ThePersepolis Administrative Archive (alsoFortification Archive orTreasury Archive) are two groups of clay administrative archives — sets of records physically stored together[1] – found inPersepolis dating to theAchaemenid Persian Empire. The discovery was made during legal excavations conducted by the archaeologists from theOriental Institute of theUniversity of Chicago in the 1930s. Hence they are named for theirin situ findspot: Persepolis. Thearchaeological excavations at Persepolis for the Oriental Institute were initially directed byErnst Herzfeld from 1931 to 1934 and carried on from 1934 until 1939 byErich Schmidt.[2]
While the political end of theAchaemenid Empire is symbolized by the burning of Persepolis byAlexander the Great (dated 330/329 BCE), the fall of Persepolis paradoxically contributed to the preservation of the Achaemenid administrative archives that might have been lost due to passage of time andnatural andman-made causes.[3] According toarchaeological evidence, the partial burning of Persepolis did not affect the Persepolis Fortification Archive tablets, but may have caused the eventual collapse of the upper part of the northern Fortification wall that preserved the tablets until their recovery by the Oriental Institute's archaeologists.[2]
Thousands of clay tablets, fragments and seal impressions in the Persepolis archives are a part of a single administrative system representing continuity of activity and flow of data over more than fifty consecutive years (509 to 457 BCE).[4] These records can throw light on thegeography, economy, andadministration, as well as the religion and social conditions of the Persepolis region, the heartland of thePersian Great Kings fromDarius I the Great toArtaxerxes I.[3]
The Persepolis Administrative Archives are the single most important extantprimary source for understanding the internal workings of the Persian Achaemenid Empire. But while these archives have the potential for offering the study of the Achaemenid history based on the sole surviving and substantial records from the heartland of the empire, they are still not fully utilized as such by a majority of historians.[5] The reason for the slow adoption of study of Persepolis administrative archives can also be attributed to the administrative nature of the archives, lacking the drama and excitement of narrative history.[4]
ThePersepolis Fortification Archive (PFA), also known asPersepolis Fortification Tablets (PFT, PF), is a fragment ofAchaemenid administrative records of receipt, taxation, transfer, storage of food crops (cereals, fruit), livestock (sheep and goats, cattle, poultry), food products (flour, breads and other cereal products, beer, wine, processed fruit, oil, meat), and byproducts (animal hides) in the region around Persepolis (larger part of modernFars), and their redistribution to gods, the royal family, courtiers, priests, religious officiants, administrators, travelers, workers, artisans, and livestock.[2]
But before the Persepolis archives could have offered any clues to the better understanding of the Achaemenid history, theclay tablets, mostly written in a late dialect ofElamite, an extremely difficult language still imperfectly understood, had to be deciphered.[6] So, in 1935, Iranian authorities loaned thePersepolis Fortification Archive to the Oriental Institute for research and publication. The archive arrived in Chicago in 1936 and has been under studies since 1937.[2] It was not until 1969, whenRichard Hallock published his magisterial edition of 2,087 ElamitePersepolis Fortification Tablets, leading to the renaissance of Achaemenid studies in the 1970s. The long-term project spanning over seven decades is far from completion.[7]
153 tablets, approximately 30,000 fragments and an unknown number of uninscribed tablets were returned to Iran in the 1950s.[2] So far about 450 tablets and tens of thousands of fragments have already been returned to Iran in total.[8] The narrow content of the archive, recording only the Achaemenid administration's transactions dealing with foodstuff, must be taken into consideration in regards to the amount of information that can be deduced from them.[5]
Excavations directed byErnst Herzfeld at Persepolis between 1933 and 1934 for the Oriental Institute, discovered tens of thousands of unbaked clay tablets, badly broken fragments andbullae in March 1933. Before attempting to build a pathway for easy removal of debris from the ruins of palaces on the Persepolis terrace, Herzfeld decided to excavate the location first to ensure that building a passage would not harm anything. He found two rooms filled up with clay tablets that were arranged in order, as in a library. The uncleaned tablets and fragments were covered up with wax and after drying, they were wrapped up in cotton and packed in 2,353 sequentially numbered boxes[2] for shipping.[9][10] At the time, Herzfeld estimated that the find included about 30,000 or more inscribed and sealed clay tablets and fragments.[11] However, Herzfeld himself did not leave precise notes and never published a proper archaeological report.[2]
The archive was found at the northeastern corner of the terrace of Persepolis, in two rooms in the fortification wall.[12] The tablets had been stored in a small space near the staircase in the tower in the fortification wall. The upper floor of the fortification wall may have collapsed at the time of theMacedonian invasion, both partially destroying the order of the tablets while protecting them until 1933.[2] The entrance to the rooms were bricked up in antiquity.[13] The tablets cover sixteen years, from 509 to 493 BCE, from the 13th to the 28th regnal year ofDarius I the Great. The chronological distribution of the archive is uneven, with the largest concentration from the 22nd and 23rd regnal years.[14]
There are three main kinds of clay tablets and fragments in the archive:[15]
However, the functional relationships among these components are not still clear.[15][17]
As of 2010, about 20,000-25,000 tablets and fragments representing about 15,000-18,000 original records remain at the Oriental Institute.[18] Size of the original archive for the same period of time could have been as many as 100,000 Elamite tablets. The edited samples to-date may represent no more than five percent of the original Achaemenid archive.[2] Size of the original archive for the entire reign ofDarius I the Great, from 522 to 486 BCE, just for the distribution of foodstuff, could have been as many as 200,000 records.[2]
Current understanding of the archive is based on a sample of theElamite records that includes 2,120 published texts byRichard Hallock (2,087 tablets in 1969 and 33 tablets in 1978),[19] as well as analysis of 1,148 seals accompanying published Elamite records.[20] About 20 new tablets have also been published after Hallock by various scholars.[14] A majority of the Elamite records are memoranda of single transactions. The earliest known dated Elamite text was written in month 1, regnal year 13 ofDarius I the Great (April 509 BCE) and the latest in month 12, regnal year 28 (March/April 493 BCE).[14] The Elamite records mention about 150 places in the region controlled by Achaemenid administration at Persepolis – most of modernFars, and perhaps parts of modernKhuzestan, including villages, estates, parks and paradises, storehouses, fortresses, treasuries, towns, rivers, and mountains.[21]
A sampletransliteration andtranslation of anElamite record byRichard Hallock:[22]
- PF 53
- 2 w.pi-ut kur-min m.Šu-te-na-na Ba-ir-ša-an ku-ut-ka hu-ut-ki+MIN-nam
- Ba-ka-ba-da Na-ba-ba du-iš-da be-ul 21-na
- 2 (BAR of) figs, supplied by Šutena, was taken (to) Persepolis, for the (royal) stores.
- Bakabada (and) Nababa received (it). 21st year.
About 680 Fortification tablets and fragments with monolingualAramaic texts (also calledImperial Aramaic) have been identified.[23][24] Almost all Aramaic records are formed around knotted strings. All Aramaic texts have seal impressions and are incised with styluses or written in ink with pens or brushes, and are similar to Elamite memoranda. They are records of transporting or storing foodstuff, disbursal of seed, disbursal of provisions for travelers, and disbursal of rations for workers.[23][25]
About 5,000 or more tablets and fragment have only impressions of seals and no texts. Almost all such records are formed around knotted strings. It is noted that none of the uninscribed tablets and fragments bear the seals of high-ranking officials of the Achaemenid administration.[26] Buttons, coins such as Athenian tetradrachms and Achaemenid darics, or other common objects are also used instead of seals in a few cases.[27]
More than 2,200 distinctcylinder seals andstamp seals have been identified, among them scenes of heroic combat, hunting, worship, animals in combat, as well as abstract designs. The number may well increase with study of more records, making Persepolis administrative archives one of the largest collection of imagery in the ancient world, displaying a wide range of styles and skills in the designers and engravers.[28][29] More than 100 of the seals have inscriptions identifying the owner of the seal or his superior. Many of the seals on the Elamite tablets can be associated with Persepolis administrative officials named in the archives, such as Parnâkka (Old Persian*Farnaka).[30][31]
Persepolis was inhabited by a multitude of people speaking many different languages. There are unique archival records in other languages that attest to the usage of many languages by the administration at Persepolis,[32] such as:[33]
Until the discovery of the Persepolis administrative archives, the main sources for information about the Achaemenids were the Greek sources such asHerodotus and ancient historians ofAlexander the Great andbiblical references inHebrew Bible, providing a partial and biased view of the ancient Persians.[7][37]
The archive is a sophisticated and comprehensive administrative and archival system, representing a highly complex and extensive institutional economy resulting from careful, long term and large scale planning. The archive offers unique opportunity for research on important subjects like organization and status of workers, regional demography, religious practices, royal road, relation between the state institution and private parties, and record management.[2] Research is yielding a better understanding of the territory under purview of the Achaemenid administrators of Persepolis and the system that underlay the structuring of the territory.[21] Among Persepolis workers, there are as many women as men recorded in the Persepolis Fortification Archive. Some women receive more rations than any of the men in a work group, probably due to their ranks or special skills. New mothers are also mentioned, where they receive single rations with mothers of boys receiving twice as much as mothers of girls.[38]
Iranian words and names in the Elamite and Aramaic records are the largest source ofOld Iranian languages preserved due to their usage in the Persepolis archives, including evidence of lexicon, phonology and dialect variation that are not found elsewhere.[39]
Fragmentary finds with Elamite texts from other sites in the Achaemenid Empire point to similar common practices and administrative activities.[40] Archival records found inBactria, one of thesatrapies of the Achaemenid Empire, use administrative vocabulary, practice and book-keeping found in the Persepolis administrative archives.[41]
Discovery of a record written in Old Persian for a routine administrative task challenges the previously held notion that Old Persian language was only used for imperial monumental inscriptions.[4]
Persepolis administration treats all the gods equally. Among various gods named in Persepolis administrative archives receiving food offerings are:ElamiteHumban,Inshushinak andŠimat,MazdeanAhuramazda,SemiticAdad and other gods otherwise unknown.[42] No reference toMithra has been found in the Persepolis administrative archives.[2] However, M. Schwartz gives a translation byR.T. Hallock "'...the priest received and utilized [16 marris of wine] for Ahura Mazda and the god Mithra and S(h)imut', the latter an Elamite god" further providing "the supplier and priest bear Iranian names."[43]
In 2004 the Persepolis Fortification Archive was caught in the middle of alandmarklawsuit in the U.S.Federal Court system.[44]
In 1997 five American tourists were killed and many more were wounded whenterrorists set off suitcase bombs in a shopping mall inJerusalem. ThePalestinian organizationHamas claimed responsibility for the bombings.[7]
In 2001 the survivors of the attack and their family members broughtlawsuits against Hamas andIran, claiming Iran had provided financial and logistical support to Hamas. The court agreed and awarded $71.5 million incompensatorydamages and $300 million inpunitivedamages from Iran to theplaintiffs.
In order to collect on thejudgment, theplaintiffs sued a number of U.S. museums in 2004, in an attempt to appropriate various Iranianartifacts and collections and sell them to satisfy the claim for damages. Oriental Institute and the Persepolis Fortification Archive were among this group.[44]
The case,Rubin v. Islamic Republic of Iran, was argued December 4, 2017 and decided 8–0 in favor of Iran on February 21, 2018. Since the Persian artifacts were not being used commercially by Iran, they could not be taken under subsections (a) and (g) of 28 U.S.C. § 1610.
The majority view of the academic community as well as international institutions such asUNESCO is the protection of thecultural heritage, exchange and scholarly research must transcend politics.[7][45][46]
The threat of losing the Persepolis Fortification Archive to scholarly research as a result of the litigation since 2004, prompted the Oriental Institute to accelerate and enlarge the PFA Project in 2006, headed by Dr.Matthew Stolper, Professor ofAssyriology.Scholars from various universities, students and volunteers are urgently digitizing the Persepolis Fortification Archive and making it available through online resources for further research worldwide.[47]
The PFA Project editors are:[48]
Excavations directed byErich Schmidt at Persepolis between 1934 and 1939 for the Oriental Institute, discovered a second group of clay tablets and fragments that became known as thePersepolis Treasury Archive (PTA), also known as Persepolis Treasury Tablets (PTT). They were packed in small metal cigarette boxes, filled with sawdust for shipping to Tehran.[49]
Persepolis Treasury Archive deals mostly with payments of silver from the Persepolis treasury made in lieu of partial or full in-kind rations of sheep, wine, or grain to workers and artisans employed at or near Persepolis. Some records are administrative letters ordering payments to groups of workers and confirmation that such payments were made.[50]
Persepolis Treasury Archive was found on the southeastern part of Persepolis terrace in the block of buildings identified as the "Royal Treasury" where small pieces of gold leaves were found, hence the name Persepolis Treasury Archive.[49]
There are two main kinds of clay tablets and fragments in the Persepolis Treasury Archive:[51]
A total find of 746 clay tablets and fragments were reported by the excavators – 198 tablets and large fragments and 548 smaller fragments. 46 clay tablets were given to the Oriental Institute by the Iranian authorities and the rest were sent to theMuseum of Ancient Iran (modern National Museum of Iran) inTehran. A part of the collection has been in the Tablet Hall of theNational Museum of Iran since 1998.[49] 199 sealings without inscriptions were also found during the excavation.[51]
Persepolis Treasury Archive covers thirty five (35) years, from 492 to 457 BCE, from regnal year 30th ofDarius I the Great, to regnal year 7th ofArtaxerxes I, with largest concentration from regnal years 19th and 20th ofXerxes.[54]
A sampletransliteration andtranslation of anElamite record from Persepolis Treasury Archive byGeorge Cameron:[55]
- No. 1957:5
- ma-u-ú-iš kán-za-bar-ra tu-ru-iš ir-da-tak-ma na-an KI.MIN 2 kur-šá-am KÚ.BABBAR şa-ik pír-nu-ba-ik
- gal-na SÌ.SÌ-du gal ruh mu-ši-in sìk-ki-ip i-ia-an-uk-ku-ma ma-u-ú-iš da-ma gal
- Edge [ITU ha-ši-ia-ti]-iš-
- Reverse n [a be-ul] 19-um-me-man-na 4 ruh un-ra [Lines 12-15 completely destroyedli]-ka du-me
- ba-ka-gi-i-a(sic!)-ik-mar
- (To) Vahush the treasurer speak, Artataxma says: 2 karsha silver, the remaining half of the wage,
- give as wages to men, accountants at the court, sub-ordinate to Vahush.
- (It is) the wage for the month Açiyadiya(?) of the 19th year.
- 4 men, each...
- Lines 12-15 destroyed.
- [This sealed order] has been given. The receipt (came) from Bagagiya.
Persepolis archives are a rich resource for the study of all the official languages used in the Persian Achaemenid Empire, both individually and collectively in connection with each other.[39]
Persepolis Treasury Archive furthermore contributes to the study ofeconomic history by providing a record of the introduction ofcoined silver money to the regional economy of the Persepolis and its eventual adoption. Persepolis Fortification Archive, a generation before the Persepolis Treasury Archive, only attests to the payment in-kind at Persepolis (wine, beer, grain, flour, sheep, and the like).[56]
Excavations directed by Akbar Tajvidi at Persepolis between 1968 and 1973, recovered more clay tablets. Excavating the upper towers of the fortification wall on top ofKuh-e Rahmat (Mountain of Mercy), excavators found sealed uninscribed Achaemenid Bullae.[57]From a group of 52 uninscribed sealings, some impressions were similar to the sealings found in the Persepolis Treasury Archive.[58]
Future excavations in the areas currently unexcavated, such as the southeastern part of the Persepolis terrace and mountain fortifications, might yield other archives.[49]
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