Pasargadae

The Brilliant Culture of Ancient Ages The wide expanse of Iran, the greater part of which is included in the present country, is the cradle of an ancient and notable civilization, which according to the researches of archaeologists is in many respects more ancient and superior to the contemporary civilization in the plain of Mesopotamia, and in other similar places. This culture and learning were much earlier than what the existing and collected evidence would indicate. What the investigators and excavators have assembled and recorded, which is a cause of wonder and admiration to the world in general, and a source of pride and satisfaction to us in particular, are only small and insignificant fragments, found in many different places, having survived the calamities and commotions occurring during the long, disturbed and ever-changing past.

Those who have investigated this matter, with all the effort they have made, and are still making, have only been able to sketch and outline the plan of the great building of a civilization, which convulsions and revolutions have combined deface. For this reason we also will not be able to treat the subject as fittingly as it should be, when we attempt to describe the far-off scenery, but we hope that this sight and limited researches may prove to be preliminary to the wider and deeper work of eminent critics and scholars, who may lay on this plan the foundation of a great and strong building, such as the writer is unable to erect, and draw to one side the veil that hides the ambiguities and obscurities of the glorious past ages of Iran.

It is certain that in the confused and unstable world of today, which every day and hour teems with events, people are occupied with the daily occurrences and accidents, and all their concern and effort is to accommodate themselves to the conditions of their own time and environment, and to fit in to the mechanical age, or to put the matter more plainly, they are mainly concerned to secure the means of living, and not to fall behind the fast moving caravan, and the desires and propensities of today. All this does not allow anyone time to think, to say nothing of undertaking research into the conditions of life of the Iranian peoples’ past ancestors and the generations of long ago.