The Treasury at Persepolis: Gift-Giving at the City of the Persians

The Treasury at Persepolis is well documented in literary sources, and its careful excavation by Schmidt produced the most important collection of Achaemenid material yet found in Iran. This article examines the associated literary, epigraphic and archaeological evidence in order to determine the functions of the Treasury, both within the building complex on the Persepolis Terrace and in the Achaemenid Empire as a whole. It is argued that the Treasury was not primarily an economic redistribution center, but served as such only in extraordinary circumstances. Rather, the wealth stored in the Treasury was collected from all the provinces of the Empire for purposes not directly economic. The Treasury seems to have been functionally connected with other buildings on the Terrace, particularly the Apadana, and these connections, together with the nature of its contents, suggest that the building served as a storehouse for objects brought regularly to Persepolis as a form of gift-tribute. Furthermore, the chronological distribution of the artifacts in the Treasury shows that the building ceased to receive gift-tribute in the later fifth century B. C., a time when other important changes took place at Persepolis.