Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎585v] (1185/1814)

■n
172
PERSIA
not think that we shall endorse this phrase. At Persepolis the former,
rather than the latter type of surface decoration would appear to have
been mainly employed ; but very few fragments of tiles having ever
been picked up on the platform, and those in the main of doubtful
antiquity. At Susa the reverse was the case j but at Susa too the
main body of the interior walls appears to have been of stucco, coloured
red, and adorned with tapestries and hangings. Later excavations at
Persepolis in the big heaps of debris between the palaces may perhaps
brino-to light additional evidence, but I doubt whether, broadly speaking,
& .1
they will invalidate the above conclusion.
Before leaving this part of the platform, I may observe that on its
outer edge, to the north-west of the Palace of Darius, are traces of a
building, first noted by Niebuhr, and marked by Flandin and
Arta Ce ° f Coste. 1 Though too indeterminate in form and size to justify
xerxes III. reconstruction, it has been assumed by some writers to be
the c House of the A omen . 7 Continuing in a direct line south fi om
the Palace of Darius, we arrive at the 'ruins of a building occupying
the extreme south-west corner of the upper platform, where the latter
rises with a sheer edge above the lower or southern unoccupied level.
Access is gained to this ruin by a mutilated double stairway on the
north face , 2 upon the front of which are a row of processional figures,
and two cuneiform inscriptions, similar to those that we have seen on
the western stairway of the Palace of Darius. They proclaim the
handiwork of Artaxerxes III. or Ochus ; but whether they signify that
carefully, but nowhere found any trace either of gilding or colouring myself.
How, then, are we to reconcile these conflicting records ? I confess I think that
the sevententh-century travellers either greatly exaggerated or copied, each m
turn, from the earliest who had originated the statement; for I do not see why
gilding which had retained ‘a perfect lustre’ for 2,100 years should suddenly
disappear m toto after the lapse of 2 , 200 . Some of these writers may have been
mistaken by the sun shining on the siliceous varnish with which the ancient Tej-
sians appear to have overlaid their sculptures. On the other hand, it is far irom
improbable that colour may have been employed, to some extent, even on tne
stone I have elsewhere mentioned that traces of blue paint have been found on
the cuneiform epitaph on Darius’s tomb, and it may equally have been applied at
Persepolis. The analogv of Assyrian art is in favour both of colour and gilding.
Perrot points out that none of the horns or ears of the bull-capitals have been
found on the platform, though the holes are there im which they were fixed. He
therefore suggests that they may have been of gilt bronze.
. t i 4-Hrv ao+.-lG
3 iore ^
Since writing the above, I have received the satisfactory assurance
i rom
-
• A
jtP
Mr Cecil Smith that in one of the buildings on the platform he acmallj pioke.
up some fragments of stucco painted red, which are now in the Bntrsh Museum
* Ker Porter, in his plan, places a double staircase m the north-west corner
but this is a mistake. Flandin and Coste, also, fail to do justrce to the north
stairways, but add a small flight of steps (which I overlooked) at right ang.es o
the platform near the west extremity.
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