I’ve already shown you some (Safavid-era) and (alcoholic) Armenian graffiti at the caravanserai of Siahkuh. So I was pleased to read about more graffiti in another caravanserai – although this time seen, and then added to, by , the very same ‘sick person with a great beard‘ I introduced you to last week.
On 16 July 1637 Olearius‘ party arrived at a “Caravansera named Choskenu. It was all built of Free-stone and had several Vaults and Chambers, disposed all about a spacious Court; in the midst thereof was a Well, compass’d by an Iron-rail. Upon the Walls of several Rooms, were to be seen the names and devises of several persons of most Nations who, it seems, had been desirous to leave there behind them some marks of their passage that way”.
Then, in 1717, John Bell of Antermony travelled the same route (as the physician to a Russian ambassador). Bell’s group had been relying on snow as a water source, but by 21 Feb the snow was altogether gone. When Bell visited the caravanserai that Olearius had reported from, he wrote of how “the water at this place [was] very bad. In an upper room . . I saw the names of many Europeans cut on the wall, in different languages: among which was that of Olearius, secretary to the Holstein ambassadors”.
Some of the members of Olearius’ party made their mark – literally – on other sites too. On 27 January 1638 they visited Persepolis (click here for lots of aerial and archaeological photos). Von Mandelslo – who Shah Safi offered a tempting salary if he would but stay (he wouldn’t) – wrote his name at the Gate of All Nations (click here for a 360 view).
Neibuhr (who produced the first reasonably accurate views of the Persepolis sculptures) added his own name close by in 1765; and Francklin (who described the buildings and reliefs in 1790) then deliberately wrote below Niebuhr. All in all, 222 European names are recorded at Persepolis, including the same Stanley who found ‘Dr Livingstone, I presume’ in Africa.
Of course, it wasn’t only Europeans who left graffiti: Persepolis also has some stunning pre-Sassanian figural graffiti (so – from more than 2000 years ago). Using coins to help with dating, it may be that these finely incised drawings show the sub-Arsacid kings of Persis (click and scroll for some stunning images). These graffiti were probably originally coloured – and so the starting point of Sasanian rock-sculpture like that at Naqsh-e Rostam.