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Hecatompylos (Šahr-e Qumis) |
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| Unless otherwise indicated, pictures on this page © Marco Prins and Jona Lendering. Photos can be downloaded and used for non-commercial purposes, but you have to acknowledge Livius. | ||
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A caravanserai along the main road from Tehran to Mashad, or, to use the ancient name: along the Silk road from Rhagae to Susia. It is near Qosheh. Here, a visitor of Hecatompylos, the old capital of the Parthian Empire, has to leave the highway. According to its (Greek) name, the city once had "hundred gates". |
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Today, the plain of Šahr-e Qumis is absolutely deserted, but everywhere, you can see the remains of the old city, which was, according to the Greek author Appian of Alexandria, founded by the Seleucid king Seleucus I Nicator. In fact, it must have been a refoundation, because we know that Alexander the Great visited the place after the death, in nearby Choara, of his opponent Darius III Codomannus, one generation before Seleucus. Besides, the plain is littered with millions of potsherds, and many of them date back to the Early Iron Age. | |
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On the plain, you can see several mounds. Only a few of them have been excavated, and the area between them has been mostly ignored. Yet, the first results are encouraging: several architectural remains that appear to have belonged to a palace-like building and a fort, tombs, ceramics, seals, and two lists with personal names that date back to the year 170 of the Arsacid era (= 78 BCE). | |
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Today, the dry mountain winds blow the sand and dust to the desert. It is the only sound you hear at Šahr-e Qumis; otherwise, there is a deafening silence. It is hard to imagine that this once was a busy city. But it becomes understandable when we realize that it was situated on the southern slope of the Elburz mountains, the large natural obstacle between the Caspian Sea and the arid central plateau of Iran. Hardly any rain falls in the area of Hecatompylos, but yet, there is water: in the spring, countless flash floods flow to the south from the mountains, and there are several artesic wells. The zone along the foothills of the Elburz is therefore, essentially, a small strip of more or less fertile land. The capital of the Parthian Empire could feed and refresh many people. | |
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The field of sherds at Šahr-e Qumis measures some 7 x 4 kilometers or 28 km², which suggests that Hecatompylos must have boasted tens of thousands of inhabitants. They have left not only sherds; when you look carefully you can find other objects as well. We discovered a metal ring and a piece of lapis lazuli. | |
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The architectural remains of Hecatompylos are hard to interpret. This giant (56 meter in diameter) mud brick monument is called Mound I or the Naqqareh Khaneh ("house of the kettle drum"), and the sherds suggest that it is relatively young. Here you can see it on a satellite photo (or something closely resembling it, I am not quite sure.) | |
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This picture shows the east face of the Naqqareh Khaneh. The hole in
the center is recent: treasure hunters tried to find something. The rubbish
dump is in front.
Interesting is Mound VI, a structure of 50 x 30 meters with several towers and a courtyard. It must have been some sort of fort. It can stylistically be compared to fortifications from Aria and Bactria from the first centuries BCE and CE. It is therefore Parthian. Later, at least one tower was used as a Sasanian burial site. |
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A two-storeyed building, which may or may not have belonged to a royal palace. The Parthian kings spent the winter in Ctesiphon in Babylonia, the spring in Rhagae, and may have been in Hecatompylos during the autumn. All these cities are situated along the Silk Road. | |
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Several hills like these have been identified as tombs of human beings and animals. There are several of them, as one may have expected from a large city. Usually, the bones were gnawed at by birds, which suggest that the dead had been exposed. This was a common Zoroastrian practice (cf. the "towers of silence"). | |
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At least three types of vaults, constructed of long mud-bricks, have been identified in these tomb mounds. On one site (Mound VII), a remarkable burial of human and horse skulls, mixed with the bones of pigs, gazelles, and dogs were found. The burial can be dated (by coins) to the eighth decade BCE. | |
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