Bowl

This small bowl has a ring base and an inturned rim. It is made of a buff clay and decorated with a red slip. It was excavated at Pasargadae in southwestern Iran, about 90 km northeast of Shiraz. Pasargadae was the first capital of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, founded by Cyrus the Great c. 546 B.C. The bowl was found at the Tall-i Takht, a massive artificial platform presumably built as the site of a royal palace but converted into a fortified compound after Darius established a new capital at Persepolis around 520. However, the coin hoards and other finds from the Takht, including this bowl, show that it continued to be occupied down into the second century B.C., long after the fall of the Achaemenid Empire.