Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1883-05-18
EBORO, VT, FRIDAY, MAY 1S, 1888.



telegraph wires which convey commands
from Downing street TO the Viceroy of India
stand the ruins Of Persepolis, the Summer
Palace of the Great King. In these days Of
archaeological surveys aud scientific exped.
tions, despatched to the four quarters of the
globe at the expense of enlightened govern
ments and learned societies, II is certainly as.
tonishing that no systematic investigation has
ever yet been undertaken of the great arti.
fetal platform on which stood the halls and
palaces of Darius and his successors. Great
sums have at various times been wastefully
expended on Persepolis.
moiety of what was disbursed by the
French government in the production Of the
luxurious folios of Messrs. Flandrin and
Coste's Voyage en- Perse" if iudiciously ex.
pended on the spot might have enabled those
artists to got the earth and rubbish cleared
of the platform under their personal super.
intendence and to cite but one point, the
curious system Of drains ramifying through
this Oyclopean masonry, and of which no
outlet has ever yet been found, might then
have been thoroughly explored. Judging
from the immense quantities of arcbWolog-
ical and artistic treasures which the mud OF
the Cloaca Maxima has preserved 10 US intact
from the times of the Tarquins we might
well hope that in the silt of the drain which
pierces the foundation Of the Hall of Xslxas
there might yet be found personal ornaments
and household utensils which had belonged
to those who attended the court of the Great
King. In the plans of Persepolis hitherto
published these drains have always been very
incorrectly marked.
Their number is very considerable, and
they ramify through the whole structure of
the platform in almost every direction and,
but that they are now for the most part
choked up with debris, they would seem to
allow of underground communication be.
tween the various palaces. Such was prob.
ably the intention of the builder, for the pas
sage of the drain was originally high enough
to enable man to pass through without
STOPPING; at present, however, the inquisi-
tive traveller has to crawl about on hands and
knees aud, to say nothing of the discomfort
and the dirt, runs grave risk of disturbing
the siesta of some stray panther, or, per.
chance, even a lion whelp, these cool retreats
being favorite lair with the wild beasts from
the neighboring hills. There is particularly
large species of viper, too, which infests the
dark holes and corners in the masonry its
body attains the thickness of a mans arm,
aud its bite is said by the natives to cause
instant death
1t is perhaps curious that nothing should
be positively known of the manner in which
the ruin of Persepolis was brought about
The Greek historians relate how Alexander
the Great, in a moment of drunken frenzy
and instigated, it is said, by That's fired with
his own hand the palace Of the Persian mon
arch. Subsequent writer's, however, have
altogether disbeleved the story, and have re-
ferred the ruin of Persepolis to the epoch OF
the Mohammedan conquest. Against this
last view it may be urged that no account is
to be found in the Moslem historians of any
destruction of these palaces having taken
place at the time of the conquest and,
bearing in mind that many of the early an.
nalsts and geographers in Islam were con.
verted Persians, We should certainly have had
some account of the matter had the devasta-
tion Of what they held TO be the throne of
Jamshid been an event of the days of their
grandtathers, and the work of the icono-
elastic Arab.
As tending to confirm the Greek tradition
of the destruction having been caused by FIRE
the traveller may still observe the mark of
flames on the doorways and broken pillars of
the edifce known as the Hall Of Hundred
Columns. A curious indication of the mate
rial used for the roof of this hall is to be OBJ
tanned from the pieces of charcoal and char
red wood which form layer extending ap.
parently over the whole floor of the building
At the present day the area of the hall is GOV.
cred to the depth of some ten feet by hard.
ened mud and rubbish, mostly detritus
brought down by the winter rains from the
hill at the foot of which the palace stands
but digging, which has been underneath to
ascertain the position and number of the
columns, has everywhere brought to light a
stratum of mud containing bits of charcoal
the stratum being II inches in thickness and
lying within an inch or so of the marble blocks
forming the floor OF the hall. The charcoal
N,t.. N-l ~
interior fittings brought down at the falling
in of the roof.
Examination under the microscope shows
that the wood of which We have here the
charred remains came from tree Of the pine
family, and from the markings Of the grain
still visible in the charcoal after a lapse of
2OO0 wears, the species may be identified as
that of the cedar. Now conifers do not grow
anywhere near Persepolis, the nearest cedars
being those of Lebanon; and though there
is no documentary evidence on the subject,
We may with some probability regard this as
the spot whence came the beams for roofug
the Hall of a Hundred Columns, if we call to
mind the analogous circumstances at Nineveh,
where cedar charcoal has also been found, and
where clay tablets are extant, bearing edicts
in cuueform writing relating to the transpor-
tation of this timber from the Mediterranean
coast overland to the valley of the Tigris.
The ruins of the Persepolitan palaces have
a strange, skeleton-lke appearance very strik
ing on coming for the first time up the gigan-
tic stairway from the plain on to the plat
form. OF each edifce the framework, so to
speak, still stands, but of walls nothing re-
mains. The buildings were but one story
high Doorways and windows, with here and
there columns crowned by the quaint double.
griffin capitals, stand out sharp against the
blue sky, appearing in many instances almost
AZ freshly carved as in the days of Alexander
the Great. These are all Of black marble
quarried in the neighboring mountains the
walls of the buildings seem to have been built
of sun-dried brick, for absolutely not yes.
tige of them remains.
The black doorwsys aud window-frames of
the palace of Darius will strangely remindthe
traveller of the wings" of theatre He
may walk out of a door and return through
the space intervening between it and the
neighboring window. The original walls
were so thick that the sculptured slabs of
marble lining the exits are often a couple of
yards broad, and, viewed from the end of the
hall, with the figures in bas relief standing
out lite-sze from the polished surfaces, they
certainly intensity the stage-like effect SO in
congruous in these chambers of the Great