Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is pleased to share new findings by Tytus Mikolajczak, the first Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Fellow at The University of Chicago and at the Louvre Museum. Since April 2014, Mr. Mikolajczak has been documenting objects originating from the Achaemenid Persian Empire in the collections of the Oriental Institute in close collaboration with the Louvre. His report reveals that his diligent efforts have already resulted in several important discoveries.
Already within the first few weeks of the project, it turned out that the Achaemenid collection of the Oriental Institute Museum had many treasures waiting to be rediscovered. One of the most spectacular rediscoveries included stone blocks featuring Greek inscriptions, which were presumed lost. The project also brought to light numerous Persian inscriptions; fragments of pegs with inscriptions of Kings Darius I and Xerxes I; stone blocks and fragments of column bases inscribed in Old Persian; and unpublished fragments of glazed bricks from Persepolis, the decoration of which has close parallels to glazed bricks found in Susa, now in the Louvre.
The result of the yearlong fellowship will be the sharing of photographs of approximately 300 objects, and updated documentation for hundreds of additional objects with the Achemenet Project, whose online platform aims to be a reference for scholarly research and public interest in ancient Persia.
For more information on the Achemenet Project and to read the full report from Mr. Mikolajczak, please click on the links below.
