Parthian Art

Parthian art flourished within the Eurasian cultural corridor from the late hundreds BCE to the early 1st and 2nd centuries CE. With the Parthian Empire (247 BCE - 224 CE) stretching from India and China in the east to the Mediterranean shores in the west, having taken over the Seleucid Empire (312-63 BCE) of many peoples and cultures, influences came from many quarters. Borrowing from the east and west, theirs was an amalgam easily identified as Parthian. Not only did they create their own distinct, almost outlandish dress, their frontal and circular motifs in art and architecture and their use of geometric and floret design for wall décor have influenced patterns of art that resonate in the Middle East to this day.