The Glory of Persia ☆

This is an exhibition that I went last summer. A sunny Wednesday, I went Ichon with my friend. There located a national meseum of Korea. This exhibition was about Persia.

Because it was a weekday, not many people were there. So we could look around without haste. As advertised, there were many relics related to the 'gold'. They arranged artifacts in a chronological order; from Iranian prehistoric period to the Sassanian dynasty. They also posted brief historical knowledges related to Persia. Here are some informations about that-this is just a part.


Birth of the Persian Empire: The Achaemenid Dynasty

The Achaemenid Dynasty constructed an empire which stretched from the Indus Valley to the northern tip of Africa between 550 and 520 BCE. Cyrus the Great exercised lenient policies toward conquered people, as did Darius the Great. The empire had a dependable network of officials, and efficinet road system and an extensive canal.

Hellenism&Parthia

After the military campaign of Alexander to Great, the king of Macedonia, Persia came under the rule of Seleucid dynasty.

The Sassanian Dynasty

The Sassanian dynasty amassed wealth through trade activity along the Silk Road, and this exchange of material culture aided the spread of Persian art and culture. The Persian influence disseminated through Central Asia and China, and, along the aforementioned trade route, into Silla.

It was glad to read this at there. I learned international history when I was in the middle school. I thought it was interesting at that time, and this was the first time that heard about Achaemenid, Sassanian Dynasties.


The most impressive thing there were cylinder seals, in my case. Thepicture in the left is a cylinder seal-I guess it's not the one exhibited in this exhibition. I thought that we just stamp a seal then a pattern come out. However, we should roll the cylinder seal to see the whole pattern carved on the seal. Look at the left picture. The white thing on the left is a cylinder seal. A long pattern printed on the right is the imprint of the seal. We should roll it againt something, not just stamp it.

Well, It was the first time for me and my friend to visit the exhibition about Persia, so it was good to see that. To me, Persia reminds me of something mysterious and flourishy. The title of this exhibition was 'The Glory of Persia'. Maybe most people have similar image about Persia-even the planner of this show thought in the same way as I. As a whole, it was a good exhibition that reassured me of the glorious image of Persia.