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Mar 11 • 23 tweets • 12 min read
Iranian Harp; چنگ در ایران باستان

Video: Recreation of an Elamite harp. I talked about Iranian musical instruments before, but will focus on the harp, used in Iranian music for thousands of years until the 17th C, and now being brought back by various musicians

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Recreation of harp from Choga Mish, Iran, 6800 BCE

چنگِ ایرانیِ چغامیش

See original videos as well.

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One of the sealings from Choga Mish

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Elamite depictions of various harps, including horizontal and vertical (also see: iranicaonline.org/articles/harp )

1: Kul-e Farah Musicians-Harps & Square drum
2: Instruments-Double Flute, Tambourine, Harp
3-4: Arjan bowl

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Other Elamite depictions ImageImage
Elamite harp parts, now @MuseeLouvre

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Surviving Pazyryk Scythian harp, and other Asian harps

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Parthian & Achaemenid depictions of harpist

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Another harpist

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Chorasmian/ Khwarezmian Harpist

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Early #Sasanian harpist, Bishapur

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Harpist from Sasanian bowl

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Bahram Gur and Azadeh

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Bahram Gur and Azadeh with harp

Sasanian & post-Sasanian

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Harp players from Taqe Bostan, Iran

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Harp players from Taqe Bostan, Iran Image
Taqe Bostan, drawings

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Post-Sasanian plate with musicians including harpist

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Kafir Kala, Sogdian depiction of harp among other instruments

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Depictions of Sogdian musicians in China

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Usrushana, 8C, Harps and Lute, photo with thanks to @eranudturan

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1256-1353, Ilkhanid depiction of harp, now @ClevelandArt

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Harpists from 1553 & 1529, along with Daf player ImageImage

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More from @On_Persia

Ancient Iran Profile picture
Mar 12
Shapur II, the Great (𐭱𐭧𐭯𐭥𐭧𐭥𐭩; شاپور دوم), tenth Sasanian King of Kings (Shahanshah) of Iran

Longest-reigning monarch in Iranian history (309–379 CE). One of longest reigning monarchs in world history

Known illustrations of Shapur II: bulla/sealing

⤵️🧵 Image
Details of published sealing

⤵️ ImageImageImage
2) Bishapur Relief

⤵️ ImageImage
Read 27 tweets
Ancient Iran Profile picture
Feb 25
Don't just compare #Cyrus the Great (کوروش بزرگ
; 𐎤𐎢𐎽𐎢𐏁) to rulers before him

This is not a convenient fact, so it's is ignored by modern authors: Compare him to what came after:

Romans had no issues destroying what there was in Britain, Germany...: old beliefs...

⤵️ Pasargadae
See e.g., Boudican revolt.

Centuries later authors had to invent the magical world of "western civilization" by connecting Greece to Rome, Rome to various parts of the world. Now it's basically skin color & religion that connect such widely different cultures in

⤵️ https://andrewmtanner.medium.com/the-sick-myth-of-western-ci
Hungary to Scotland, But can't let Turkey into EU cause they're not Christian & white enough!

Arabs had no issues force converting Egyptians, Central Asians... to Islam, and forcing people to speak Arabic in various places. They didn't need to write a cylinder to pretend!

⤵️ Arabs besieging the city of Samarkand, captured in 722 CE. PModern statue of Devashtich in Penjikent, Tajikistan
Read 5 tweets
Ancient Iran Profile picture
Feb 25
The Cyrus Cylinder vs. the Magna Carta

Or how history is rewritten. A few points. This is not a "nationalist" or reactionary post. I want to rationally point to double standards in the "west"

⤵️🧵 From Persians, by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, 2022
Much has been written about both of these documents. The analogy is not perfect, no analogy and no analogical reasoning is.

But one cannot help recognize a very different modern take on these two documents.

1) Magna Carta is called "The Foundation of Freedom"

⤵️
"The Birth of Liberty" etc., even a New Yorker article points out these are purely modern and positive spins on this document:

newyorker.com/magazine/2015/…

"Magna Carta’s importance has often been overstated, and its meaning distorted."

"Magna Carta is very old, but even...

⤵️
Read 32 tweets
Ancient Iran Profile picture
Feb 23
Reconstruction of Commemorative Columns of Ardashir I & Shapur I, Bishapur, #Iran

One column has an inscription...

⤵️
Columns in original excavation report, the capital

⤵️ Also see: https://whc.unesco.org/en/documents/166053 https
Inscription: 16 lines in Sasanian Pahlavi and 12 lines in Arsacid Pahlavi by Apasay, a native of Harrān (in Syria) who was Shapur's secretary

In MP & Persia. Basically says: Apasay who had raised this monument of his own money offered it to the sovereign who, satisfied...

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Read 4 tweets
Ancient Iran Profile picture
Feb 23
Iranian quadriform/quatrefoil motif, now known as Royal Standard or Derafsh Kaviani (درفش کاویانی)

I've written about it before, but wanted to talk about a few points, focusing on excavated & reliable examples

⤵️ Modern recreation with imagined details of the motif as a st
1) Symbol in various forms existed before Achaemenids among other cultures & in Iran. I provided examples before.

2) I've hypothesize it's a form of cross or sun wheel

Achaemenid examples: A) Pazyryk carpet;

B) Carved lid & carpet design, Persepolis (6 C BCE - ~ 330 BCE)

⤵️ I've talked about Pazyryk carpet before: various design elem
Given its religious significance; appearance together with swastikas; and later the usual cross symbol on other ossuaries in Sogdiana...

3) We can trace the symbol/ motif from Achaemenid period, through...

Photos: Seal impressions from excavated seals, Achaemenid Gordion

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Read 19 tweets
Ancient Iran Profile picture
Feb 22
Rarely seen mosaics from Bishapur, Iran. From original excavation reports of 1930s and 1950s (Ghirshman)

I don't believe these have been published since. I also understand some were damaged and lost

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If we look at this one for example, the current item kept @MuseeLouvre online and at the museum as I recall only has the left part intact:

collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/…

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Similarly, there were 4-5 of these series of heads at the site, only one of which is better known

see e.g., collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/…

⤵️
Read 4 tweets

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