Author: M. Tatsu
#伊朗篇-15 #
Dear friends, thank you for your support and follow the "Museum of the World" from Egypt, India, Greece, Mexico and Russia in the European series to Singapore, Indonesia, Turkey and so on in the Asian series. Now, the highlight of 2019 – iran is underway... Speed onlookers!
(National Museum of Iran)
The National Museum of Iran is the most important and largest museum in Iran, and it is also one of the most well-known museums in the world.
Today, Tatsukan will walk with you into this museum with a very rich collection (hereinafter referred to as the "Iranian National Museum"), and wander together in the long river of Iranian history to feel the brilliant Persian civilization.
(The picture of this article was taken by the author,
All rights reserved
）
(Iran National Expo Exhibition Hall)
Founded in 1933-1936, the Iranian National Museum covers a total area of about 17,000 square meters and more than 2,000 rooms; the collection of cultural relics includes stoneware, bronze, pottery, glassware and more than 300,000 cultural relics of woodcuts, stone carvings, coins, textiles and other categories, spanning from the Paleolithic Age 1 million years ago to the modern 18th century. Its rich collection showcases the most iconic cultural heritage of Iran's long history and is the most valuable cultural heritage left to mankind by the ancient Persian civilization.
(Xerxes Accepts The Pilgrimage, stone carving)
Among the many cultural relics in the Iranian national museum, there are many heavyweight cultural relics such as "one of the world's oldest cultural relics", "one of the world's most historically valuable cultural relics", "one of the world's most well-known cultural relics" and so on. Today, let's first talk about one of these treasures:
The treasure of the Iranian National Museum
- Stone sculpture "Xerxes Accepts The Pilgrimage" (above).
Who is Xerxes? Why did this stone sculpture become the treasure of the town hall?
(Xerxes Accepts The Pilgrimage, partial)
As mentioned before, whether a cultural relic can become a heavyweight cultural relic depends first on its historical value, followed by its scientific value and artistic value
Historical value is the most important
。 That is to say, historical value is the first element of the value of cultural relics.
So, what is the important historical value of this "Xerxes Accepts Pilgrimage", which is the treasure of iran's national museum?
Let's first understand the background of the era of Xerxes Accepts The Pilgrimage.
(Ruins of an Achaemenid palace)
In the history of Persia (the old name of Iran), there have been some dynasties (eras) that have influenced the history and pattern of the world.
Achaemenid dynasty
It is one of them, and the persian-Greek war (Persian vs Greek), the story of the Marathon, etc. as we know it all originated from this era.
The Achaemenid dynasty was the first empire in Persian history, and it continued to expand its sphere of influence through southern conquests and eastern conquests, and finally established a vast and powerful empire.
The Persians first inhabited the steppes of Central Asia and later migrated to the northwestern part of the Iranian plateau, and it consisted of several tribes, the Achaemenids as one of them.
In the 7th century BC, despes of the Achaemenid family became king of the Persians; in 559 BC, the throne passed to him
Cyrus II
At that time, the Persian state was still a small country; later, with the strong conquest of Cyrus, the persian small country gradually became stronger; by 550 BC, after the Persians defeated the kingdom of Mytia, they finally became the hegemon of the Iranian plateau, opening a new era of the Persian Empire.
(Persepolis, site of an Achaemenid palace)
The Achaemenid dynasty lasted from Cyrus II to its final demise, experiencing thirteen emperors. In the early days, several emperors were famous and outstanding, leaving many historical stories; in the later period, several emperors had mediocre merits and lackluster achievements, and the last one actually broke the country. This article mainly introduces the first few.
: Founding the Empire, the throne passed to his son Cambyses II, who also died in the conquest and was succeeded by Cambyses' brother Bardice. Of the three kings of the early empire, only Cyrus II was famous.
Darius I
Darius I was a Persian nobleman who was a branch of the royal family. Legend has it that he killed the former king, Bardis, and established himself as king (reigned from 522 BC to 486 BC, the same era as Laozi and Confucius in China).
According to historical records, Darius I became queen and carried out a series of expansion wars, which eventually made the dynasty territory span three continents of Europe, Asia and Africa, and he himself was also hailed as one of the most powerful emperors in Persian history. Persia's war against Greece began in the era of Darius I, a war that lasted 43 years and is one of the most famous wars in world history.
Many of the important relics and artifacts of Persian history that we see in Iran now are related to this Darius I.
(Xerxes Returns to the Palace, Persepolis)
Xerxes I
: The son of Darius I, that is, the male protagonist in the treasure of the town hall that we want to talk about today, "Xerxes Accepts the Pilgrimage" (hereinafter referred to as "Xerxes").
Artaxerxes I
: Xerxes' youngest son. After Xerxes was murdered, his youngest son ascended the throne.
The above highlights
：1.
Cyrus
, Founder of the Empire; 2.
Darius
3. Darius, Xerxes, and Artaxerxes I are the three generations of direct grandchildren.
Why emphasize this relationship between the three generations of Darius' ancestors?
Because
Iran's most famous ancient site, "Persepolis", was founded by the grandchildren of Darius, Xerxes and Artaxerxes I
Some of these historical relics have now become important collections of the National Museum of Iran, including this stone carving of Xerxes Accepts The Pilgrimage.
And the tragic story hidden in "Xerxes Accepts the Pilgrimage" takes place
Xerxes and Artaxerxes I father and son era.
Come back to this "Xerxes Accepts The Pilgrimage."
Above: Xerxes sits on the throne with a scepter in his hand; standing behind him is his eldest son, the crown prince; behind the prince are two favored courtiers; behind the favored courtiers are two bodyguards. On the other side of the picture are worshippers and guards (omitted from this picture). The entire stone carving shows Xerxes receiving a pilgrimage from his visitors.
However, such a seemingly peaceful picture inadvertently records the smiling tiger images of the two murderers.
Originally, this stone carving was made during the Xerxes period and depicts Xerxes and the prince and his favorite courtiers receiving worship. The two favored courtiers in the yellow circle above are the commanders of the Forbidden Army and the eunuchs, both of whom are Xerxes' guards. The two took advantage of their positions to kill Xerxes, after which they claimed that the crown prince had killed the king in order to usurp the throne, and installed Xerxes's young son
(grandson of the three generations of grandchildren mentioned earlier) ascended the throne.
After Artaxerxes I ascended the throne, he put the crown prince to death. Only later did he learn that the prince had been framed and regretted it.
As a result, of the four home men No. 1, 2, 3, and 4 in the picture, two are victims - male No. 1 Xerxes was killed, male No. 2 prince was framed and killed by mistake; two are murderers - male 3 and male No. 4 are the culprits of this assassination incident.
Therefore, "Xerxes Accepts The Pilgrimage" not only shows the prosperous scene of the powerful Persian Empire in the Xerxes era enjoying the prosperity of all countries, but also inadvertently records the images of several parties in the major historical events of the Persian Empire, which is a rare and precious cultural relic.
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