Abstrakt
Achaemenid Empire was one of the biggest and most powerful realms of ancient world. Its art included mixture of many artistic traditions of preceding powers (Assyria, Media or Elam), art of conquered nations (Lydians), influence of neighbours (Greek and Scythian) and skills of Achaemenid artist.
Decorative motives spread through vast range of objects. Its appearance on weapons make perfect match between two important aspects of Achaemenid cultural identity: art and war.
In this contribution I would like to present individual decorative animal motives which appear on weapons used in Achaemenid Empire on accessible archaeological material. I chose a representative assemblage of objects, on which animal motives can be observed.
There is a vast range of weapons like akinakai (short swords), battle axes and also sheaths and gorytoi (case for bow and arrows) which are sophistically decorated with animal motives. I also decided to include horse harnesses as an important part of equipment used in war and another source of specific animal motives.
