Achaemenids Used Refined Fuels for Lighting

20 January 2005

Achaemenids used refined fuels for lighting in order to prevent pollution and keeping their colorful decorations and fabrics clean.

Persepolis is a complex of structures and palaces remaining from the Achaemenid era, built at the time of Darius I in the fifth century BC.

No evidence of carbon black is found on the stone parts, ancient remains and decorations of the historical palace of Persepolis, which means its residents used refined fuels to provide light 2500 years ago.

"The Persepolis complex is more than 125 thousand square meter and many parts of it are roofed, therefore lots of torches and lighting materials were surely used to light these spaces. If they were not refined, today we would have found lots of carbon black on the remaining structures and items," explained head of the restoration team of Persepolis, Hasan Rahsaz.

The Persepolis residents moreover used perfumes to sweeten the air inside. Inscriptions of the complex provide evidence that different plants such as censer were used to change the air inside the palaces.

Persepolis is the most important capital of the Achaemenid dynasty, located near Shiraz in the southern province of Fars, which was inscribed on the UNESCO world heritage list in 1979.

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