Manners and Customs

Women's Lives in Ancient Persia

Any analysis of women's lives and status in ancient times is a very complicated task and needs time and space. This very brief article intends to provide much needed basic information based on archaeological evidence and will primarily deal with women in Achaemenid times. The material is based on Fortification and Treasury texts discovered at Perse...

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Iran's Contribution to the World - Games and Sports

Polo (Chowgan) - is an ancient Persian game. Iranians call it Chowgan (chow to be pronounced like tow, and gan like gun). The oldest mention of this game is in Ferdosi's Shahnameh (composed about 1,000 years ago) where the game played between Siyavash and his Persian retinue in one side and Afrasiyab, the Tooranian King and his brother Garsivaz, on...

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The Laws of Ancient Persians

The Laws of the Medes and Persians have acquired universal fame; and the following pages will show how fully deserved that fame was. Iranian history starts in the beginnings of human life on earth, and yet the first Iranian ruling house was a dynasty of lawgivers. Hence Iranian law began to take shape ever since humanity started forming itself soci...

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Jewelry and Makeup in Ancient Persia

Archaeological finds in Iran show that women and men applied makeup and arrayed themselves with ornaments approximately 10,000 years ago, a trend which began from religious convictions rather than mere beautification motivations. Archaeologists have discovered various instruments of make-up and ornamental items in the Burnt City, which date back to...

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Marriage in Ancient Iran

Lack of documented sources and evidences makes it difficult to offer a well-documented survey, far from any presuppositions and pre-judgments, on the subject of identification and distinction of different forms of marriage in Ancient Iran. Therefore, in order to avoid any baseless and unjustifiable speculations, we have to look at the problem from ...

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Houses in Ancient Persia

In attempting to describe Persian houses during the Achaemenid period,it is necessaary to consider several factors, such as architectural styles and building techniques used in the middle east before ,during and after the Achaemenid period, and archaeological finds. However, firstly one should look at the people themselves and the climate they live...

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The History of Medicine in Ancient Persia

The history of medicine in Iran is as old and as rich as its civilization. In the Avesta, science and medicine rise above class, ethnicity, nationality, race, gender and religion. Some of the earliest practices of ancient Iranian medicine have been documented in the Avesta and other Zoroastrian religious texts....

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Insurance in Ancient Iran

One of the measures taking place in the time of world Achaemenian government was establishing a law known today as insurance. Achaemenian monarchs were the first insured their people and made it official by registering the insuring process in governmental notary offices. The insurance tradition was performed each year in Norouz (beginning of the Ir...

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Ancient Persian Festivals

IRANIAN NEW YEAR NO RUZ , by Massoume Price. No Ruz, new day or New Year as the Iranians call it, is a celebration of spring Equinox. It has been celebrated by all the major cultures of ancient Mesopotamia. Sumerians, 3000BC, Babylonians 2000 BC, the ancient kingdom of Elam in Southern Persia 2000BC, Akaddians all have been celebrating it in one fo...

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Family Law in Ancient Iran

Mazdean family law is the most extensive and involved section of the civil code as set forth in the few surviving Middle Persian legal texts, especially the Sasanian lawbook entitled MÃ-dayÃ-n î hazÃ-r dÃ-destÃ-n. It comprises a medley of orthodox legislation (kardag) and revisions (dÃ-destÃ-n) enacted by more liberal jurists and dignitaries (dast...

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