Nisa: The Early Royal City of the Parthian Arsacid Kings

Nisa was one of the earliest royal cities of the Parthian Arsacid dynasty, whose empire ruled Iran and Mesopotamia from the 3rd century BC to the early 3rd century AD. Its ruins lie near Ashgabat in modern Turkmenistan, where the fortress of Old Nisa, known in antiquity as Mithradatkirt, has yielded spectacular ivory drinking horns, Hellenistic-style statues and thousands of inscribed potsherds. The site is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a major source for a people who left few written records.

Background: the rise of the Parthians

After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC, Iran and Central Asia came under the Seleucid kings. Around the middle of the 3rd century BC, the Parni, a nomadic people from the steppes east of the Caspian Sea, moved into the province of Parthia, in what is now northeastern Iran and southern Turkmenistan. Their leader, Arsaces I, founded the Arsacid dynasty, conventionally dated from about 247 BC. For his story, see Arsaces I and the founding of Parthia.

Ancient writers mention Nisa or Nisaea as an early Parthian centre, and the 1st-century writer Isidore of Charax refers to a “Parthaunisa” where royal tombs were found. Tradition links the site to the dynasty’s founders, but most of the excavated buildings at Old Nisa date to the 2nd and 1st centuries BC.

Old Nisa and New Nisa

Later Parthian kings ruled from cities further west as their empire expanded, including Hecatompylos, Ecbatana and finally Ctesiphon on the Tigris. Nisa, in the dynasty’s original homeland, seems to have kept a special role as a royal and ancestral centre.

The site has two parts. Old Nisa (Nisa-Kuhna) is a royal fortress on a natural hill, an irregular pentagon of about 14 hectares enclosed by massive mudbrick walls with dozens of towers. It contained palace and ceremonial buildings rather than ordinary houses. New Nisa, about 1.5 kilometres away, was a larger walled town where most of the population lived.

Inscribed potsherds from Old Nisa call the fortress Mithradatkirt, roughly “made by Mithridates”. This most likely refers to Mithridates I (reigned c. 171-132 BC), the king who turned Parthia into a great power by conquering Media and Mesopotamia.

The buildings and their treasures

The central complex of Old Nisa includes a monumental Square Hall, about 20 metres on each side, whose roof was supported by four large columns, and a Round Hall whose walls held niches for over-life-size clay statues. These have been interpreted as places for royal ceremonies or for the cult of deified royal ancestors.

The so-called Square House to the north was a storehouse arranged around a courtyard. In 1948 Soviet archaeologists found in it a remarkable group of several dozen ivory rhyta: large drinking horns carved from elephant tusks. Their rims carry friezes of Greek gods, sacrificial scenes and Dionysian processions, and their lower ends take the form of horses, centaurs, griffins and other creatures. They show how strongly Hellenistic art influenced the early Parthian court. Whether they were used in royal banquets, in religious rituals or kept as treasure is still debated, and some may have been gifts or booty rather than local products.

Other finds include marble statues in Greek style, among them a female figure sometimes called “Rodogune”, fragments of painted clay sculptures, and silver and gilded objects.

The Nisa ostraca

The excavations also uncovered more than 2,700 ostraca: pieces of broken pottery used as writing material. Written in the Parthian language using a form of the Aramaic script, most date to the 1st century BC. They record deliveries of wine from royal vineyards and estates, with the year, the quantity and the officials responsible.

Though brief, these texts are among the earliest substantial documents in Parthian. They reveal the names of officials, estates and months, show that the Parthians used a Zoroastrian-style calendar, and give dates in the Arsacid era, a calendar counted from 247 BC.

Excavation and protection

Small-scale work began in 1930, and from 1946 the South Turkmenistan Archaeological Complex Expedition, led by Mikhail Masson, carried out major excavations. Since 1990 an Italian mission from the University of Turin has worked at the site with Turkmen archaeologists. In 2007 the “Parthian Fortresses of Nisa” were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Because the walls are of unbaked mudbrick, erosion by rain and wind remains a constant threat.

Timeline

• c. 247 BC: Conventional start of the Arsacid era, linked to Arsaces I.
• c. 171-132 BC: Reign of Mithridates I, after whom Old Nisa (Mithradatkirt) is probably named.
• 2nd century BC: The ivory rhyta are made.
• 1st century BC: Most of the wine ostraca are written.
• AD 224: The Sasanian Ardashir I overthrows the last Parthian king.
• 1946: Large-scale Soviet excavations begin under Mikhail Masson.
• 1948: The ivory rhyta are discovered in the Square House.
• 2007: Nisa is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Why it matters

The Parthians ruled a great empire for nearly five centuries and famously defeated Rome at the Battle of Carrhae, yet they left few historical texts of their own. Nisa offers rare direct evidence of their early court: its architecture, its blend of Iranian and Greek art, and the everyday administration of royal estates.