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Picturing Pasargadae: Visual Representation and the Ambiguities of Heritage in Iran

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Ali Mozaffari
Ali Mozaffari*
Affiliation:
Alfred Deakin Institute, Deakin University; Australia-Asia-Pacific Institute, Curtin University
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Abstract

For Graham Seal

This paper probes the relationship between visual representations and visitation practices at Pasargadae, a UNESCO World Heritage site in southern Iran. Presenting a systematic analysis of publicly available online images of Pasargadae, the paper examines the complex relationship between the place and its visual representations. Through analysis, the paper elaborates on a sense of intimacy that, while grounding Pasargadae, is also a potential common ground in pre-Islamic heritage in which the Iranian state and society could at once meet and contest versions of identity. Examining this relationship facilitates reflections into both heritage and the peculiarities of its visual representation in the Iranian context.

Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 50 , Issue 4 , July 2017 , pp. 601 - 634
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 2017

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Footnotes

The author acknowledges the assistance of Freyja Bottrell and Dr Joely-Kym Sobott in finalizing the draft of this paper. He is grateful to Bakhtyar Lotfi for in-field assistance and ‘PH’ for supplying two of the photographs. The author is further indebted to feedback received from colleagues, Professor Graham Seal, Professor Roy Jones, Professor Tim Winter and Professor Nigel Westbrook, Dr Tod Jones, Dr James Barry, Dr Antonio Gonzalez Zarandona and to the anonymous readers who read various drafts of this paper. The author nonetheless remains solely responsible for any shortcomings herein. Research was supported by project grants from the Australia-Asia-Pacific Institute (AAPI) [grant numbers J0019349, J0017987] and from the Research Unit for the Study of Societies in Change (RUSSIC) at Curtin University as well as a research dissemination grant from Alfred Deakin Institute.

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