Ashgabat - Old Nisa

Nisa is an old city whose ruins are located near the village of Bagir, 18 km west of Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan. It consists of two sites: New Nisa, a Parthian city in the valley, and Old Nisa, a royal fortress on a plateau.

“Ancient Nisa still looms in the distance. Against the backdrop of the sharp silhouette of Kopet Dagh, a tawny hill amidst green foothills, the massif of the ancient city impresses with its majestic serenity.

The mountain itself determines its size. As you walk up the two-metre-high ramp to the only gate, the towers come towards you, leaning forward like a bull.

There used to be forty-three of them on the pentagonal circle of the castle walls. From the crest of the rampart, a huge bowl opens up, its inner recesses riddled with archaeological excavations.

The comparison with a lunar crater is particularly apt here. The ancient structures of Nisa are barely discernible in the tufted grass-covered hills. Only the “Square Hall” is still visible, and that only thanks to the remains of four-lobed brick columns that had fallen aside in another violent earthquake in the fifth century.

This is how the art historian Yury Khalaminskiy described the ruins of Nisa in 1970 – the first capital of the Parthian Empire, which emerged in the III century BC. This city was founded by King Mithridates I, the founder of the Arshakid dynasty, and its oldest part was called Mitridatokert – “Built by Mithridates”.

The founder of the Parthian Empire is considered to be Arshak, the leader of a nomadic tribe of Parthians. In ancient times, the name Parthia (or Parthiena) referred to the area comprising the southwestern part of present-day Turkmenistan and the extreme northeast of Iran.

After the collapse of the Seleucid state, the Greco-Macedonian rulers settled here as well as in Greece and Bactria. In 250 BC, however, power in Parfian passed to the Parthians, and in 247 BC their leader Arshak took the title of king.

Originally, the new state was small and, in addition to Parfian, also included Hyrcania, a region on the south-eastern coast of the Caspian Sea. This kingdom founded by Arshak, with its capital at Nisa, was to become the nucleus of the great Parthian state – one of the four great empires of the early modern period, a formidable rival to Rome.

Under Mithridates I (171 138 BC), the Parthian Empire began to grow. Initially, the Parthian territories came under the rule of Midian (north-western Iran), and in 141 BC Mithridates I was recognised as king of Babylon.

His successor Mithridates II (123-88 BC) continued his conquests in the west. At the end of his reign, Parthia had finally established itself as a great power of the ancient world.

However, the Parthian Empire could not reach the level of economic, social and cultural unity that the Roman Empire had achieved. According to the Roman historian Pliny the Elder, Parthia was not a unified state, but rather a confederation of eighteen semi-autonomous kingdoms.

Nisa, the ancient metropolis now located in the north-east of the vast Parthian empire, could not claim the role of a unifying force due to its cultural weakness, and its importance remained only as a sacred centre, an ancestral reserve of the Arshakid dynasty. The capital of the country was moved to Ctesiphon in Mesopotamia, while Nisa became the repository of the ancient royal sanctuaries.

At the turn of the I and II centuries AD, the decline of the Parthian Empire began. The individual provinces of the empire, which were led by members of the Arschakid family and other noble Parthian families, became increasingly isolated. In the 3rd century, the Assakid Parthia disintegrated completely and a new powerful Sassanid state arose on its ruins.

Part of the ancient capital of Parthia (today’s settlement of Neue – Nisa) survived the Assakid state for many centuries. Already in the XVIII. Century there was a settlement at this place. The ancient site of Mitridatokert – today the ancient settlement of Old Nisa – perished together with the Parthian dynasty. It was probably looted and destroyed at the end of the 1st quarter of the 3rd century.

These two Nisa settlements lie 18 km west of modern Ashgabad. Archaeological excavations began there after the Great Patriotic War and continued for many years.

Mithridatokert was a royal residence. For ordinary mortals, access to this heavily fortified citadel was closed until the end of the Assakid dynasty. Not surprisingly, this “holy of holies” of the Parthian kings gave archaeologists the most significant and unexpected discoveries.

The area of Mitridatokert was surrounded by fortress walls that formed an irregular pentagon of about 15 hectares in area. There were probably bastions at the corners of the fortress, while 43 towers were distributed at regular intervals along the entire length of the wall.

Access to the single gate was via a long (about 250 m) sloping ramp, so that anyone entering the city faced the guards as if on the palm of their hand.

Ancient Nisa was almost completely excavated by archaeologists. They uncovered the “southern complex”, which is now considered to be the remains of a royal palace, and the “northern complex”, which includes the “Square House” – the former royal treasury – and wine storage rooms.

A very interesting and important find is the archive of the tsarist economy – about 2.5 thousand clay vessels with texts containing mainly economic accounting records.

One of the most important structures in Old Nisa is the “Square House” (as it is called by archaeologists). The foundation stone for the Square House was apparently laid at the same time as the founding of Mitridatokert.

The building was a closed construction of bricks with a large inner courtyard (38 x 38 m) and twelve storerooms along the perimeter of the building, three on each side of the courtyard.

The blank walls of the building faced outwards, with only a narrow entrance on the side, in the southwest corner of the building, leading inside. The original purpose of the Square House is not entirely clear. M.E. Masson and G.A. Pugachenkova suggested that it was a storehouse for provisions that accompanied the first Parthian kings buried nearby to the afterlife.

In the last years of Mitridatokert, the “Square House” was a royal treasury. Very valuable finds made by archaeologists in the ruins undoubtedly testify to this.

Apparently, the treasury was looted in antiquity – probably when ancient Nisa, destroyed by the enemies of the Assakids, perished. But a considerable number of art treasures remained under the ruins, biding their time.

A considerable number of them seem to have been brought at one time from the western regions of Parthian power and even from more distant regions and lands. These finds included marble statues, remains of ceremonial furniture, coins from ancient Black Sea cities, gilded terracottas and fine silver statuettes representing Athena, Eros and other ancient gods.

The most sensational and significant find in Nyssa, however, were the magnificent rhytons – horn-shaped wine glasses made of ivory. A total of about forty of them were found, including the remains.

The rhytons from Nisa are outstanding and extremely interesting examples of the art of ancient bone carvers. These large vessels, up to 40-60 cm high (archaeologists date them to the 2nd century BC), were used for ritual libations.

They were probably used to pour wine over an altar or sacred bowl. The pointed end of the horn was crowned by carved figures of gods, griffins, winged elephants or the image of the bull-man Gopacha, the powerful patron of waters and herds.

A wide frieze decorated with many figurative scenes surrounded the riton. The rhytons themselves, the figures of winged griffins and other fantastic creatures that complete them, are Persian.

This particular type of vessel is well known in the East, especially in Achaemenid art. The reliefs that decorate the upper part of the rhytons, however, are purely Greek in plot and style.

On one of the rhytons, an inscription with the name of a Greek deity in Greek letters has been preserved. Thus the rhytons from Nisa can be regarded as Persian-type vessels with Greek decoration.

But who and where could such a “hybrid” be made? The fact that these rhytons originated in the East proves nothing – during the Hellenistic era rhytons were widely used throughout the ancient world.

So the rhytons from Nisa could have been made either by Greek masters who identified with Oriental influences, or by carvers from the East who were well acquainted with Greek mythology and ancient art.

According to experts, however, some small details indicate that the rhytons found in the ruins of the Square House most likely originated in Gandhara, a region in the northwest of present-day Pakistan that was once part of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom.

One of the most important monuments in ancient Nisa was the so-called square arse. Its purpose is not clear to the end. It is assumed that it was a fire temple in the time of the first Arshakids.

Later, when the capital was moved from Parthenes and Nisa was only a revered ancient residence, this temple became an ancestral shrine of the royal dynasty, where fires were lit in honour of deceased and deified Parthian kings.

It is still unconfirmed that the Square Hall may have served as a hall for official receptions. However, there is no doubt that important ceremonies were held here – the hall was too lavishly and solemnly decorated. In terms of its structure, it is a typical Iranian “fire temple”, but its interior has Greek features.

The entire structure stood on a solid, two-metre-high platform of rough bricks. The area of the hall, to which three corridors led, was 400 square metres (20 x 20 m), and the height of the hall was 10 metres. The hall was closed by a flat wooden roof with a large skylight in the centre, supported by four central posts made of specially shaped bricks.

The three-metre-thick walls were divided into two floors: The lower one was plastered and whitewashed, the upper one painted dark red. The capitals of the pilasters were painted blue, pink, cream and crimson, while the walls were painted with white-red-black ornaments.

Between the columns in the niches of the upper tier were 2.5 m high clay statues of men in armour, cloaks and trousers and women in long, folded white robes and bright red “headdresses”.

Most likely, these were representations of deified ancestors of the Parthian kings. The so-called round temple, a cylindrical building covered with a high brick tent and standing on a massive square foundation, was part of the ensemble of sacred buildings in Old Nisa.

It is possible that this was the burial chamber of the Parthian kings: Although no tombs were found here, the building type itself goes back to very old concepts of funerary architecture.

In its construction and some details, the round temple resembles the Greek temple of Arsinoion on the island of Samothrace (1st century BC), which was dedicated to the cult of the great gods, the Kabirs.

This cult later merged with the worship of the divine twins Dioscorus, who were considered patrons of the Seleucid dynasty. The round temple in ancient Nissa, however, differs considerably from its Greek “counterpart” (or prototype?).

Its structure is quite similar to the nearby “Square Hall”. The central hall of the round temple (its diameter was 17 m) originally also had three passages, two of which were later filled in.

The walls of the hall were also divided into two tiers; they were divided by columns, between which stood large painted clay statues of gods instead of deified kings in niches.

The light from the upper lantern illuminated the white of the walls, which were only shaded by the Greek terracotta frieze. The second temple of the Ancient Nissa, the “Tower Temple”, is the worst preserved. In one of her sanctuaries there was a statue on a pedestal. It is thought that it may be the image of Arshak, the founder of the dynasty of Parthian kings.

However, the most famous of the sculptures found in Nisa is the so-called Rodoguna. This short (approx. 60 cm) marble figure of a naked woman was undoubtedly brought to the Parthian capital from the Mediterranean – most likely from Alexandria.

The woman is depicted in the canonical pose of Aphrodite wringing out her wet hair. Her stern and commanding face, however, suggested the PA. Pugachenkov realised that the sculptor had not depicted the Greek goddess of love, but Rodoguna, the Parthian princess and courageous daughter of Mithridates I.

The image of Rodoguna was very popular among the Parthians. She was the wife of a Syrian viceroy. One day, while the princess was washing her hair, news came that one of the conquered tribes had rebelled. Not wanting to lose any time, she put on her armour, jumped on her horse and rode into battle, vowing not to do her hair until after the victory.

Excavations in the ancient Parthian settlement of Ancient Nisa have revealed to archaeologists many secrets of the special Parthian culture. And not only in Parthia – according to experts, Nisa provided more information about the period of Greek rule than the Greek settlements themselves.

At the same time, the excavated buildings of Old Nisa typologically reflect both Iranian and ancient Near Eastern traditions. Even in the settlements of the Greek-Bactrian area, archaeologists have found nothing comparable!

The synthesis of local and Greek origins was much more pronounced in Parthia and the studies at Old Nisa have clearly highlighted this particularity of Parthian culture.