Achaemenid Persia - the royal court at least - is strongly associated with luxurious living. Throughout their lives, high-ranking individuals were surrounded with precious objects: they ate from gold and silver bowls and wore dazzling jewellery. Many of these items have been found in burials, implying that they kept their valuable possessions with them even in death.

Dining was an important part of ancient Persian life. Food was elaborate as were the rituals that accompanied banquets. As well as ornate bowls, tableware included rhytons (drinking vessels), jugs, strainers, ladles and scoops. Many of these items were depicted on the stone reliefs at Persepolis. Ancient representations also tell us that the Persians wore a great deal of splendid jewellery. Both men and women wore headdresses, torcs, earrings, necklaces and bracelets, and even small gold ornaments sewn onto clothes. Jewellery with colourful inlays was particularly popular.

Tableware and jewellery must have been plentiful, but relatively few pieces survive today. This is partly because all the tombs of the Achaemenid kings were plundered in antiquity. However some lesser burials, including the Susa tomb, pictured below, have proved invaluable both for the objects found within them and the customs which they reveal. The Persian kings seem to have tolerated the many different local religions which flourished across the vast empire.