Page 250 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

THE ART OF ANCIENT PERSIA
by a wall with stepped recesses, in the Mesopotamian manner, and only one gateway
led into this enclosure. Its main feature was the number of large pillared halls surrounded
by narrow corridors. The single entrance gave access to guardrooms leading into the
court (marked B) with the four porticoes; in two of these are orthostats with a relief
showing Darius receiving an official in audience (Plate 184A). Thousands of arrow-heads,
javelins, and other weapons and many hundreds of tablets were found in the surrounding
rooms. Its pillars were of wood covered with plaster which was painted in blue, red,
and white (Figure 111).
After our survey of the lay-out we shall now consider the elevations of the buildings,
and we must first comment on the peculiar nature of the stone-work. We have men­
tioned stone door-frames and window-frames and niches; they are best preserved in the

Figure 111. Column of wood covered
with painted plaster, from the treasury of Pcrscpolis
(Courtesy Dr Erich F. Schmidt)

residential palace of Darius (Plate 181, background), but all are treated in the same way.
They arc not built up logically, as was done in Egypt or Greece, from four separate
pieces: lintel, sill, and two jambs. They are sometimes carved in a single block; at other
times parts, one-lialf or three-quarters of the circumferences, Were cut from one block
and the rest from one or more separate pieces. In other words, the stone was treated in
the manner of a sculptor, not that of a mason. The same odd treatment is observed in
the stairs; these are not regular units cut in quantities and used in a set fashion, a number
of identical blocks for the treads and a number of blocks to build the parapet, but ‘it is
the rule that an arbitrary width and length of steps is hewn out of the same block with
part of the parapet. In a similar way columns are never made of a fixed number of
drums* of a given size.61
The columns are the most characteristic feature of Achaemcnian architecture. Many
-----
were of wood, on stone bases, the shaft sometimes plastered and painted (Figure 111).
221

_____