ABSTRACT
This interdisciplinary study investigates technical strategies that enabled the Achaemenids to create monumental architecture. Their success in building tall, spacious halls on the seismogenic Iranian Plateau relied on special techniques employed by master builders to improve the behaviour of colossal monuments against earthquake forces. This paper focuses on the arrangement of major load-bearing elements and on foundation systems, notably an embryonic form of the seismic isolation system. The objective evolution of architectural forms in Achaemenid court culture illustrates the attention paid by royal architects to the geological characteristics of building sites and the physical properties of materials. This analysis examines the principles of mechanics employed in Achaemenid monumental architecture, drawing upon detailed observation of archaeological remains as well as written sources documenting the craft of construction in Antiquity. The theoretical framework presented here traces the origins of the Achaemenids’ aseismic building knowledge.
