Parthian Nisa: Art and Architecture in the Homeland of the Arsacids

Nisa, today in southern Turkmenistan, is one of the most meaningful sites of the Parthian Empire; of the two main archaeological hills, New Nisa (the walled city) and Old Nisa-Mithridatkert (the sacral citadel of the Arsacid kings), only the second has been intensively excavated in the 20th century by Turkmen, Russian and Italian expeditions. Excavations have brought to the light monumental structures and artefacts of great significance for our knowledge of this crucial historical and cultural period of Central Asia. The architecture and the art of Parthian Nisa show the culture of the Arsacids in their homeland, from the 2nd century BC (or earlier) to the 1st century BC: a culture deeply rooted on the one hand in the composite Iranian and local (Central Asian) milieu and on the other in that of Hellenized Asia. As the art and architecture of Old Nisa are almost exclusively official, the site is a concrete reference point in any attempt at defining the main features of the Arsacid dynastic culture.