Darius the Great (522–486 b.c.e.) established the administrative capital for the Achaemenid Empire at Susa, or biblical Shushan. The palace he built at Susa is the same palace where most of the events of the book of Esther occurred. After decades of searching, archaeologists have discovered the likely origin of this palace’s stones.
On April 12, Mohammad Ebrahim Zarei, head of the Research Institute of Cultural Heritage and Tourism in Iran, announced the discovery of three stone quarries in the Kabir Kuh mountains on the western side of the Zagros mountain chain.”For over two millennia, the origin of the stones used in Darius’s palace remained a mystery,” Zarei wrote. “This discovery is astonishing and could solve a 2,000-year-old historical puzzle.”
The excavations, led by archaeologist Luqman Ahmadzadeh-Shohani, produced “stone-cutting tools, extraction evidence, and significant quantities of limestone and iron ore, which may have been used in crafting metal joints for Achaemenid stone architecture.”
Within the palace in Susa, French archaeologists discovered a trilingual inscription called DSf, containing text in Old Persian, Babylonian and Elamite. On this inscription, Darius i describes the construction of the palace. He said the stone pillars were brought from a “village named Abirâdu, in Elam.” These three mines seem to be around the site Darius called Abirâdu.
This discovery is sure to provide new insight into the building techniques of the Achaemenid Empire. “The Apadana Palace in Susa is one of the most majestic royal structures of ancient Iran,” said Zarei. “Identifying the true origin of its building materials opens a new chapter in our understanding of Achaemenid construction logistics, architectural planning, and resource management.” This includes how massive stones, up to 50 tons, were transported roughly 170 kilometers from these mines to the palace in Susa.
Our ever expanding understanding of this Persian palace helps shed light on the biblical narrative. In Ancient Persia and the Book of Esther, Prof. Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones writes that the “excavators of the Susa site have often enthused over the correlations to be found between the literary evidence of Esther and what the archaeology unearthed.” It is also probably from this palace in Susa that Nehemiah was given permission to travel to Jerusalem as a governor to rebuild the walls of the city.
Susa is an important biblical site and its archaeology reveals important details about these biblical accounts. For more about this palace, read our article “Harmonizing Persian History and the Bible” or watch our video, “The Book of Esther—Fact or Fiction?”
