Large cuneiform foundation barrel,
referring to Nebuchadnezzar II
604-652 BC - source National
Museum of Iraq, Baghdad

The façade of the royal throne room was also decorated with lions, with columns decorated with stylised palmettos and lotus buds. Pottery models of animals are also found, the dog being notable - probably used to ward off rabies that was a problem at this time. There is also a terracotta map of Babylonia, centred on Babylon showing rivers and mountains surrounded by seas. Nebuchadnezzar and his successors also placed terracotta cylinders containing cuneiform accounts of their activities under new buildings.

Nebuchadnezzar rebuilt canals, together with walls, temples, monuments and palaces in Babylon. It is said that 15 million fired square bricks were used during the rebuilding of Babylon, some of which were stamped with cuneiform inscriptions extolling the king’s efforts.

Brick referring to Nebuchadnezzar II,
580 BC - courtesy Ifergan Collection

Near his palace were the remains of a huge Ziggurat built 1,300 years previously, but destroyed by the Assyrian leader Sennacherib in 689 BC. Nebuchadnezzar had it rebuilt to a height of nearly 300 ft, and legend has it that he planted trees and flowering shrubs on it to please his homesick wife who was missing the northern mountains, hence the “Hanging Gardens of Babylon”. It is possible this is also the “Tower of Babel”, so-called as part of the Christian propaganda following his brutal attacks on Palestine. Babylonian priests were strongly into astrology, as they thought the movement of heavenly bodies affected peoples’ lives, but while researching this they made significant discoveries about planet movements and eclipses that was the basis for later astronomy.

After a ten year siege, and reputedly after diverting the Euphrates, in 539 BC Babylonia fell to the Persian armies of Cyrus the Great and Babylon became one of his regional capitals.

9.44 Persia up to the “First” Persian Empire

The history of Iran started with the earliest ancient civilisations on the Iranian Plateau, long before the arrival of the Aryan tribes from the north. Geographically it was a crossroads for these civilisations and the caravan routes they used. The South Western part of Iran was part of the Fertile Crescent, so it had close links with Mesopotamia. The name Persia comes from the Persian “Pars” or the Greek “Persis” Region in the south of Iran that was the core of the original Persian Empire. Iran comes from the “Land of the Aryans”, the Indo-Iranian nomads from Central Asia who arrived in the area in the 3^rd and 2^nd millennium BC. Central Asia produced many people but was unable to support them all, hence there were so many incursions from this huge region to the south west and south east that they thought would be more bountiful. Also the Silk Road connecting China to Persia (and onwards to Antioch where it branched to Anatolia and the Levant) was key to the rich development of the Cultures of many countries at different times, particularly Persia, China, India and Rome. It was an obvious vehicle for the transfer of technology and design concepts between Cultures.

The first Persian pottery was low-fired soft earthenware dated as early as 8,000 BC, found at sites in the west (Kermanshah) and south of the Caspian Sea (Behshahr). In the 7^th Millennium BC they were decorating their pottery with red, black and white slip. Between 6 and 5,000 BC various places including Tepe or (Tappeh) Sialk near Kashan, central Persia, were producing much harder pottery tempered with straw and other plant varieties. These were predominantly handmade bowls with globular bodies having concave bases and characteristic long spouts for ceremonial pouring of liquids.

Persian spouted vessel, Tepe Sialk, 4,000 BC 
- source Iran Museum, Tehran via Fabiandany

The bodies were grey-to-black, and even greenish in colour, as the temperature was not controlled, but they managed to make them resemble the red and brown streaked local stone. Early “painted pottery” decoration used a plaited pattern, as if imitating a basket, as well as red painted geometric patterns, animals (sheep and goats), plants and humans. An interesting early ceramic discovery was a number of pottery wine jars found in Hajji Firuz Tepe in the Zagros Mountains and dated to before 5,000 BC which was found in the kitchen of a mud-brick Neolithic house. They were set into the floor and each had a volume of over 2 gallons (10 litres). One was found to contain a reddish residue that when analysed indicated that it contained traces from grapes and terebinth resin as used today in retsina as a preservative.