D-985: Paikuli. AMI, vol.IX, fig.8, p.112

Object Details

Local Numbers: D-985 FSA A.06 05.0985
General: - Title is provided by Xavier Courouble, FSg Archives cataloger, based on Ernst Herzfeld original drawings'caption and Joseph Upton's Catalogue of the Herzfeld Archive.
Date/Time and Place of an Event Note: This Drawing may be related primarly to two expeditions to Paikuli (Iraq), in 1911 and 1913, as well an excavation campaign carried out on site by Ernst Herzfeld in 1923.

Topic: Ancient Near Eastern Art; Architectural drawing; Architecture; Excavations (Archaeology); Relief (Sculpture); Royalty (Nobility); Sassanids

See more items in: Ernst Herzfeld Papers; Ernst Herzfeld Papers / Series 5: Drawings and Maps

Archival Repository: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives

Collection Citation: Ernst Herzfeld Papers. FSA.A.06. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of Ernst Herzfeld, 1946.

Arrangement: Drawings are arranged roughly in sequential number sequences, housed in document boxes or in flat file folders by size, and stored in the map case drawers.

Collection Rights: Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.

Bibliography: Herzfeld, Ernst. "Archaeologische Mitteilungen aus Iran. Herausgegeben von Ernst Herzfeld. Band IX. Khusrau Parwēz und der Tāq i Vastān. Verlag von Dietrich Reimer, Berlin, 1938. Pp.112, abb.8."

Scope and Contents: Additional information from Helmut Humbach and Prods O. Skjærvø's publication reads, "The ruin of the Sassanian monument of Paikuli is situated close to the southern ascent to the [Paikuli] pass. Originally, the monument consisted of a solid square tower. Four identical colossal busts of one and the same king of kings were built into the four walls. The western wall bore a large Middle-Persian inscription (eight rows of blocks, with a total of 46 lines), whereas the eastern wall bore the Parthian version of this (seven rows, with a total of 42 lines, all of them surviving in a fragmentary state). The subject of the inscription, carefully carved and written in perspective, is the quarrel over the succession, between Narseh (293-303) and Varahrān (293)." [Helmut Humbach and Prods O. Skjærvø's publication, 1980: "The Sassanian Inscription of Paikuli; Supplement to Herzfeld's Paikuli. Wiesbaden: Reichert; pp.13-16."]; Paikuli (Iran), Ruins of the Sasanian Monument: Plaited Hair and Palmettes Attached to the Crown of King Narseh [drawing]