Bildkunst als Zeugnis für Orientierung und Konsens innerhalb der Eliten des westlichen Achämenidenreichs

In many publications depictions of battle-, hunting- or banquet scenes from the western provinces of the Achaemenid empire are considered as part of an empire-wide communication, whose form and political objectives were intensively shaped by the Achaemenids. In this argument, the style, iconography and subject of the representations, and even antiquaria that are depicted in them, are regarded as the result of influence. This is a problematic approach, because antiquaria , such as clothing or special types of wheeled vehicles, are elements of everyday reality and their depiction is not necessarily dependant on models in art. The choice of battle-, hunting- and banqueting scenes as subject matter need not be explained by influences from Achaemenid Persia, for it is a fact that these topics were not present at all in the representative art of Persia proper. Furthermore, it is clear that there existed a general consensus of the imperial elites within the whole empire that these representative activities were of paramount importance. As Asia Minor was – as Christoph Ulf notes – a ‘zone of intense contact’, the respective ideas spread easily and there was no need for an external stimulus.