Dukkan-e Daud

Dukkan-e Daud, which in Persian means David's Store, is a late Achaemenid rock site in the vicinity of Sarpol-e Zahab, in Kermanshah Province, Iran. Henri Rawlinson visited it in 1836. The site combines a rock tomb with a carved relief, and the tomb is dug several meters high in a rock face that overhangs the relief, known as Kil-e Daud, or David's tomb.

The tomb is a cavity opened by a wide and deep anteroom bordered by a double frame. The frame was held by 2 cylindrical columns whose shape resembles those of the Pasargadae palaces, although only the capital and the bases of the columns remain, in the form of tables. A rectangular entrance leads into an arched room. One side of that room is decorated with 5 niches that may have been used for lamps, and the other side has a larger niche for the body. The design is similar to that of other stone tombs at Sahna, Qiz Qapan and Fakrika.

The relief shows a priest wearing a Bashlick, a tapered cap with a pointed tip projecting forward. In his left hand he holds a Barsom, a staff of power, or perhaps a bundle of sacred twigs. His right hand is raised as a sign of Zoroastrian ritual.

Reliefs of this kind are called post-Achaemenid or late Achaemenid, and the date of their execution is controversial. Roman Ghirshman first attributed them to the Medes, because their locations match old Media and the figures wear Median dress. They were most probably carved in the 4th and 3rd centuries BC, at the end of the Achaemenid period or at the beginning of the Seleucid or even Parthian era. Seleucid authority reached only the western part of Iran, to towns on the main roads, so many provinces and most of the countryside escaped Greek power. The reliefs of this time therefore kept an Achaemenid style with no trace of Hellenistic influence. Their execution is technically crude, a provincial character that sets them apart from the official royal Achaemenid art in effect from Darius the Great until the fall of the empire.

In reality, nobody can say with certainty for whom the tomb was built or when. Modern archaeologists tend to date it to the Achaemenid or late Achaemenid period from the chronology of its architectural style. Ghirshman believed that its primitive style could be a precursor to the style of Achaemenid tombs rather than a later copy, but stone structures with no material culture or associated remains are difficult to date. Rock-cut tombs of this general kind are burial chambers cut into a natural rock formation, and Iran holds important clusters of them, among them Naqsh-e Rostam, about 13 kilometres north-west of Persepolis in Fars province.

The tomb consists of a cavity opened by a wide and deep anteroom bordered by a double frame. held by 2 cylindrical columns whose shape resembles those of the Pasargadae palaces. The capital and the bases of the columns alone remain, having the form of tables. Take a brief look at the roundabout where the barrels were located. Rectangular entrance to an arched room decorated on one side with 5 niches that may have been used for lamps, and on the other with a larger niche for the body. The design of this tomb is similar to the design of other stone tombs located in Sahna, Qiz Qapan and Fakrika.