thissamehallnot only recalls he design f

morenarrow,inth-centuryalls romHasan-

lu IV (asalso hatof another olumned allat

the eighth/seventh-centuryrartian ite of

AltinTepe), but it already oreshadowshe

broad, ectangularlan f theResidentialal-

aceof Cyrus heGreat t Pasargadae.n tself,

therefore,he hall romGodinTepe s a no-

table xamplef thefar-reachingultural nd

historicalinks hatwillundoubtedlyome o

light with the excavationf further itesof

Median ateduring he next ewyears.

Many f ourownhopes avealsobeenmet

at the neighboringite of Tepe Nush-iJan,

wherethree institutions-theMetropolitan

Museum, he Oriental nstitute f Chicago,

andTheBritish nstitute f Persian tudies-

have eachbeenassociated ith a firstcam-

paign f sevenweeks' uration.

TheExcavations

The moundof Nush-iJan-the present-day

name anbe taken o mean"long ife" was

firstvisitedby Dr. Youngandmyselfearly

in the spring f I965. Aswe skirted he edge

of the Jowkar lain,some orty-threemiles

south f Hamadan, e wereattracted t once

by thecrumbled ud-brickeposit hatcov-

ered hewhole opof the site, tself he most

prominentockoutcrop t the centerof the

plain Figure).

The summit f the moundproved o be

smooth ndalmost ndisturbed,ave ora few

strangehollows f unexplainedrigin.The

latter ookon newmeaning, owever,when

Dr. Young oundone suchhollowoccupied

by a somnolentmotherpig and two of her

young Much o thebenefit f what emained

of our composure,he lady and her family

retreatedirst....

Evenon this irstvisit he unusual romise

of the moundwasevident.The pottery ug-

gested nalmost oneperiod"iteof seventh-

century r near eventh-centuryate,while

the exceptionallyteep sidesof the mound

seemed o point to the original resence f

strong efenses.

\

* ZIWIYE

22_s

.

C D l A

\ * HAMADAN lECDATANA)

g GODIN TEPE -

A BISITUN * * TEPE NUSH-I JAN

2. 24plan of the Central uildzng

and heFortat thecloseof the

I967 season.Dotted ines ndicate

restoredi.e. unexcarated) all

faces

t ::: 1

SECONDARYBRICKWORK DDED TO THE ABOVE

\\\: BRICKWC3RKNCLOSING THE CENTRAL BUILDING

/// HIGH LEVEL WALLS OF LATE MEDIAN DATE

I78

-

I t

CA S P I A N

kI R A N

9 V S

E A


3/10

| j - --

3.

X

"dustderil"

hits hetop of the mound:up come

the stamboulis

earth-carryingrays in self-defense

Actual excavationsat the site began in

August I967, the

staffof the expeditioncon-

sistingof myself as Director,Mrs. Stronach,

Ali Sarfaraz

Representative f the Iranian

Archaeological ervice), David Bivar, Oscar

White Muscarella,Michael Roaf, Andrew

Williamson,anHerring, ndSusanBird.Val-

uablehelp wasreceived romWolframKleiss,

SecondDirectorof

the GermanArchaeolog-

ical Institute, as

also from GeoffreyHewitt,

A.R.I.B.A.

Without specialdumpingproblems o con-

sider (thanks o

steep slopeson all sides) and

without a vast

area to probe (the flat area

of our five-metergrid on the summitof the

mound measured

only ninety by forty-five

meters 295 by I48 feet), our first mpression

was that we might have a relatively short,

finite task on our hands.However,we failed

to reckonwith twoimportant actors: he un-

usualdepth of the

depositand the exceptional

force of the windsthat started to plague us

frommid-August nward Figure3). As a con-

sequence,neither

of the two principal truc-

tures hat were

encountered an be said to be

fully excavated Figure ), andprobablymore

than

one futureseasonwill be requiredo

complete he explorationf the mound

s a

whole.

ne

Forf

Themost omplete lan t themoment

omes

from

structurehatmightalsobe called ur

EasternBuilding. t consists f a smallrec-

tangular ort, approachingwenty-oneby

twenty-four eters 69 by 79 feet) in size,

with

regularly uttresseduterwallsand a

single xternal ntranceess han wo

meters

wide.Theground lan ncludes

guardroom

beside he entrance, n adjoining ampand

staircaseeading p to the second loor,

and

fourongparallel agazines.Something

ery

similaro this ayout anbeseen n the

ground

planof the corner owers f the late

sixth-

centuryApadanat Persepolis,ndwe areat

liberty o wonderf the Achaemenianrchi-

tectsof

Dariuswerenotconsciouslyollowing

thetraditionallan f stillolder edoubtsuch

as

ours.)

Unfortunatelyheentranceo theForthas

sufferedmuch romsubsequent

isturbance,

I79


4/10

and

the firstwellpreservedetails

ppear t

the southend of the

guardroom.herewe

canstill see at least

hree mallwallniches-

possibly sed orholdingamps

andat least

tworaised earths

here hesoldiersn guard

dutymust havewarmedhemselves uring

the longwintermonths.Passing

hrough n

innerdoor

(presumablyeliberately ot in

line

withtheouterone),we reach

longcor-

ridor hat s in effect

a sloping amp.On the

south

this flattens ut in frontof

an open

doorwayo the first

of themagazines, hile

to the

north Figure ) it leads o

an almost

squareoomwithasquare ierat the center.

This ast eature

epresentsfamiliarormof

staircaselsoknown

romAssyria, s well as

ninth-centuryasanlu. ut at

Nush-i an he

scalesunusually

enerousnd hegrandman-

ner nwhich he

ramp tself scarried ound

almost our ides f

the central ierbefore t

gives

way o the irst tepssquite

xceptional.

Unfortunatelyhegrandeurf theconcept

may

alsohavebeen ts undoing.At

any rate,

parts f the

mud-brickaulting ver heramp

canbeseen o have

collapsed,orcing he oc-

cupants f the Fort

to builda new, armore

modest taircase

ithin he widthof one of

. . . .

the adolnlngmagazlnes.

The

fact that so manytraces f

vaulting

canbefound n the

Fort s ofspecialnterest.

Apparently oodwasnot used n anyof the

ground-floor

eilings; trictlymud-brick

le-

ments ervednstead.The

mainweightwas

borne ycorbeled ricks,

oncealedrombe-

lowby ong,parallel

ud-brick embersach

pitched t an angle o they

meetat the apex

oftheceiling. t is difficulto think hatsuch

slender,

ometimeslightly urved

members

could have

addedmuchreinforcement,

l-

though nehas

o rememberhat ong

mud-

brick trutshavealsobeen

ound t twooth-

er sites n

Iran-sixth/flfth-century

ahan-i

Ghulamann

Seistan nd econd/flrst-century

Shar-iKomisnearDamghan

where theevi-

dent utility of suchelements s not to be

denied.The smaller

round-flooroors f the

Fort, suchas those hown n Figure5,

were

not flat-topped

ither:nstead, he

standard

brickshat

remainn place vereach

opening

all appear o

have been pitchedat a

slight

angle n order o

produce nalmostriangular

upperrame.

Only arger oorsmayhave

been

supplied ithwooden intels,although ven

here he

evidences inconclusive.

As faraslighting nd

ventilation recon-

cerned, hree f the tall

magazinesreknown

to

havehada single xternal

indow,ituated

atthehighest

ointof thechamber,ver lve

metersI6 feet)

abovebedrock. hese ame

narrow indows

merge nthe external, at-

teredwallsof

the Fort immediately eside

the multiple rrowslotsFigure ) thatslope

down rom he

floor f thesecond tory.

The onlyone of these

arrowslotso retain

itsfullheight f twoanda flfth

meters a ittle

over7 feet) sstill

distinguishedy thestand-

ard, riangularapof Assyrian

nd ater imes.

Roughly ontemporaryarallelsromother

excavated

efenses relimited o those re-

ported romNeo-Assyrianssurand those

discovered

lmost hirty years ago in the

northern

ortiflcationallat Persepolis.

With uch

traight, arrow perturest has

to

be concededhat he archer

ouldonlyse-

lecta targetmmediatelyn

frontof him;but

in

a massattack,with

scarcelymore hana

meterbetween

acharrowslot,wo superim-

posedrowsof suchslotswerepresumably

vitaladditiono

the firepowerhatcouldbe

brought o bear

rom he crenelated attle-

mentsof any

welldefendedtructure.

Theramp nside he Fort n

the course f

excavation. ote

the door rom heguardroom t

theright nd

hecurvedmud-brict

struts xposed

eneathhetum-

bled brictsof the corbeled

ault

5. X doorway etweenwo

maga-

zines. The low, triangular

pper

frame remains lmost ntact

I80


5/10

6. Partof thewestern all of

theFort, howingour arrowslotsnd

a singlewindow on theextreme

ight)

e . e - ^

.-F v

>- sts*v.^

-

-

-

* - ; ak;

Ir-^ -

b:

-E

-

Di

;

\4 .q

;"ws

>_

...X

*

* Fw

i's

.'. ; 'g'


6/10

e

- M

r

9

10

t/l

7

8

ll

-

s

-8x.


7/10

ne

Cenfral

uilding

Toward

he

middle

of

the

mound,

most

of

last

year's

work

came

o be

concentrated

n

another

monumental

tructure,

ur

so-called

Central uildingFigure

).

Possiblyozenge-

shaped

when t

was

irst

built,

with

stepped

inner

and

outer

wall

faces

Figure2),

this

unique

mud-brick

onstruction

ppearso

havehad

at

least

wo

opposed

ooms

ivided

bya

straight

artition

all. t is

not

yet

known

whether r

not

this

ower-like

diSce

ad

any

outer

door,

lthoughts

partition

all

wasap-

parently ierced ybothawidedoorwith a

wooden

intel

andat

least

one

nternal

win-

dow."

Within

he

one

principal

oom

hathas

been

cleared

o a

depth

f

seven

meters

23

eet) n

places

just

one

meter

above

loor

evel)

we

have

also

ound

everal

ecessed

all

decora-

tions.

These

nclude

ecessed

rosses,

quare

"scaffold

oles,"

nda

series

f

blind

windowsS

each

witha

deep-set

iche

at the

base.

Simi-

lar

crosses

ccurn

the

ninth/eighth-century

painted

ottery

ound n

Sialk

Cemetery

,

while

he

blind

windowsre

not

entirely

is-

similar

o

either

hose

known

rom

he

stone

"tower

emples"

t

Pasargadae

nd

Naqsh-i

Rustam

r

those

ound

nside

he

fifth-cen-

tury

B.C.

temple t

Marib

n

the

Yemen.

Apartrom hese rrestingeatures,quite

extraordinary

ffort

was

made

o

cocoon

he

whole

difice,

robably

tillearly

n

the ife

of

the

site. To

begin

with,the

whole

building

was illed

with

small

tones

p to

a

height

of

sis

meters 20

feet).

Such

stones

were

not

merely

thrown

n

from

above:

they

were

placed n

position

with

great

are

o

that no

partof theoriginaltructure ouldbedam-

aged

n

any

way.

The arge

nd

mall

hips f

shale

used

n this

remarkable

peration

ere

all

obtained

ocally

the

stone

being

dentical

with

hatof

the

main

Nush-i

anhill

and

hat

of

various

ther

outcrops

eart.

At

the

end

of

the

first

part

of

this

operation,

hen

the

pure

hale

illhad

reachedo

within

wo

me-

ters

of the

topof

the

building,

t

was

capped

first

bya

series

f

alternate

ands

f

mudand

shale

nd

secondly

y a

thick

protective

eal

of

mud

brick.

This

ast

cap

notonly

covered

Relatively

ew

obiects

were

ound

n

the

Fort,

which

appearso

have

been

peacefully

abandoned

bout00

B.C.

Yet

on

the

astday

of the

dig,

while

we

were

learing

hebase

f

the

ramp,

we

had

the

good

ortune

o

Snda

small ilverhoard,buriedn a bronzebowl

and

hidden

eneath

single

brick.

The

silver

objects

nclude

series

f

double nd

quad-

ruple

piral

beads

Figures ,

8);

an

earring

with

what

appearso

be

applied

ranulation

(Figure

);

and

an

intriguing

eries f

bars

(Figure0)

and

Snely

worked

oils

(Figure

II)

that

may

prove o

be

samples f

a

local

form

of

currency.

As

far

as

the

beads

alone

are

concerned,

the

archaic

haracter

f

the

two

main

ypes

is

somethingf

a

surprise.

Quadruple

piral

beads

re ar

rom

ommon s

ateas

the

sev-

enth

century

.C.,

and

possiblyhe

closest

ar-

allels

o

our

ong-sleeved

ouble-spiral

end-

ants

re

hose

romhe

very

much

lder,

arly

second-millennium

ettlement

f

Hissar

IIB

innortheasternran.

7.

Two

double

piralbeads

rom

the

siluer

hoardfound

n the

Fort.

The

argest f

the

beads*measures

X6

inches

n

width.(Objects

marked

with

asterists

will

come o

the

Metropolitan

Museum)

8.

id group

of

quadruple

piral

beads

rom

the

same

ilver

oard.

These

re

perhaps

he

atest

examples

f this

simplebut

attractive

orm

to

befound n the

Near

East.

The

ones

at

the

top

and

bottom

f

the

left-hand

olumn*

share

maximum

ength f

IX6

inches

9.

X

silver arringrpendant*romthehoard.

Length

inch

IO.

Silver

barsor

ingotsfrom

he

hoard.

That

at

the

tophas

been

ut;

that

at the

bottom*

appearso

be

markedor

possible

division.

The

latter

s

I00.8

grams

n

weightand

measures

%

inches

n

length

I

I.

Three ilver oils rom

the

hoard.

The

eft

and

center

xamples*

hare

a

maximum

diameter

f

about

Z inch

l83

i .


8/10

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12.

Removinghe

shale;%illfrom

he

main

room

of the

Central

uilding.

Part

of the

partition

wall

appears ntheright,andsome

of the

recessed

rosses

nd

blind

windows

an

alsobe

seen


9/10

the area f the

large riangularoombut (to

add to our

difficultiesn the earlyphases f

the excavation)t alsoran

over the original

walls f the entire tructure.

Beyond uchdirectmeasures

o filland eal

the nteriorf the building,he south ideof

this oncefreestandingdificewasenveloped

in a curved

"bastion"f brick;ts eastside

was oncealed

y theconstructionf theFort

(notto mention

hesubsequentnsertionf a

solid,mud-brick

nd hale lockingn thenar-

rowspacebetween

he two structures);nd

fromwhatcanbe seen n still

otherareas,t

would eemmore han ikelythat both the

remainingaces f the building

erealsohid-

denfromview

by tallsecondaryalls.

It is possibleo argue hat

the Fort itself

mayhavebeen

built ortheprotectionf the

older,ultimatelyocoonedtructure. sFig-

ure shows,

he Fort s without ny arrow-

slotswhere t adjoins he Central

Building,

andon top

of so manyother tructuralre-

cautionshe

provisionf a permanentuard

wouldnot seem too far-fetched.

owever,

until the CentralBuilding hould

avebeen

broughto

yieldall its ownsecrets be they

those f a secular,eligious,r

funerarytruc-

ture anduntil hewesternnd

of themound

should ave

been xcavatedswell, t is prob-

ablypointless

o tryto definehepreciseunc-

tionof anyof Nush-iJan'smajor tructures.

The floor

f the Central uilding asbeen

inspectedtonlytwopoints:irst n theeast-

ern recess f the triangularoom,wherewe

found othing uta quantity

f finelybroken

buS-wareottery, ndthen

n one corner f

the northern ecess,where he

stone ill was

found o reston a thin ayer

f grayash.

OtherMedian tructures

Immediately

utside he upperwallsof the

curved"bastion"

e wereable to uncover

several mall

rooms, achprobably ontem-

porarywith

similar xtensions utside he

originalwallsof the Fort itsel

In thesewe

were ortunatenough o find

everal bjects

of bronze,ncluding

n elbow ibula Figure

I3)

of a type

attested oward he endof the

seventh entury

t Nimrud nda small,orce-

fully modeled eadof the Assyrian

emon

Pazuzu Figure

4),

which s not at all un-

likely o have

been ooted romAssyria.

At the western nd of the

mound, n iso-

lated est renchwould eem o

havehit upon

the upperwallsof yet a thirdmonumental

structure.Hereagain he character f the

buildingemainsn doubt, lthough

rom he

exceptionalumberf moreor

lesscomplete

pottery ormsoundn a second-

r third-floor

roomwe canperhapsope o uncover

t least

a goodpartof a multistoriedesidential

truc-

ture.

Chronology

At this tage ntheexcavations

t is stilldiffi-

cult to offer irmdates oreach

phase f con-

struction t Nush-iJan.But if we compare

the weatheredxterior f the

CentralBuild-

ing with thatof the Fort, t is

not difficult

to supposehat heformer onstruction

ust

have tood xposedo the elementsormany

yearsbefore ny

otherbuildingwaserected

on the bare ockbesidet. Moreover,

uron-

ly carbon-I4

ate romTepeNush-iJan s a

seeminglyarly ne from he fill

of the Cen-

tralBuilding,

here fragmentf woodhas

givenus a date

of 723 i 220 B.C.

From uch

ombinedvidencet is perhaps

not unreasonableo place he constructionf

the CentralBuilding little before

00 B.C.

and heconstructionf theFort

at least few

decadesater.

A closestudyof the pottery

fromeachstructures still in

progress, ut

forthemomenthere s no concrete

vidence

that wouldseem to quarrel

with eitherof

these entative

stimates.

As for thedatewhen he Fortfell out of

use, t canonly

be said hat heres littleevi-

denceof a particularly

ongoccupation. he

collapse f Assyria

nd hegradualrosion f

Scythian owermusthaveproduced

feeling

of greaterecurity

n centralMedia fter

I2

B.C., but whether r not this

new situation

shouldbe held

responsibleor the ultimate

abandonment

f ourown,somewhatingular

establishment

s stillanother uestion.

Finally, fter

definite reakwitheven he

latestpottery

orms f Median ate(Figures

s3. A bronze lbowfibula* f late

Median ate.

Length 1S6 inches

. A bronze ead

of the Assyrian

demonPazuzu,

an erilgenius

reputedo bringerer and sict-

ness.Height

%6

inches

I85


10/10

I

5-I 7),

the

siteof

Nush-i an

appearsohave

been

reoccupied

n late

Hellenistic

r more

probably

Parthian

imes.

Although

hardly

anythingmore

hana

few loors nd

cattered

pits can

be

associated iththis

brief

reoccu-

pation, he pottery romthisfinalphase s

not

without

nterest.Glazed

owls

withcon-

centric

rooves n

the

inside f the

baseare

by

no means

carce,

nd a

thin, fine,

dense

potterywith

a gray

coreand

a reddish

o

yellowish

rownurface

possibly est

called

"cinnamon

are"-can

be

recognizeds

an

outstanding

ocal

product

Figure 8).

sS. A

two-handled

ar of

fine,pintish

buff

ware.*

LateVII

or early

VI

century.C.

Height4H

inches

15

Z6. A rim

ragment

roma

burnished

ray-ware

bowl*with

a

horizontal

andleand two

decoratire

nobs. Late

VII or early

VI

century

.C.

Diameter S inches

s7. Part

of a pottery

andle n the

shape

of

a duct's

headwith

ncised yes.

Maximum

>

length

X6

inches

W

6

Z8. A

fragmentary

owl* of the

extremely

ine

t

s

"cinnamon" are

hat

appearso be

5

16 typicalof theParthian eriodat Tepe

Nush-i

Jan.Height

2%

inches;diameter

81X6nches

17

18

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