Seal workshops and artists in Persepolis: A study of seal impressions preserving the theme of heroic encounter on the Persepolis Fortification and Treasury Tablets. (Volumes I-III).

The seal impressions preserved on the Persepolis Fortification Tablets and the Persepolis Treasury Tablets document a flourishing school of glyptic art covering the reigns of Darius the Great and Xerxes. Employing h and attribution, a traditional method of Western art historical analysis, this study uncovers many important seal artists and workshops active in the late sixth and early fifth centuries B.C. in the heartl and of the Persian Empire. Examining those seals which preserve the theme of the heroic encounter (representing approximately one-third of the entire number of seals from the two archives), seven broad "Styles" emerge, among which some thirty-six distinct artistic h and s can be recognized. This method of analysis reveals a picture of the creative process within a specific craft at a particularly important time and place in the development of Achaemenid art. It has been generally accepted that the style and iconography of Achaemenid glyptic owes much to the earlier Near Eastern traditions of Assyria, Babylonia and Elam. In this study for the first time we are able to characterize with some precision the nature of the processes of selection and redefinition of the antique traditions that yielded the formulation of the Achaemenid Court Style. We are able to observe the artistic personalities of distinguishable masters at work in the late sixth and early fifth centuries B.C. Clearly the artists are part of the overall creative activity associated with the canonization of the vast imperial programme of architecture and sculpture initiated by Darius the Great at Persepolis. Furthermore the dating evidence provided by the tablet texts pinpoints the emerge of the Court Style in the last decades of the sixth century B.C. This has significant implications for discussions of related art produced at Persepolis. This study lays important foundations for future research not only on the seals from the Persepolis archives, but also Achaemenid seal art in general. Having isolated the forms of artistic expression associated with the imperial m and ate in the heartl and , we may now more fruitfully examine the many unprovenanced seals in museums and private collections, and begin to address issues of center and periphery.PhDArchaeologyArt historyAncient historyUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/162043/1/8907034.pd