Nisa

The work carried out by the mission of the Centro Scavi Torino in Old Nisa (Mithradatkert), in nowadays Turkmenistan, realized thanks to the contribution of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and from 2001 until 2007 also of the Compagnia di San Paolo of Turin, is part of the more general field of research on “The legacy of Alexander the Great and the origins of Parthian art. Research on the spread of Hellenistic culture in Asia and on its effects in Parthian and Sasanian times”. The initiative’s purpose is to study how Hellenistic culture spread in Asia, and its encounter with Iranian culture; as for central Asia and Parthian culture, Old Nisa provides a privileged starting point for understanding the art and architecture of the early Arsacid period.

For more than thirty years, the Centro Scavi Torino has been conducting field works thanks to the cooperation of Turkmen authorities: in recent years with the National Department on Preservation, Study and Restoration of Historical Monuments of the Culture Ministry and the National Museum of Ashgabat; in the earliest years of research, with the State University of Ashgabat (History and Archaeology Institute).

Old Nisa (Mithradatkert)

The Parthians (or Arsacids) belonged to the wide confederation of Scythian nomads of the central Asian steppes. According to classical sources, their group (Parns, Aparns) originated from the regions south of the Aral Sea. Towards the middle of the 3rd century BCE, Arsaces I took over Parthia, freeing it from Seleucid rule. This foreshadowed a glorious and centuries-long epic that saw the Parthians dominate the eastern regions, then compete with Rome and finally succumb to the Sasanids in the first decades of the 3rd century CE.

One of the first major cities founded by the Arsacids was Old Nisa, the ancient Mithradatkert. Its importance lies in the fact that it is one of the most ancient examples of an official and monumental centre of the early Arsacid period: a crucial time in which the social, political and cultural trends that converged into the Parthians’ various arts were developed, defined and consolidated.

The archaeological area of Nisa extends at the feet of the Kopet Dagh mountain range, in southern Turkmenistan. Two nearby sites, New Nisa e Old Nisa, emerge today from the plains at the foot of the mountains near the modern village of Baghir, 18 km west of the capital Ashgabat. The two centres, atop natural elevations, as known today, were founded in Parthian times. New Nisa was probably the city, surrounded by towered walls and with an inner citadel. Old Nisa (the fortress of Mithridates), on the other hand, was the ceremonial centre and royal citadel. The latter is much better-known, as a succession of Soviet, Turkmen and Italian excavations (the last of which are still underway) has taken place since the 1930s. Today, our knowledge of the inner layout and of the main features of the citadel of Old Nisa, although still incomplete, is satisfactory. The favourable topographical position of the citadel of Mithridates and the imposing curtain of turreted walls made of unbaked bricks probably gave visitors the impression of being a fortified stronghold; today, although the walls of Old Nisa now appear as gently undulated structures at the edge of the plateau, they have maintained their majestic appearance. However, the research that has been conducted there for more than 70 years has increasingly highlighted the fact that this complex possessed neither military nor strategic functions: in short, it was neither a stronghold nor a fortified royal residence, but a centre that was actually used to hold ceremonies celebrating the Arsacid dynasty, that simultaneously exalted Parthian royalty and the power of a new ethnic group that imposed itself on the international scene. In this celebrative dimension – and it is here that the art at Nisa illustrated its wealth and mystique – art and architecture borrowed from various cultural traditions: some were ascribable to the dynasty’s origins (the world of the steppes), others displayed Iranian (Achaemenid) influences, while others were influenced by the spread of Hellenism in Asia with and after Alexander the Great.

The Centro Scavi's research

Inside the walls, protected by 48 towers built from unbaked bricks (the building material used for all constructions in Nisa), two main building complexes are recognisable: a northern sector containing the monumental Square House from which most of the known materials from Old Nisa come from, and a central sector with an ample uncovered courtyard which several monumental buildings overlook. These include the two complexes studied since 1999 by the mission of the Centro Scavi Torino: the Round Hall (1990-1996, 1999) and the Red Building (1995, 2000-2006). The third sector, investigated starting from 2007, is located at the south-western corner of the walls where the Italian mission brought to light the complex consisting of the South-western Building and the Eastern Building.

The work carried out by the Turin expedition included excavations, restorations, studies and documentation and technical analyses. From 1990 to 1999, excavations were performed inside the Round Hall, completing the data collected by the Soviet missions in the previous decades. One of the aspects that characterised the recent field studies was the recovery of fragments of unbaked clay sculptures, that since ancient times were heaped on the room’s floor in dismal conditions; the delicate and complex operations included the cleaning, consolidation, detachment, documentation and restoration of dozens of pieces that are today preserved in the capital’s museum.

Between 2000 and 2006 excavations focused on an adjacent sector immediately north of the Round Hall, where the remains of a monumental Arsacid building, the Red Building, had been identified. Since 2007 new excavations began in the SW corner of the citadel, near the fortified walls. The excavations, still in progress, brought to light a complex covering a wide area, displaying an approximately square plan, with rooms along the main walls and a central court. In some of the rooms, used as warehouses, peculiar findings such as big jars (khums) and clay sealings were found.

The National Museum of Turkmenistan and the Fine Arts Museum of Ashgabat has provided the opportunity to systematically collect and store all the materials from Old Nisa, as well as the availability of work spaces for conducting studies, restorations and technical analyses. The fruitful cooperation with the museums allowed the updating of the documentation of several classes of materials that led to the publications on metalwork, marble and clay sculpture and ivory rhyta.

The Round Hall

The building containing the Round Hall was located in the southern sector of the citadel’s so-called Central Complex. It was studied by Soviet missions in the 1950s and 1980s, and in 1990 the Italian archaeological mission resumed its study with systematic excavation campaigns in order to complete the planimetric survey of the complex, which was still partly unexplored. At the same time, the excavation of the central area’s ancient levels was completed and the walls’ structural characteristics were observed. The excavations also led to the recovery of fragments of the architectural decoration and of fragments of the unbaked clay sculptures that decorated the building.

As all the structures in Nisa, the building is made of unbaked bricks and its sides measure approximately 30 metres; it is composed of an ample circular central hall with a diameter of 17 m that is inside a quadrangular perimeter. Access to the inner hall was provided by three distinct passages that underwent several modifications. The floor plan of the inner circular space inside a square perimeter makes the Round Hall an unusual building that to this day still cannot be directly compared to other designs, although it bears generic similarities to both Western designs and to traditional central Asian designs. The unusual planimetric characteristics, the building’s monumental size and the findings inside the rooms would suggest that the building was used for sacramental purposes. G. Košelenko hypothesised that the complex was a mausoleum dedicated to an important member of the Arsacid dynasty; this has now been confirmed by the identification, proposed by A. Invernizzi, of the fragmentary portrait found in the room as a portrait of Mithridates I.

The structural study carried out on the building walls finally allows us to propose new reconstructive hypotheses of the building’s internal and external aspect and of its roof.

The structural features of the walls of the Round Hall are extremely interesting: preserved up to a height of over 4 metres, they display a complex texture in the various sections of masonry that make up their bulk, made from unbaked bricks, consisting of a thick square perimeter in which a thin circle of bricks is inscribed and constructed independently. The remarkable dimensions of the room and the passage from the curve of the inner walls to the straight lines of the building’s outer perimeter attest to the extensive technical and static know-how of its ancient builders.

The reconstructive hypothesis of a building consisting of a cylindrical drum enclosed in a square perimeter and a wooden pavilion roof, recalling classical models, proposed many years ago by the excavators, cannot be maintained today. The recent studies and the static calculations carried out by the Turin mission showed that the inner walls were not based vertically on the floor, but were built slightly slanting from their start. Therefore, a new reconstructive hypothesis can actually be advanced, postulating that the hall was covered with a dome of oriental style (with a hyperbolic, elliptical or oval cross section) made of unbaked bricks.

The Red Building

The Red Building, which earned its name because of the red plasters found in the inner rooms and on the façade, has been entirely excavated over the course of six campaigns. In most recent years, the Italian mission’s efforts in Nisa were concentrated on the monumental complex whose importance is evident from its size (over 40 m on each side), from its position (overlooking the central courtyard) and by several architectural and decorative features (stone friezes, coloured plasters). However, while the importance this building must have possessed is easy to imagine, recognising its specific purpose is more difficult; the building’s architectural features generically suggest that it was used for ceremonial purposes, like all other buildings in the central sector of the citadel.

2000-2001 campaigns

The resumption of excavations in the sector north of the Round Hall identified poorly preserved beaten clay structures on top of the Arsacid structures starting with the first levels, just under ground level. From the beginning, it was obvious that, in addition to Parthian buildings, structures built in later periods, presumably in Islamic times, were also being brought to light. The walls of the Islamic complex are made of beaten clay (pakhsa); the use of a mixed technique contemplating the use of bricks (30x30x5-6 cm) alternated with pakhsa blocks was observed only sporadically. A good part of the structures was built directly on the Parthian walls, and it is likely that some of the oldest walls were reused (as the base of the walls’ grade plane) because they were still in good conditions. The entire area where the Medieval building was erected was prepared for the complex’s construction: the filling – possibly artificial – of several rooms and the vertical laying of several rows of reused Parthian bricks attest to a construction that was planned in order to create a solid platform on which the Islamic complex’s walls could rest. The floor plan of the Medieval building comprises a rectangular central courtyard measuring approximately 13 x 10 metres, overlooked by three iwans to the north, west and south. On the east side, research has uncovered two rectangular rooms and a long corridor facing north and south. Fragmented structures to the sides of the iwans attest to the presence of rooms and structures all around the central courtyard, whose dismal conditions unfortunately did not make an analytical survey possible. The dating of the Islamic complex is based exclusively on small ceramic fragments that would place the building between the 12th and 16th centuries.

2002-2003 campaigns

The 2002-2003 excavation campaigns almost completely brought to light the very large (approximately 42 m on each side) Red Building, whose walls are preserved up to a height of approximately four metres. The Arsacid building is made from mud bricks, but some of its architectural details reveal the special care and importance it was always given. It overlooks the citadel’s large central courtyard and has a quadrangular shape, characterized by a large central hall with 4 columns surrounded on three sides by rooms and corridors and preceded, on the north side, by a front portico. The courtyard’s elevated portico was accessible through a stone staircase with three steps, at the centre of the façade. It measured approximately 13 x 17 m and was delimited to the west and east by two projecting rooms (24 and 27); it was decorated with a frieze of astragal and grooved stone slabs. Finally, four stone bases supporting wooden columns rested on the portico.

Two entrances opened at the sides of the façade, which led to side rooms 24 and 27. They protrude beyond the building’s perimeter by approximately 8 metres and constitute the side wings of the elevated portico. The two rooms, that were closed in a late stage of the building’s use, had plastered walls. The lower part of the walls was decorated with red plaster, which was more resilient than simple white plaster and was obtained with a preparation containing clay, sand and gravel. The building’s façade ran behind the portico; it consisted of projections and recesses that however were probably concealed by the plaster finish. An exceptionally well-preserved second frieze made from sandstone slabs ran along the base of this façade wall. The original ochre and red colours, which, alternated with the stone’s natural grey-green colour livened the façade, may still be seen on several slabs. These colours were probably also used on the upper part of the walls, as attested by the fragments of coloured plaster. The entrance to the building, almost at the centre of the façade, led, through a vestibule, to the central hall: a large quadrangular room with four columns with stone bases and anchor rings and wooden shafts. The remains of traces of colour and gold leaf on wooden fragments (of the columns and of the roof’s beams) give only a pale idea of how lavish this great hall’s decorations were; its walls, however, were smooth and whitewashed. Only the room’s west wall, probably the main one, revealed the presence of niches. The room’s floor, as in most of the rooms of the complexes in Nisa, is simply beaten clay and covered by a thin layer of plaster. Curiously, the large central hall with the columns is not connected to the rooms that delimit it on the east and west sides. In addition to the façade’s vestibule (and the south corridor), the only other space connected to it was room 21, which must have been especially important. In fact, room 21 displays a peculiar coloured plaster finish (red on the walls, as in the portico’s side rooms) that is also applied to the floor’s surface (here the plaster was ochre). A large half niche was recessed into the room’s west wall: this may suggest that the room served a cultural (or anyhow specific) purpose. All of the other rooms along the east and west sides of the building were not connected to the central room. They are characterized by access from the outer corridors and their sizes vary, but they are anyhow quite small. Room 15 of the west wing stands out, once again because of the distinctive decorations of its walls. It is a small quadrangular room that does not contain any special structures or installations, apart from a niche in its north wall. However, what set it apart from the other rooms was the lavish decorations of its walls, which comprised a red band on the lower half and coloured bands on the top half.

2004-2005 campaigns

The 2004-2005 excavation campaigns entirely uncovered the east, west and south corridors of the Red Building. It is now clear that entrances from the outside, in almost all cases off-centre, opened onto each corridor. The stratigraphy inside the rooms highlighted the presence of two or three main phases of frequentation that roughly correspond to those observed in the complex’s inner rooms. The missions sounded the northeast corner of the building’s façade, where restorations and reconstructions that were probably made during the final phases of the complex. The most significant element is given by the building’s south façade, which is also distinguished by a fine red plaster finishing.

The collaboration with the National Museum of Ashkhabad has also made possible a parallel project of documentation, analysis and restoration of the main classes of materials from the new and old excavations in Old Nisa in these most recent campaigns and simultaneously with the excavation. A team of specialists performed chemical and physical analyses (spectrophotometric X-ray) on possible traces of colourings in the artefacts: marble and clay statues, rhyta and architectural decorative elements.

2006 campaign

The 2006 campaign saw the conclusion of work on the ground in the Red Building’s sector. The main excavation operations concerned the area in front of the building’s two façades, to the north and south. The works enabled the layout of the fronts of the lateral overhangs, on which restorations and reconstructions performed over the long period in which the Arsacid building was used are visible, to be better defined. A temporary shelter dug directly into the ground, which most likely dates to the late Medieval phases of the site’s frequentation, was also brought to light. The excavation established that an ample uncovered area between the citadel’s fortification walls and the nearby Round Hall extended in front of the south façade. An ostrakon inscribed in Pahlavi and several fragments of a stucco eagle that was probably part of the inside decorations of the Red Building, as also attested by other similar findings during previous campaigns, originate from this sector. Another limited sounding was made at the boundary between the Red Building and the Tower Building, where the walls belonging to the latter’s complex rest against the building site examined by the Italian expedition.

The excavations were complemented by a geophysical survey carried out with an electromagnetometer and a magnetometer on almost all of the citadel’s inner area by experts from the University of Siena together with the Centro Scavi Torino. In the ongoing acquisition campaign, the EM83 electromagnetic probe was interfaced to a portable GPS through an Allegro handheld computer; this way it was possible to georeference each individual point of acquisition, an essential basis for accurately mapping the area. The final objective is that of obtaining two maps of the area under investigation (one of its electrical conductivity and one of its magnetic susceptibility), in order to then reconstruct the ground’s properties and to identify the anomalous areas ascribable to possible archaeological objectives to study in future campaigns.

The excavations in the southern sector (South-Western Building; Eastern Building)

The Italian-Turkmen archaeological expedition in Nisa has focused since 2007 on the south-western sector of the site. This corner sector of Old Nisa, indeed, had never been systematically investigated before and elicited no particular interest during the early decades of archaeological research. The structures here found belong to two distinct (but joined) buildings, the extension of both being considerable; their complex architectural history cannot seemingly relegate it to later stages of use of the area, but rather to a quite long span of time (Parthian period) that probably started since the 2^nd century BCE.

A first, large quadrangular building (conventionally named "South-West Building") stands at the inner corner of the walls and is made up of rooms arranged around an open area. It housed foodstuffs and various manufacturing activities, also connected with the preparation of food, as shown by the over one hundred holes dug in the ancient floors or directly in the terrain originally used for containing the large jars named khum. Few of these jars were discovered intact, most of them have been destroyed or reused in ancient times or have been broken by the collapse of the structures. More than forty ostraca which recorded the entry and the exit of goods such as wine, flour and oil, were found inside the rooms. The excavations have also brought to light a hundred masses of raw clay used to seal the khums and the doors: they bear seal impressions, and represent an important source of information on the organization and administration of these storehouses. The building extends on an area of ​​about 50x55 m: its perimeter has the shape of a parallelogram, with the external walls parallel to the city walls. This confirms that, as elsewhere in Nisa, the buildings of the main complexes were erected by positioning them according to the course of the corresponding section of the citadel's walls. The building is composed of an internal row of rooms located on the four sides of a rectangular open area, originally intended as a courtyard, and later divided in inner rooms by the building of small walls. Some of these innermost rooms, and in particular those made in pakhsa, have probably to be dated to the Islamic period, as indicated by the presence of late materials (which can be dated to between the 10^th and the 16^th centuries). These phases can be identified in different sectors of the building, with a particular concentration in the courtyard and in the northern and north-eastern areas. It should be noted that, however, some of the walls in pakhsa are Parthian. Furthermore, the reconstruction of the courtyard is complicated by the presence of large trenches, probably dug by the Soviet missions, which unfortunately were not accurately documented.

On the northern and eastern sides of the building, likely at a later stage, a second row of rooms were erected. To the east, against this outer row of rooms, the so-called "Eastern Building" was then built. This building has been excavated only partially. Up to now, the excavations have brought to light a complex measuring about 25×28 m whose specific purpose is as yet unknown, although an exclusively storing function is to be ruled out. The preservation of part of the walls in this area is very precarious, particularly at its northern end, where it makes it difficult to reconstruct the entire plan. The building is made up of rooms varying in shape and, generally, of modest size. Only two inner rooms have shown traces of khum cavities – likely a ‘private’ storehouse for this building. Of particular interest are the three rooms, each with two column bases, on the southern side on the complex. Of these rooms only the central one had twin-step bases and stone torus (of the so-called ‘Achaemenid’ type found elsewhere at Nisa), whilst the other bases were in beaten clay. As attested in the eastern room, where the lower portion of the two columns were preserved, these columns were curiously made of unbaked clay and then covered with white plaster. The presence of columned halls highlights that this building was of some relevance, maybe with a more private character compared to the South-Western Building: we cannot rule out that it was employed as the residence or representative building/office for a high-ranking personality whose duties concerned the adjacent complex of storehouses.

As a preliminary statement, according to some ostraca found in the area the two buildings were in function at least since the late 2nd and during the first two decades of the 1st centuries BCE.

The materials

Clay sculptures

The production of clay statues in Nisa is comparable to that of other sites in central Asia and anticipates some of the important developments of Kushan and Greco-Buddhist sculpture. This type of decoration was also contemplated for other buildings in Nisa; first and foremost, the building containing the Round Hall.

The first fragments of painted clay statues were found in the Round Hall since the trenches performed by Marušcenko and Eršov (1934-1936), but they were left at the bottom of the opened trenches even when in 1949 the JuTAKE (Complex Archaeological Expedition in Southern Turkmenistan) excavations began; their recovery began only in 1990, when the team of restorers from the Italian archaeological Expedition began cleaning them and systematically removing the soil. So far, approximately 100 fragments have been recovered from the Round Hall and around 10 from the Red Building; they are now stored in the storerooms of the National Archaeological Museum in Ashgabat.

The recovered fragments belong to statues depicting figures wearing draped or military clothing; in most cases they consist of portions of clothing and hairstyles, and of body parts (heads, hands, arms) in fewer cases. Among the latter, the exceptional fragment of a bearded male head that has been identified, through comparisons with coins, with Mithridates I especially stands out. Fragments of clothing ad hairstyles are also especially interesting, because they give us an idea of the artistic trends that must have influenced Nisa’s sculptors when they prepared their works. In fact, the iconographic and stylistic study of the fragments allows the sculptures of the Round Hall to be considered as an exceptional example of Hellenistic art in Central Asia.

Thanks to the studies conducted so far, it is possible to advance some interesting hypotheses on the sculptures of the Round Hall. They probably consisted of numerous male and female statues, which were at least five; at least three were clothed with tunics and mantles, one wore Iranian dress and one was probably a warrior. They had Greek hairstyles, with their shoulder-length hair in curls or plaited and, in the male statues, with beards with long wavy wisps or with short curls under the chin. It cannot be determined for sure where these statues, which were greater than life-sized (2.30-2.40 m), were positioned inside the room. Given the assumption of a elliptic dome, they were probably not on the walls, but were probably placed on the floor, possibly on wooden bases. It is also impossible to determine if they were grouped together or placed apart from each other, maybe at regular intervals.

One of the most interesting features of the clay statues is their “composite” technique of execution: the various parts (heads, arms, hands, clothing and hairstyles, for example) were modelled separately (some were cast and some were modelled by hand) and then joined to each other. In order to hold such statues together, an internal framework, also of different materials and shapes (wood, metal and plaster), on which the layers of clay were applied one at a time. A vivid polychromy characterized the statues’ final appearance: in fact, abundant traces of blue, red and pink remain on the fragments of clothing, while black and red are prevalent on hair. To this regard, interesting discoveries have been made thanks to several chemical analyses that were performed in the laboratories of the Valle d’Aosta’s Regional Board of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities, which shed light on the composition of the various types of clay and colour pigments used in the final stage of pictorial finishing. During the 2005 excavation campaign, measurements were also made directly on the samples stored in the National Museum of Ashgabat with two spectrophotometers provided by the “Nello Carrara” Institute in Florence.

Rhyta

Among the finds made in Nisa by the JuTAKE, the most exceptional comprise the approximately 50 ivory rhyta (tall decorated vessels used for serving and pouring liquids) whose fragments were found on the clay counters in one of the rooms of the Square House (Masson-Pugačenkova 1982). Although the rhyton’s shape is of Iranian origin, it was also widespread in the Greek world and in the steppes. The technical and artistic level of the masterpieces from Old Nisa is very high. The importance of this exceptional class of materials is at the basis of missions that in recent years have seen specialists from the Centro Scavi Torino work on some of the pieces that were found. This work included cleaning, restoration, integration and consolidation of some of the poorly preserved friezes (2002), and all pieces were graphically (drawings, 2001-2 and 2005) and photographically documented. The rhyta from Nisa are composed of several pieces assembled together and are subdivided for the most part in an upper frieze with figures, a smooth central body and an end piece that also depicts figures. The iconography of the depicted subjects is immediately ascribable to a Hellenistic context (including the twelve Olympian gods, Dionysian processions on the friezes, themes from Greek mythology on the end pieces), but the execution of these motifs always displays central Asian influences, evident from the fuller figures, the exaggerated shapes and in the recurring presence of typically eastern subjects such as the gryphon and the Gopatshah. The study of the Nisean rhyta led to the publication of the volume Nisa Partica. I rhyta ellenistici.

Marble sculptures

The most famous among the sculptures brought to light by the JuTAKE is the co-called Rodogune, from the name of the Parthian heroine that Soviet archaeologists gave to this statue, which depicts Aphrodite Anadiomene, identified with the Iranian Anahita. The strong influence of Hellenistic culture is also obvious in the other statues, Artemis the huntress, Dionysus leaning against a young satyr, another statue of Aphrodite, and the archaistic female figure attesting to how the artists that made it were aware of the various aesthetic trends in Hellenistic times. The depiction of figures and deities in exclusively Greek dress is not surprising in an extremely receptive cultural context such as that of Nisa, where the two styles (Greek and Iranian, side by side in a complex syncretism) are always present. The most recent Italian missions have also promoted the study, documentation and analysis of the marble sculptures from the Square House. These studies led to the publication of the volume Nisa Partica. Le sculture in ellenistiche. The statues, whose dimensions are usually one third of life size, originally decorated the citadel’s buildings. Analyses of the statues’ original pigmentation were performed during the 2005 campaign with the aid of an X-ray spectrophotometer. The study of the colours (plasters, statues), followed by archaeologists from the Centro Scavi Torino, is still underway in the laboratories of the Valle d’Aosta’s Regional Board of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities.

Metal sculptures

The JuTAKE excavations of the Square House in the citadel’s north sector yielded another significant class of materials: the metal figurines, sculpted in the round or in relief, in gilded silver or bronze and usually of small sizes, most likely decorated furnishings or other objects, from vessels to weapons. They make up a heterogeneous group that is extremely indicative of the artistic, stylistic and technical trends that characterised the entire Nisene production. The representations of Athena, Eros, gryphons and sphynxes, centaurs and eagles once again highlight the simultaneous presence of typically Greek iconographies alongside themes that were typical of the world of the steppes, i.e. of the origins of the ruling dynasty. An in-depth iconographic and stylistic study (Invernizzi, 1999) highlighted a series of comparisons with Greek and Iranian works that are significant of understanding this production, which appears to belong to the period between the 2nd century BCE and the 1st century CE. Although their size and expressive detail makes them minor works, the metal figurines from Nisa are a body of work that gives us to a better understanding of the Arsacid rulers’ taste and ideology.

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2004, “Thoughts on Parthian Nisa”, Parthica 6, 133-143.

2005, “Representations of Gods in Parthian Nisa”, Parthica 7, 71-79.

2006a, “Cornici dentate da Nisa Vecchia”, in P. Callieri (ed.) Architetti, Capomastri, Artigiani. L’organizzazione dei cantieri e della produzione artistica nell’Asia Ellenistica, Studi offerti a D. Faccenna, Roma, 49-57.

2006b, “La cultura di Nisa partica tra steppe e impero”, Quaderni dell’Accademia delle Scienze di Torino13, 47-66.

2007, “The Culture of Parthian Nisa between Steppe and Empire”, in J. Cribb, G. Herrmann (eds.) After Alexander. Central Asia before Islam, (Proceedings of the British Academy 133), Oxford, 163-177.

2008, “On the occasion of 60th anniversary of the discovery of the Nisa rhytons”, Parthica 10, 9-18.

2009, Nisa Partica. Le sculture ellenistiche (Monografie di Mesopotamia XI), Firenze.

2010, “A Goddess on the Lion from Susa”, Problemy istorii, filologii, kul'tury 1 (27), (on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of A.G. Koshelenko), Moskva, 28-35.

2011, “Parthian Art-Arsacid Art”, Topoi 17, 189-207.

2018, “Mithradates and the Round Hall in Old Nisa”, in R. Muradov, Traces of Empires. Culture of Central Asia from Alexander the Great to the Timurids. In Memory of Galina A. Pugačenkova, Kabul-Bishkek, 270-282

INVERNIZZI A. - KOSHELENKO G.A.

1990, “Soviet-Italian Excavations in Old Nisa (Season 1990)”, Mesopotamia XXV, 47-50.

INVERNIZZI A. - LIPPOLIS C.

2008, Nisa Partica. Gli scavi italiani nel complesso monumentale arsacide 1990-2006 (Monografie di Mesopotamia IX) Firenze.

LIPPOLIS C.

2001, book review a V.N. Pilipko, Staraja Nisa. Zdanie s Kvadratnym Zalom, Moskva, 1996, Parthica 3, 221-234.

2002a, “L’ancienne Nisa, la forteresse de Mithridate”, Dossiers d’Archéologie, n. 271, Marzo 2002, 42-45.

2002b, “Nisa-Mitradatkert : l’edificio a nord della Sala Rotonda. Rapporto preliminare delle campagne di scavo 2000-2001”, Parthica 4, 47-62.

2003a, “Novije Issledovanija Staroj Nisji”, Kulturnye Ziennosti 2000-2001, Ashkhabad, 195-200.

2003b, “Nisa-Mithradatkert: the building to the north of the Round Hall. Preliminary Report of the 2000-2001 excavation campaign”, Central Asia Cultural Values vol. I, n. 2, June 2003, 1-17.

2003c, book review a V.N. Pilipko, Staraja Nisa–Osnovnye itogi arheologicheskogo izuchenija v sovetskij period, Parthica 5, 3-13.

2004, “Nisa-Mitradatkert : l’edificio a nord della Sala Rotonda. Rapporto preliminare delle campagne di scavo 2002-2003”, Parthica 6, 161-177.

2005a, “Osservazioni sui fregi in pietra dall’Edificio Rosso di Nisa Vecchia”, Electrum 10, 59-72.

2005b, “Nisa”, Enciclopedia Archeologica Treccani, Roma (380-381: per Nisa partica; 988-989: per Nisa islamica)

2006, “Les recherches italiennes sur l’Ancienne Nisa”, Dossiers d’Archéologie n. 317 (octobre 2006), 58-65.

2007a, “Nisa-Mitridatkert. Alle origini dell’arte dei Parti”, in V. Messina (ed.), Sulla via di Alessandro, Catalogo alla mostra di Torino – Musei Civici di Arte Antica e Palazzo Madama, febbraio-marzo 2007.

2007b, “Ricerche a Nisa Partica: arte ed architettura dei primi Arsacidi“, Atti dei Lincei della Giornata in memoria di Giorgio Gullini, 193-210.

2008a, “La Sala Rotonda-Gli scavi”, 7-42; “L'Edificio Rosso-Gli scavi”, 83-166; “Materiali, tecniche costruttive e catalogo degli elementi architettonici dalla Sala Rotonda e dall'Edificio Rosso”, 216-268; “Conclusioni”, 365-387, in Invernizzi - Lippolis 2008.

2008b, “I rhyta di Nisa Partica e la celebrazione della dinastia Arsacide”, Ligabue Magazine 52, 84-115.

2009a, “Notes on the Iranian traditions in the architecture of Parthian Nisa”, Electrum 15, 53-66.

2009b, “The Colour in Parthian Nisa: some consideration on Polychromy in Sculpture and Architecture in Ancient Turkmenistan”, Proceedings of the IInd international Symposium of the Terracotta Army and Polychrome Cultural Relics Conservation and Research (Xi'an 23-27 march 2009), Xi'an, 426-434.

2010a, “Parthian Nisa. Some Consideration Based on New Research”, in P. Callieri, L. Colliva (eds.), South Asian Archaeology 2007 - Proceedings of the 19th Meeting of the European Association of South Asian Archaeology in Ravenna, July 2007, vol. II (BAR Int. Series 2133), Oxford, 165-177.

2010b, “Notes on Parthian Nisa in the Light of New Research”, Problemy istorii, filologii, kul'tury 1 (27), (on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of A.G. Koshelenko), Moskva, 36-45.

2011, “Architecture and Colour in Parthian Nisa”, Topoi 17, 209-228.

2013a, “The Dark Age of Old Nisa: late Parthian Levels in Mihrdatkirt?”, in P.B. Lurje, A.I. Torgoev (eds.), Sogdians, Their Precursores, Contemporaires and Heirs (Transactions of the State Hermitage Museum LXII), St. Petersburg, 60-70.

2013b, “Old Nisa, Excavations in the South-Western Area. Second Preliminary Report (2008-2012)”, Parthica 15, 89-115.

2014, “Parthian Nisa. Art and Architecture in the Homeland of the Arsacids”, in P. Leriche (ed), Art e Civilisation de l’Orient Hellénisé. Rencontres et échanges culturels d'Alexandre aux Sassanides. Hommage à Daniel Schlumberger, Paris, 223-230.

2019, “Le acque di Nisa - Mitridatocerta (Turkmenistan)”, Parthica 21, 89-114.

LIPPOLIS C. - MAMEDOV M. - BRUNO J. - PATRUCCO G.

2019, “Preliminary note on the 2019 archaeological campaign of the Italian-Turkmen archaeological expedition to Old Nisa (Turkmenistan)”, Parthica XXI, 115-126.

LIPPOLIS C. - MANASSERO N.

2015, “Storehouses and storage practices in Old Nisa (Turkmenistan)”, Electrum 22, 115-142.

LIPPOLIS C. - MESSINA V.

2008, “Preliminary Report on the 2007 Italian Excavations in Parthian Nisa”, Parthica 10, 53-62.

2015, “From Parthian to Islamic Nisa”, in R. Rante (ed.), Greater Khorasan. History, Geography, Archaeology and Material Culture, Berlin/Munich/Boston, 39-50.

MANASSERO N.

2007, New Light on the rhyta of Old Nisa, Hephaistos 25, 7 – 44

2008, “Têtes coupées on the cornices of the Nisa rhyta. Nothing to do with Dyonisus?”, Parthica 10, 81-98.

2010a, La purezza nella libagione: proposte di interpretazione dei rhyta a protome animale tra la Grecia e il mondo iranico, in D. Metzler (ed.), Un mazzo di fiori. Festschrift 80 Jahre Herbert Hoffmann, Münster, 240-261.

2010b, Tamga-like images on sealings from Old Nisa, Parthica 12, 17-30.

2011, A Celtic track in Parthian Nisa, in C. Lippolis, S. de Martino (a cura di), Un impaziente desiderio di scorrere il mondo. Studi in onore di Antonio Invernizzi (Monografie di Mesopotamia vol. XIV), Firenze, 273-284.

2013, Celto-Iranica. The Strange Case of a Carnyx in Parthian Nisa, Etudes Celtiques 39, 61-86

2014, Marine Monsters in the Desert Sands. Thoughts on Some Sealings from Parthian Nisa, Parthica 16, 31-47.

2015, “New sealings from Old Nisa”, in Broadening Horizons 4:  A Conference of young researchers working in the Ancient Near East, Egypt and Central Asia, University of Torino, October 2011, Oxford, 155-160.

2018a, A banchetto con gli eroi. La mobilia in avorio della Casa Quadrata a Nisa Partica, Mnème 10, Alessandria

2018b, “Meanings of rhyta and meanings of Old Nisa”, in R. Muradov, Traces of Empires. Culture of Central Asia from Alexander the Great to the Timurids. In Memory of Galina A. Pugačenkova, Kabul-Bishkek, 294-304.

2020, The Ivory Thrones from Parthian Nisa: Furniture Design between Philhellenism and Iranian Revival, in L. Naeh – D. Brostowsky Gilboa (Eds.), The Ancient Throne. The Mediterranean, Near East, and Beyond, from the 3rd Millennium BCE to the 14th century CE, 151-172.

MASTURZO N.

2008, “L'architettura della Sala Rotonda di Nisa Vecchia”, in Invernizzi - Lippolis 2008, 43-65.

MENEGAZZI R.

2008, “Gli elementi in pietra”, in Invernizzi - Lippolis 2008, 143-150.

2008, “Gli oggetti”, in Invernizzi - Lippolis 2008, 317-328.

MESSINA V.

2008, “Gli sferoidi in gesso”, in Invernizzi - Lippolis 2008, 329-343.

MOLLO P.

2001, “Le sigillature da Nisa Vecchia”, Parthica 3, 159-210.

MORANO E.

2008, “Iscrizioni partiche da Nisa Vecchia su ostraka e intonaco”, in Invernizzi - Lippolis 2008, 344-347.

PAPPALARDO E.

2008, “The rhyton No. 52 from Old Nisa: An interpretative proposal”, Parthica 10, 63-80.

2010, Nisa Partica. I rhyta ellenistici (Monografie di Mesopotamia XII), Firenze.

2009, “The Ivory Rhytons from Ancient Nisa”, Central Asia Cultural Values, 4, 71-82.

2011, “Il sonno della menade, la morte dell'amazzone: Iconografie a confronto nell'Asia ellenizzata”, in C. Lippolis, S. de Martino (a cura di), Un impaziente desiderio di scorrere il mondo. Studi in onore di Antonio Invernizzi (Monografie di Mesopotamia vol. XIV), Firenze, 139-148.

2012, “I rhyta in avorio da Nisa Vecchia: forma partica tra mondo greco e mondo romano”, Memorie dell’Accademia delle Scienze di Torino (Mem. Sc. Morali, Serie V – Archeologia – Epigrafia – Numismatica 35-36), 41-88.

2013, “Ivory rhytons from Old Nisa: Methodological Remarks”, Transactions of the State Hermitage Museum LXII, Sogdians, Their Precursor, Contemporaries and Heirs (Based on Proceedings of the International Conference The Sogdians at Home and abroad in commemoration of the 75th anniversary of Dr Boris I. Marshak (1933-2006), St Petersburg, 45-60.

2019a, “Il viaggio del Centauro. Arcesilao e la circolazione di modelli fra Oriente e Occidente”, Parthica 21, 127-141.

2019b, “Onorare I morti per celebrare i vivi. Rhyta e corni potori tra Oriente e Occidente”, in L. Sole, R. Panvini (eds.), Nel mondo di Ade. Ideologie, spazi e rituali funerari per l’eterno banchetto (secoli VIII – IV a.C.), Caltanissetta, 45-60.

2020, “Resilience in Central Asia. The Birth of the Parthian Dynasty”, Annali della Facoltà di Scienze della Formazione dell’Università degli Studi di Catania 19, 27-42.

PIACENTINI P. - LIPPOLIS C.

2009, L’Iran dei Parti. Scavi a Nisa e materiali archeologici delle collezioni, Catalogo alla mostra, 25 febbraio - 25 marzo 2009 Museo Nazionale d’Arte Orientale “Giuseppe Tucci”, Roma.

RIZZI, P.

2008, “Analisi di frammenti metallici da Nisa Vecchia”, in Invernizzi - Lippolis 2008, 362-364.

TROSSARELLI C.

2003, “Caratterizzazione del recipiente di Nisa mediante esami non distruttivi”, Parthica 5, 123-126.

TURCO, F. - DAVIT, P. - BORGHI, A. - BRUNO, J. - LIPPOLIS, C.

2016, “Multi-technique characterization of various artefacts and raw materials from Old Nisa (Turkmenistan)” Journal of Archaeological Science (Reports 5), 374-382.