Archer of the Royal Guard
Unknown · Reign of Darius I, 522-486 BC
A single guardsman faces to the right, shown in profile from the tip of his headband to his laced shoes. His long Persian robe is decorated with a grid of small squares, and he carries the same equipment as his companions in the large frieze nearby: a spear held upright in both hands, a bow over the shoulder and a quiver on his back. The panel is just under two metres high and made of moulded siliceous bricks, each one glazed before firing so that the figure stands out in gentle relief and in colour.
The archer came to light at a gateway of the Apadana, the audience hall of the palace of Darius the First at Susa, on the eastern side of the building. It reached the Louvre through the division of finds agreed between France and Iran during the French excavations at Susa, which is why it bears a different inventory series from the friezes recovered by the Dieulafoy mission. Standing in front of it, look for the traces of the joints between bricks, which show how the whole figure was assembled from separate pieces.
Did You Know? The robe of this archer is covered in a chequerboard of small squares, one of several textile patterns that let the ancient craftsmen tell one guardsman from the next.
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