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Epic Iran: Persian splendours
A major exhibition delving into 5,000 years of art and design in Iran is set to open in London in May. Minerva Magazine's Lucia Marchini speaks to curator John Curtis for a preview of some of the ancient highlights.
‘I am Darius the Great King, King of Kings, king of countries containing all kinds of men, king in this great earth far and wide, son of Hystaspes, an Achaemenian, a Persian, son of a Persian, an Aryan, having Aryan lineage.’
These words appear in an inscription on the tomb of Darius I (r. 522-486 BC) at Naqsh-e Rustam, a necropolis near the ancient ceremonial capital of Persepolis in Iran. The third of the Kings of Kings of the Achaemenid dynasty (550-330 BC) tells us that he is Persian – the Achaemenid kings were ethnic Persians who settled in Fars, south-west Iran – but also that he is ariya (‘Aryan’), a word that shows that by his reign people in Iran were calling themselv
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