Iran's hidden treasures
Updated on 05 May 2005
Some four hundred miles south of Tehran - en route to the ancient capital of the Shah of Shahs. Arts correspondent Nicholas Glass reports on the ancient city of Persepolis.
Channel 4 News arts correspondent Nicholas Glass reports how Persian treasures are little known in the west.
Well over a thousand years before Islam, there was another and very different culture here. If Iran seems enigmatic, little understood by outsiders - its people have never been short of self-regard and they are well aware of their ancient history.
A million Iranians come here each year - some looking the ancient part. If every European knows about the Acropolis in Athens, comparatively few know of the great Persian city of Persepolis - three or four times the size.
A great terrace of limestone was carved from the mountains two and half thousand years ago - and a city quickly rose. In an overture towards the Middle East, the British Museum is preparing a unique exhibition about Ancient Persia.
And the Iranians have agreed to lend artefacts on an unprecedented scale. Many of them originally unearthed at Persepolis.
Our guide is John Curtis, Head of the Ancient Near East Department of the British Museum who has been studying the Ancient Persians for thirty years.
The British Museum will be showing 19th century plaster casts of some of these reliefs.
From the map, you can see how vast the empire was. A land mass - spread across 22 modern countries - in the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia - was once under Persian control. Some 500 years before Christ, the Empire spread rapidly, a loose federation of tribes - Parthians, Indians, Assyrians, Scythians and others.
Although in the great scheme of history - compared with the Greeks, Romans, or the Egyptians, Persian rule was short and sweet - just 220 years. The watercolours of Persepolis - and other Persian outposts - were painted by an 19th century English artist, Robert Kerr Porter.
Much of the capital was buried until a French archaelogical dig in the 1930s. Some of the reliefs are very well preserved - almost pristine - simply because they were buried face down in the sand.
Alexander's army reportedly required 3,000 camels and donkeys to carry away their Persian booty. Gold and Silver and Lapiz Lazuli.
They left a burning ruin. Here were laid out great palaces - built on stone columns rising sixty foot high - protected by an elite guard called the Immortals.
Foreigners - in Persian - Fa- rang-guy - are exotic creatures here - particularly a film crew. We were greeted warmly - all wanting to know what we thought of their country.
My producer, Jessica , blue-eyed and blonde, was overwhelmed, mobbed like a pop star. There were endless photographs, with excitable schoolgirls. In Iran - where so much of public life is segregated - only girls felt bold enough to approach a foreign woman.
Those who know about history will know about the Persian Empire. But most people won't. It's not something that is taught abroad. Even specialist scholars won't know the whole story.
The exhibition at the British Museum can - at least - help remind people of how important and influential the Persian Empire was.
From the old capital to the new one. The great sprawling metropolis of Tehran - heavily polluted, and traffic choked, mostly with the Iranian version of the Hillman Hunter
Channel 4 News arts correspondent Nicholas Glass reports how Persian treasures are little known in the west.
Here you cross the road, at your peril. From our coach, we noticed occassional references to antiquity - in this case a shop front.
The obsession with cosmetic surgery was obvious and open. No one hides a nose job here. It means you can afford one. And there were hints - that at home - Iranians shed the chador and live a little.
But the dominant and recurring images were all about this being an Islamic Republic. Iran's National Museum was built in the 1930s.
And the Ancient Persian Collection is exhibited - as it has been since the 30s - rather drably.
It is poorly lit, dusty and unevocative. Not before time, the museum is planning to remodel itself.
But first the best pieces in the collection are being dismantled and sent to London. Some - like this limestone column - with its magnificent bull head decoration - has stood on this spot for 70 years.
A smaller piece - a lion's head , made of lapiz lazuli - still bears singe marks from Alexander's sacking of Persepolis.
We follow John Curtis into the vault to see the gold and silver objects that are being lent to the British Museum. The Iran Museum does not keep its most valuable artefacts on permanent display. It does not have adequate security. So few Iranians have ever seen them.
First out from the vault - a foundation tablet of cast silver from Persepolis. The surface has been punctured with cuneiform writing - in three languages - Old Persian, Elemite and Bablyonian.
In Ancient Persia, jewellery was worn by both men and women. The craftsmanship was evidently second to none.
Next out - the glint of beaten gold. It is thought there were hundreds of bowls like this at Persepolis and presumably most of them vanished with Alexander's camel train.
They are represented on the limestone reliefs - among the delegations bearing gifts. The gold dagger is decorated with lion's heads.
Ancient Persia had a dozen kings - and they had themselves buried in style - in tombs carved into the rock. The names - Cyrus , Darius and Xerxes - still have resonance. They are all popular boy's names in modern Iran.
By coincidence, we visited Persepolis on a public holiday - the anniversary of the Prophet Mohammad's birthday. The place was teeming. In the baking heat, an ant hill of determined activity. Sixty percent of Iranians are under 30.
A school teacher told us: "These are ancient ruins that people from other countries should come and see. They are very important. I want people to see the ruins with their own eyes. And see how great the Iranian people once were -and tell others about this."
I naturally identify with the Ancient Persians. Just look at me. I feel one of them. It was a strong rich culture that befriended the world. Our great ancestor, Kourosh said: "I have given peace and comfort to the world".
