© Cambridge University Press 2007 and Cambridge University Press, 2009. This system led to the creation of a self-perpetuating ‘court society’. While the king used them to emphasise his unique position and his social distance from his courtiers, the courtiers used them to display their own position within the hierarchical order of the court. Both the king and the court used court ceremonies and court etiquette as vehicles for expressing this interdependence. King and court existed in a relation of interdependence, in which each used the other constantly to reaffirm their position within a strict hierarchical order. He identified the court as a grouping of people who played a key part in this phenomenon and had an immediate interest in preserving themonarch. Elias’ analysis asked how the social position ofmonarch was perpetuated over numerous generations and dynasties and over considerable time periods. Most recently Wiesehöfer (in press (c)) has discussed the Achaemenid palace and its importance for the king. Briant (1996, 2002) offered a descriptive account of the Achaemenidcourt, although he fell short of providing a historical context or adopting a theoretical approach to the court as apolitical institution in the sense first defined by Norbert Elias. Amélie Kuhrt identified these courts as elements of Near Easternkingship and the expression of power (Kuhrt 1995). The need for a systematic study of the courts of ancient Near Eastern monarchies, including the court of the Achaemenid empire, is only now becoming clear. Due to the peculiar epigraphic material and distinctive block shape, the analysis of f1 offers interesting insight into the distribution of the text on the wall and the related technical issues. The following paper aims to advance comprehension of the problematic Parthian block f1, one of the 19 recently-discovered inscribed blocks (Cereti, Terribili 2014), providing a new textual reconstruction and a synoptic reading of its content with the corresponding Middle Persian passages. From 2006 onwards an Italian team has been investigating the monument, conducting surveys in the valley of Paikuli and studying the materials now kept in the Slemani Museum (Sulaimaniyah), both activities continuing to the present day. The bilingual inscription (Middle Persian and Parthian), originally carved on the walls of the monument, constitutes one of the most important primary sources for the early Sasanian history, despite its fragmentary state of preservation. It marks the place where dignitaries of the Ērānšahr met the Sasanian sovereign to swear an oath of loyalty to him during a dynastic struggle. The celebrative monument of Paikuli, located in the present-day province of Sulaimaniyah (Kurdistan, Iraq), was built at the southernmost edge of the Qaradagh range by the Sasanian king Narseh (293-302/3 ad ).
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