Thread by @PersiaAntigua

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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https://twitter.com/On_Persia/status/1517972605340430337?s=20&t=8uXhBXPpX7xQ_1I6_1WIaQ

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 ❤️🔥