Ernst Herzfeld, Joseph Upton, and the Artaxerxes Phialai

In 1935 Ernst Herzfeld (1879-1948), a pioneering and controversial archaeologist and philologist of ancient Iran, published four silver vessels bearing Old Persian inscriptions naming Artaxerxes I, ruler of the Achaemenid Persian Empire from 465 to 424 b.c The authenticity of the inscriptions and of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Metropolitan Museum journal 2020-12, Vol.55 (1), p.112-117
Main Author: Colburn, Henry P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Art exhibits
Art galleries & museums
Herzfeld, Ernst
Historic artifacts
Inscriptions
Citations: Items that this one cites
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Summary:In 1935 Ernst Herzfeld (1879-1948), a pioneering and controversial archaeologist and philologist of ancient Iran, published four silver vessels bearing Old Persian inscriptions naming Artaxerxes I, ruler of the Achaemenid Persian Empire from 465 to 424 b.c The authenticity of the inscriptions and of the vessels themselves (one of which is now in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art [fig. 1]) was challenged immediately on philological grounds by Hans Heinrich Schaeder and W. B. Henning. Since then scholars have continued to question the inscriptions and, given his checkered career, usually imply that Herzfeld himself was the forger. A 1932 letter preserved in the archives of the Museum's Persian (later Iranian) Expedition written by Joseph M. Upton (1900-1981), at the time assistant curator of Near Eastern Art and a member of the expedition, casts new light on the authenticity of the inscriptions, the vessels themselves, and Herzfeld's role in their history.
ISSN:0077-8958
2169-3072
DOI:10.1086/712774