Agriculture in Ancient Iran: Just so not all the news is sad. ❤️🔥
Based on a few years of research to find visual & primary sources. |
اینو مینویسم که یک گوشه دیگه از تاریخمون رو بهتر بشناسیم: کشاورزی در ایران باستان.
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Major cereal-related episodes in Iran's history
Also See: The cultivation and domestication of wheat
and barley in Iran, brief review of a long history, 2021
درآمدی بر آبیاری و کشاورزی در پارس باستان.
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Two bulls with a plough/plow, Marlik, Iran, 2-1 Mill BCE
دو پیکرک و خیش, مارلیک
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My focus here will be on visual and a few primary sources related to agriculture. See Iranica articles on agriculture generally.
Some visual reps I focus on are the plough & the sickle for example. Of course not unique to ancient Iran.
Cart Wheel, Choghazanbil
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Though not directly on point, wheels, to state the obvious, also had numerous uses in the ancient world including one can assume in agriculture.
Ploughing Scenes: 1: Tepe Golestan
2: Babylonian Seal impression. 14thC BCE, found in Susa
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Bactrian Cup, @mihomuseum
See photo 4 for ploughing scene
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Achaemenid seal impressions & drawings with ploughing scenes
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Actual #Achaemenid seal with ploughing /plowing scene
مهر هخامنشی با تصویر کشاورز, گاوهای زراعت (ورزا ) و خیش.
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Seal 1: "a team of humped bulls pulls a plow toward the right; ahead of them a man sows broadcast from an open sack of seed at his waist"
Achaemenid era.
3: Achaemenid satrapy coins
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Possible #Sasanian era seals with ploughing scenes
1: Saeedi Collection
2: private collection
#مهسا_امینی
#Mahsa_Amini
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As part of agriculture, scenes with farm animals from Scythians
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Grape harvest & similar scenes, Sasanian era
#مهسا_امینی
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Olive press base from the surface of Qalatga Darband, Parthian era
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Water management in a place like Iran where large parts of the country are dry and without water is of course essential for farming
For thousands of years, Iranians devised surface-level & underground channels, canals, etc. for water management
Photos: Pasargadae
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This is also related to gardens & gardening in ancient Iran which is another big part of Iranian culture.
One big part of water management was the qanat = karez = underground aqueduct system
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Photos of qanats in Iran. There are thousands of these around Iran. Some are still used to this day.
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Mention of MP word for qanat (kahas) in primary sources. As well as mention of gardens and vineyards
2: Tang-e Khošk
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Waterways and canals in construction of 2 cities as examples: Istakhr and Takhte Rostam
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Persian Asbads or windmills
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Of course we can't forget the masterpiece of water management in Sasanian Shushtar as an example
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Shushtar, #Sasanian era
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Shushtar, #Sasanian era
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Shushtar, Sasanian era
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Old Persian & Elamite primary sources (examples), among many others
1: contract for the delivery of barley, PTS
2: contract for the delivery of dates, PTS
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Contract for the rental of labour to dig a canal, @MuseeLouvre
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Contract for the sale of oxen, @britishmuseum
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1: promissory note for barley
2: Record of purchase of a field
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1-2: Aramaic record from Bactria, Achaemenid era: ... "Also the corn and the sesame, (for) sowing as seed, which Bagavant is under duty to bring in to the <granary> building of my lord..."
3: Grain-related documents: a) Elamite, commercial contract paid by barley and silver
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Achaemenid era:
1: A military land grant in Egypt: "... I ploughed the field but did not receive/take from them"
2: Work on canals: Babylonian tablet: "6 spades, 4 sickles were brought ... and 10 sickles to Bel-silim (who are) at the sluice canal of the Cyrus River Canal."
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Parthian era: Avroman Parchment III
"In the year 300 (=53 CE) in the month of Arwatat, Pataspak son of Tirin, who [comes] from Bod, sold half the vineyard of Asmak, which is by the ploughfields..."
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A Collection of #sickles from millennia in ancient Iran
1-2: Susa, @MuseeLouvre , among many other examples at Louvre
#مهسا_امینی
#Mahsa_Amini
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More sickles
2: Elamite, Susa
3: Elamite
4: Sialk, @ Louvre
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More sickles from ancient Iran
1-2: Sialk, @ Louvre
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Sickles from Chogha Mish, Iran
2: @UChicago
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Grains harvesting and preparing tools:
a. Stone sickle blades, Tappeh Sang-e Chakhmaq, 6500
5300 BCE
b. Ceramic sickle, Chogha Mish, 3500-3100 BCE
c Stone grinder, Aq Tappeh (Gorgan, North
Alborz, Iran), 5200 4800 BCE
d. Bronze sickle, ancient Lorestan
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Sickles from ancient Iran
1: sickle haft of Tappeh Sang-e Chakhmaq
2: Hasanlu
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Sasanian era sickles, plough:
1: @metmuseum
2: Excavated @ Tol-e Qaleh Seyfābād: metal objects including C. Iron #plough
D. Iron axe
E. Iron object resembling #sickle
F. Copper-alloy ladle.
#مهسا_امینی
Sickles do not have a connection with death in Iran as in parts of western world
My own association for the Persian word is from my time in north of Iran, when I heard in a specific dialect of that region they called the new moon - داس مه = moon sickle...
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Not sure how right or accurate that is, but Hafez also has a beautiful poem where he uses this image
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مزرع سبز فلک دیدم و داس مه نو
یادم از کشته خویش آمد و هنگام درو
گفتم ای بخت بخفتیدی و خورشید دمید
گفت با این همه از سابقه نومید مشو...
آتش زهد و ریا خرمن دین خواهد سوخت
حافظ این خرقه پشمینه بینداز و برو
In hopes of a brighter tomorrow, of peace, freedom, love ❤️🔥
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