Griffons Archers The glory of Susa- glazed brick wall decorations from the palace of Darius the Great, c. 500 BCE. Griffons under the winged disc of Ahura Mazda, the god of Wisdom. Lower- The frieze of archers of the Persian royal guard, the Immortals. A splendid archaic world swept away by Alexander. Wood, Michael, In […]
Yehawmilk Stele Phoenicia, Byblos, Lebanon Conchitic limestone H. 1.14 m; W. 0.55 m; Th. 0.26 m The Yehawmilk Stele was discovered in 1869. It is a 14-line inscription in Phoenician. Yehawmilk, the king of Gubal, ancient Byblos, dedicated this stele to the city’s protective goddess “Baalat Gubal” or “Mistress of Byblos.”
One of the Aramaic papyri found in the Jewish mercenary colony of Elephantine in Egypt. The date appears on the top of the document- the 20th of Sivan, in the year 24 of Artaxerxes, King of Persia (July 6, 451 BCE). This papyrus is a contract of sale of immovable property between the Elephantine Jews—Micah […]
Two hundred and fifty ostraca were recovered during French excavations between 1906 and 1908 at Elephantine, an island in the Nile near the First Cataract. The ostraca date to about the early fifth century B.C.E. and are written in ancient Aramaic. They were originally to have been published by the great French scholar Charles Clermont-Ganneau. […]
A Temple to Israel’s God in Egypt Now our forefathers built this temple in the fortress of Elephantine back in the days of the kingdom of Egypt, and when Cambyses came to Egypt he found it built. They (the Persians) knocked down all the temples of the gods of Egypt, but no one did any […]
Lid of the sarcophagus of the treasury overseer, Ptahhotep, from Giza A whole chain of large shaft tombs began to be made around 600 BCE and continued into the Ptolemaic period. This monument comes from one such tomb at Giza where the shaft contained several burials. It is an interesting variation on the earlier anthropoid […]
Greek helmet of the Persian period found under the sea near Ashkelon. Stern, Ephraim, Material Culture of the Land of the Bible in the Persian Period. Jerusalem- Israel Exploration Society, 1973.
Two stamped handles with five-pointed star and paleo-Hebrew inscription “yrslm” (Jerusalem). Pottery (IAA 1986-1805, 2047). Hurviz, Gila. The City of David, Discoveries from the Excavations. Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1999, p. 51.
Tomb of Darius I Close-Up Tomb of Darius I The tomb of Darius I is located at Naqš-i Rustam, approximately 5 kilometers from Persepolis, the capital of the ancient Achaemenid empire. The tomb is shaped like a cross and in its upper arm is a relief showing Darius I praying to the god Ahuramazda […]
Greek Corinthian helmet and skull The Battle of Marathon was the culmination of King Darius I of Persia’s first full scale attempt to conquer the remainder of Greece and incorporate it into the Persian Empire, which would secure the weakest portion of his western border. The Greek victory over Darius I’s troops gave the Greek […]