The figures depicted here—carrying bowls, trays, and young animals—once lined the stairways of buildings, effectively ascending alongside visitors. Each person wears a cap that also covers part of the face, along with tight-fitting riding gear or a long robe. The figures are usually interpreted as attendants bringing provisions for the royal table but sometimes are considered cult personnel bringing sacrificial offerings.
The motif was introduced by the site’s first builder, King Darius I. A photograph from the early 1880s shows that the two fragments on the left (1943.1065 and 1943.1066) come from the Palace of Darius. The fragment at right (1943.1311) is carved in the more linear style of the fourth century BCE and can be traced back to building efforts of King Artaxerxes III. Such continuity in the sculptural program allowed later rulers to align themselves with powerful predecessors.
Fragments from Persepolis
Persepolis (City of the Persians) is the Greek name for one of the capitals of the Achaemenid Persian empire (c. 550–330 BCE). The Persians called it Parsa—like the people and the region at the empire’s heart, today’s Fars province in Iran. Especially significant to ancient Persian identity, the city is a key site for Achaemenid archaeology. The empire was the last of the great Middle Eastern empires before Alexander’s conquest, extending from Egypt in the west to the Indus Valley in the east. The massive terrace at Persepolis contained monumental stairs, gate buildings, audience halls, residences, and a treasury; royal tombs were carved into nearby cliffs. The walls were of mud brick, but stairways, doorways, and columns were made of limestone and decorated with sculpture in relief and in the round. Subject peoples from across the empire contributed materials, labor, and know-how to the building efforts, and the site’s architecture and sculpture incorporated motifs from conquered regions. The result was a unified visual representation of Achaemenid kingship and empire.
