of Shiraz and near Darab, some stone bell‐shaped bases of Persepolis type and ceramic material have been found which point to important Achaemenid occupations (Hansman 1975). The whole southern region to the Persian Gulf suffers from a hot and dry climate, creating an arid environment. Sparsely populated before the Achaemenid period, the region is more densely occupied from the early centuries CE on. The settlements are no longer concentrated along the perennial streams but extend higher on the slopes. In my opinion, this change is due to the introduction of a new irrigation technique, the underground water draining galleries. Very likely since the late Iron Age these shallow galleries were subterranean derivations from streams but did not tap the deeper water table. For the Achaemenid period we know only of galleries in Egypt tapping permanent water resources (Wuttmann 2001). This famous technique, called qanāt or karīz, permitted the occupation of more semi‐arid and arid areas. However, despite Polybius X. 28, it is not yet clear whether the qanat technique was actually used in Iran and particularly in Fars as early as the Achaemenid period (Boucharlat 2001, 2017).
Human occupation is restricted to oases, such as the Borazjān at 70 km from Bushehr on the Persian Gulf shore. Royal stone buildings were found in different places today embedded within palm groves (Zehbari 2020). One of these palaces was excavated in 1970 southwest of the modern city. A hypostyle hall of 18 m in length at Sang‐i Siah consists of two rows of six column bases, two‐stepped square plinths, the lower made of a black and a white stone, the upper with white stone topped by a black torus. They are similar in color and size to those of Palace S of Pasargadae (a square of 1.10 m and 1.16 m, respectively). The hall is surrounded by four porticoes with two rows of bases; the eastern portico with 14 bases extends beyond the hall as at Palace P at Pasargadae. Another pillared building with one similar columned portico was excavated in 2005 at Bardak Siah, 12 km northwest of Borazjan, with bicolored stone bases. The rectangular hall exhibits four rows of six bases. In these palaces, there is no evidence of stone column shafts. In the latter an inscribed fragment in Babylonian and a fragment of bas‐relief showing the head and shoulder of a king under an umbrella with a servant were found. On one hand the column bases recall those of Pasargadae buildings, on the other hand the sculpture is reminiscent of Darius' reliefs at Persepolis. These constructions could have been begun by Cyrus and completed in Darius' time.
Western Fars and the Persepolis‐Susa Road
This part of the province is still in the uplands (approx. 1000 m above sea level) and has more favorable climate and water resources than southern Fars. This area was on the way between the two royal residences, Persepolis and Susa (600 km), but archeology so far has failed to identify any of the 20 supply stations that were to be installed on the road for accommodating groups of travelers, the king and his retinue when he was visiting his “countries,” messengers, troops, groups of nobles, and workers (Hallock 1969; Koch 1990) For example, the transfer of workers between the residences at Persepolis and Susa (Briant 2013) is attested only by Persepolis tablets. These buildings, probably made of mudbrick, did not leave many traces. However, this area is gradually revealing architectural remains of noble or royal residences in the form of stone column bases in different parts of the foothills. A region around the modern town of Nurabad seems particularly privileged. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries bell‐shaped bases decorated with palm leaves, similar to those of Persepolis, were identified. After soundings by a Japanese expedition in 1959, it was not until 2006 that the site of Qaleh Kali was again investigated by an Iranian–Australian microregional and multiperiod project. Excavations (Potts et al. 2009) cleared more column bases which belong to a portico. Floors, stairs, and parapets are also made of worked stones. More importantly, this building was not isolated. In the same area, other buildings, palaces or pavilions, have recently been located, as evinced by some stone column bases. Dating to the Achaemenid period is assumed on the ground of the shape and the techniques of working stone and some artifacts, though they are often mixed with more recent objects. These strongly built constructions were not destroyed in the fall of the Persian Empire and were reoccupied in the next few centuries.
The Foothills and the Eastern Plain of Khūzestān
These areas were certainly important in the first millennium BCE, during Neo‐Elamite kingdoms which correspond to the period of the penetration of Iranian populations. The meeting of these populations created an acculturation which is called the “Persian ethno‐genesis,” from which later emerged the Achaemenid dynasty (Briant 1984; Miroschedji 1985; Henkelman 2008; Álvarez‐Mon and Garrison 2011). But the terms of this acculturation remain poorly known due to the lack of archeological evidence. For the first half of the sixth century BCE, only few graves of the elite were found incidentally, one in Arjān, near the town of Behbehān (Álvarez‐Mon 2010), and another in 2007 near the town of Ram Hurmuz, to the west in the plain, whose luxurious furniture is still very little known (see Chapter 27). For the Achaemenid period, column bases show the existence of elite or royal residences. As an example, 5 of 18 column bases, belonging to a pillared hall of an Achaemenid palace or pavilion, were discovered near Ram Hurmuz in 2009.
Susa, the Choice of Darius Between Persepolis and Babylon
Susa is the most famous Persian residence known by the Greek authors (see Aeschylus, The Persians narrating the defeat of Salamis in 480 BCE; see e.g. Aesch., Pers. 16, 534‐6, 730, 761). The palace of Darius differs from that of Persepolis in many respects, although the audience hall, called Apadana in a royal inscription, has obvious similarities with that of Persepolis. Susa is located in a vast plain crossed by several perennial rivers that allowed the early development of irrigation systems comparable to those of Mesopotamia. The plain and Susa itself suffered a significant population decline in the first half of the first millennium BCE after a flourishing period in the second millennium (Potts 2015: pp. 259–308). Permanent settlement in the plain during the Achaemenid period was relatively small, as it was in the Persepolis plain, and there was almost nothing around Susa itself between the Karkheh and Dez rivers. One hypothesis suggests that Darius, in deciding to install one of his residences in the old Elamite city, may have displaced the indigenous population that lived there and in the surrounding villages.
The limits Darius gave to Susa are defined by a massive mudbrick steep glacis, 18 m high, with no real defensive wall, enclosing 70 ha (Figure 15.5). Only one gate was found to the east, built of mudbrick. The inner space of the city is surprisingly empty apart from the royal quarter to the north. The whole empty space south of the palace was extensively explored by a long‐term French expedition, with no results for the Achaemenid period, despite huge works in the late nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century under M. Dieulafoy, J. de Morgan, R. de Mecquenem and R. Ghirshman. Much more precise research conducted by J. Perrot from 1969 to 1979 unearthed only flimsy remains.
Figure 15.5 Site map of Susa.
Source: Reproduced by permission of Remy Boucharlat and Danielle Perrot.
The palace is set on a 12 ha area (to be compared with the 12 ha of the Persepolis terrace) on the Apadana hill (Figure 15.6). Other buildings on the northwestern part of the “Royal City” hill (as the first French excavators coined it) also belong to the palace complex. To the southwest, the higher “Acropolis” hill was crowned by a poorly preserved Achaemenid period (?) mudbrick wall, 6–8 m thick, overlooking the palace.
Figure 15.6 Susa, Palace of Darius.