Three Kilograms of Achaemenid Gold Discovered in Bardak-e Siah Palace

23 April 2005

Three kilograms of 2500-year-old gold dating to the Achaemenid era have been unearthed in the ancient palace of Bardak-e Siah in Borazjan in the southern province of Boushehr.

Archaeologists are assuming that the gold pieces are most probably the golden layers of the wooden doors of the palace or the monumental plates of the building which were usually written on thick golden pieces during the Achaemenid time.

The discovery which came a few days ago beside one of the pedestals of the central hall of the palace, includes four pieces of gold weighing three kilograms.

Three of the pieces are thick pleated tablets and the fourth looks like the above part of an Achaemenid chalice, head of the excavation team of Borazjan, Ehsan Yaghamayi, told CHN.

Refering to the similarity of the pieces with the golden and silver monumental plates of Apadana Palace in Persepolis complex, Yaghmayi explained that the pleats of the tablets should be unfolded in the lab to see whether they include any inscriptions or texts to be deciphered and to find out their exact usage.

Bardak-e Siah Palace was discovered in 1977 where remains of another palace, called Sang-e Siah, and many stone inscriptions and bas-reliefs have also unearthed. More than 20 other palaces and halls from the Achaemenid dynasty have moreover been identified buried under the palm trees of Dashtestan area.