ABSTRACT
Persian art in the time of the Achæmenids is neither primitive nor simple. It has undergone several influences, and it has been possible to determine the contribution of each of the foreign styles which have gone to form it. Chaldea and Assyria have given most; from them come the artificial platforms and the monumental stairways up their sides. In the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates Persia, like Chaldea, used brick. At Persepolis stone was used for basements, door-frames, and columns, but the walls were of clay, and therefore no trace of them is now left. As in Assyria, the reliefs run along the floor level, in the embrasure of doors and up the ramps. As in Assyria, colossi guard the entries; the god hovers in the air, surrounded by a ring " recalling the sun's disk "; the king sits on his throne, with hia servants about him. 1
