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Summary:

This book is based on a study of the archaeological evidence deriving from the Arjan tomb, an undisturbed elite burial found in 1982 near the town of Behbahan in south-western Iran. The fact that this burial can be confidently dated to ca. 600-550 BC presents an exceptional opportunity to reassess former views regarding the survival of Elamite traditions and the emergence of the Persian Empire. It is within this general framework that the fortuitous discovery of the Arjan tomb emerges as potentially one of the major archaeological discoveries of recent times. The present study offers a comprehensive analysis of the artistic and historical characteristics of the late Neo-Elamite period, and, by the same token, provides a new foundation for the genesis of the art of the Achaemenid Persian Empire.