Page 232 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

THE ART OE ANCIENT PERSIA
whole, variants oFtliosc of .Mesopotamia, tlic earliest Elamite examples show distinctive
features in both style and subject. They depict, for example, monsters more grim than
those imagined by the men of the lowlands. Plates 9c and 10 give an idea of these
designs.

V

Figure 99. Prehistoric vases, from Susa

When, towards the end of the Protolitcrate Period, Mesopotamian influence radiated
as far west as Egypt, it also penetrated farther into Iran. It is first traceable at Sialk, near
Kashan on the edge of the central plateau,4 and then, in Early Dynastic times, beyond
the south-eastern shores of the Caspian, at Astrabad. But these traces are isolated;

me.

Figure 100. Prehistoric cup, from Persepolis

whether others remain to be discovered, or whether Iran stayed for a long time at a low
level of civilization, we cannot say. In the west, in Elam, many arts and crafts followed
Mesopotamian examples closely, as is often the case when one region supplies raw
materials to another of superior culture. All kinds of metal came from Iran, which may
well have been the homeland of copper-working on a significant scale; even the pre-

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