Sasanian art

Recently published silver plate from al-Ṣabāḥ Collection, of unknown provenance, has been firmly attributed as Sasanian. In fact, technically, it is related to the Sasanian silverwork however aesthetic examination allows to raise the doubts whether it is genuine. The plate must be compared not only with central-Sasanian artworks but all ancient ‘Oriental silver’, including pieces attributed as Hephtalite or Sogdian. The design of the plate does not have any relation with any of the known examples of late antique oriental toreutics. Central scene of heroic combat with powerful beast or beasts has never been surrounded with the ring containing other hunting scenes is unknown as well. The disbalanced decorum is even more clear when we remind that the central scene shows hunting on foot and the marginal ones – mounted. The details of fixed aesthetic elements – position of personages, beasts, weapons do not belong to Sasanian canon. The unique nature of the plate might result from many factors but the combination of unknown provenance and lack of relation to legitimate Sasanian canon require utmost cautiousness towards the object.

This articles considers Sasanian silver coinage from the perspective of the production of one mint denoted by the mint signature abbreviation AM, most probably located in Amul in Tabaristan. Coins with this mint signature are scarce and poorly represented in the major museum collections. The article demonstrates that there was an almost continuous output of coins from this mint from the time of Varhran V in the fifth century AD right up the reign of the Sasanian Queen Boran in around 630 AD.

Most of the well known Sasanian forms came from museums and private collection and have no further archaeological data. There are, of course, some exceptions, for example the 3rd century CE Sasanian helmet from Dura Europos (currently held in the Yale University Art Gallery). This is of bandhelme construction, having no lower band and possessing many features not seen in other well-known crossbandhelme Sasanian helmets. These differences led me to look for different forms of Iranian armour, unlike what might be called the then “popular ones”. One of my observations led me to write the current study of lamellar helmets in Iran. But before I setting down my ideas on this extremely interesting topic, I will try to explain some very basic typological characteristics and differences of the main types of lamellar helmet.

The article discusses a helmet found in 1968 in a mountainous village of Yarysh-Mardy situated on the river Argun in the north-eastern Caucasus. The helmet was often associated with the Golden Horde period, which according to the author seems highly unlikely. On the basis of a detailed comparative analysis, the author puts forward a thesis of dating the object to either the late-Sasanid or early-Islamic period, i.e. to late 6th - beginning of 8th c. AD. Specifically, it is suggested that the appearance of the helmet in the Caucasus may be attributed to the time of Byzantine-Sasanid conflicts taking place at the turn of 6th and 7th c. AD.
Additionally, the article argues that in the late Sasanid period a new sub-type of helmets came into existence, namely the ones with straight spangs and ones with spiky rivets. Furthermore, it is proposed that  the Yarysh-Mardy helmet bears certain correspondences to similar finds from Groningen and Bremen.

The iconography on Persid coins of the frataraka dynasty has been discussed by many scholars. Interpretations have considered whether the building shown on the reverse of these coins was 1. a fire temple; 2. an atashgahs, i.e. repositories of holy fire; 3. a tomb; 4. a coronation tower; 5. a 'foundation house' or repository for Zoroastrian paraphernalia; or 6. a tower altar/ fire altar. These putative functions, and the building's relationship to the similarly shaped Zendan-e Sulaiman at Pasargadae and Ka'ba-e Zardosht at Naqsh-e Rustam, are evaluated.

The reign of the Sasanian Dynasty (224–651 AD) received great attention in the works of Muslim authors who usually referred to this period as the “golden age” of pre-Islamic Persia. It is however worth noting that artifacts incontrovertibly attributable to the Sasanians are
not very numerous. Among recent finds of dubious origin, some ongoing archeological excavations uncovered Sasanian coins and seals that in some cases showed fabulous creatures composed of parts of different animals. Starting from the ambiguity of these creatures, some scholars proposed to identify them according to ancient Persian mythology
and literature. A composite winged creature with a dog’s head, lion’s paws, and a peacock’s tail that is considered to be typically Sasanian, was said to be the “Iranian phoenix” (Avestan saena marega, Middle Persian senmurv, Farsi simurgh). As it can be observed on seventh
century pre-Islamic Central Asian coins, this composite winged creature was quite explicitly associated with the Iranian concept of glory that was imported into Persia at the end of the Sasanian period from a region between modern Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Slightly later that creature started to appear in western arts too, going from the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic Caliphate to the whole of Europe until the early 13th century. Its exact meaning among Muslims is still a matter of debate although it was definitely considered by Christians as a very appropriate decoration for religious and secular purposes. Eighth-century Sogdian mural paintings from Penjikent and Mongol period Islamic book
illustrations seem to support the identifications proposed in this study.

A fresh reconsideration of the fantastic winged creature with a dog face and peacock tail in Iranian arts that has been considered to be the Simurgh. According to new avidence, this creature should be a representation of Farr (Glory). It can be observed in late Sasanian art just at Taq-i Bustan but it was most likely an Eastern Iranian creation.

Partially preserved Himyarite rock relief with depiction of armored rider with his infantry attandant, has been
referred to Sasanian “jousting” reliefs in Nakš e Rostam. This way the missing part has been reconstructed as horizontally
extended rectangle. The relation with Nakš e Rostam is chronologically correct (as the Himyarite object is dated for beginning
of the 4th century)however it varies iconographically. There are more adequately related objects in Partho-Sasanian and
late Roman art which allow reconstructing entire format as closer to square in shape, with either infantry opponent or a beast
being an opponent of the main personage.
The Himyarite relief from Zafar displays several distinctive features shared with some examples of Parthian and Sasanian art, but its relation to the Naqš-ē Rōstam reliefs, as proposed by Yule and Robin, is not convincing for the following reasons:
1. The rider’s long scale armor is analogous to a terracotta plaque from Parthian Babylonia (fig. 9);
2. The infantry attendant with an axe depicted above the horse’s rump recalls the Tang-e Sarvak relief, which shows two foot soldiers and a battle axe (fig. 7);
3. The horseman carries a round shield and raises his right hand to hold his lance as on the Taq-e Bostan relief (fig.12).
4. The original composition of the relief must have been more square than rectangular, with the opponent of the main figure appearing at the right edge.
Thus, the Himyarite sculptors either followed an unknown or unpreserved Iranian iconographic pattern or combined features of different canons. Yule and Robin have pointed out that a simple snaffle is accorded the horse in place of the elaborate and decorative Sasanian bridle— a distinctive element in Sasanian art, but not always clearly rendered in Parthian art, especially in smaller objects.

This article studies the Sasanian coinage with the mint signature AM, which in all probability represents Amul in Tabaristan. This is the first in a series of articles on the coinage and history of Tabaristan from the Sasanian to the Islamic period published the the journal. Later articles cover the Abbasid governors of Tabaristan and the Alids.

The graffito from Dura-Europos depicting a heavily armored cavalryman is one of the most important sources used to reconstruct the armament of Iranian cavalry units seen in the middle of the third century A.D. The graffito presents a hybrid cuirass that is composed of mail and lamellas. It was probably originally an Iranian construction. The use of hybrid armor should be connected with the process of the adaptation of mail in the Parthian empire and then adjusting this new type of body armor to the realities of cavalry combat. The new hybrid cuirass served its purpose well. It not only survived the Parthian era but also the Arabic conquest of Sasanian Iran in the middle of the seventh century A.D., which is evidently demonstrated by the fact that it was present in the military equipment of Muslim armies in the 16th and 17th centuries A.D.

Greek and Roman art abounded with images of plants, including flowers, and their naturalistic representations means that many are readily identifiable. There is a distinctive four-petalled motif which features prominently in floral decoration, most notably in Hellenistic and Roman art, although it is also found across a wide geography. It is a symmetrical flower comprising four radiating, cordiform (heart-shaped) petals, often interleaved with elongate elements. In polychrome media the petal colour is usually red, pink, or frequently a combination of both, and these petals are often separated by dark green or black elements. An analysis of this flower’s morphological elements reveals it to be a stylised representation of a rose.
This study provides a systematic identification of various forms of the rose, including enduring conventions for rose petals and rose buds, and it is organised by typology. It discusses the different morphologies, noting earlier precedents where relevant, and considers the variations and developments in the depiction of the motif. There are also short observations on rose imagery in later Roman and post-Roman art, including its presence in Iranian art. The objective of this typological study is not an exploration of the cultural significance and emblematic values of roses but is intended as a prelude to an exploration of their potential semantic roles in specific contexts in future articles.

The article discusses two seals from the recently published collection of Aman Ur Rahman that depict previously unrecognized images of Iranian deities. It is suggested that the first seal, of eastern Sasanian manufacture, depicts a unique image of the Daēnā accompanied by two dogs. The second seal shows a well-known motif of a chariot of Mithra. The inscription connects it with the Pārata kings and helps to date the seal to the third-fourth centuries CE.

General opinion holds that architecture under the Umayyadcaliphs (661-750) developed in the Syro-Palestinian Levant, or Bilād al-Shām, and was indebted mostly to late Roman and early Byzantine traditions. Despite the fact that a wealth of motives from Sasanian art was used in Umayyad decorative media, scholars have remained sceptical about the amount and nature of Sasanian elements in Umayyad architecture, perhaps because in the past »Sasanian influence« beyond the place and time of Sasanian rule has been argued in too sweeping terms. This contribution reviews the discussion and re-addresses the question, starting from the three-aisled halls in Umayyad palatial architecture, which are considered formal spaces for representation and audience and have been related to aMediterranean basilical scheme. Contesting the designation »basilical«, the discussion of formal and textual evidence brings to light specific characteristics and a distinct Umayyad spatial pattern. The three-aisled square columnar hall with an added axial room heightened by a powerful symbol of authority, a dome or an apse, is a formula unknown in Roman and Byzantine audience halls. Turning to Mesopotamian and Sasanian parallels, the discussion is extended to the Umayyad adoption of the aywān  and of the triple portico with niche room, or T-shaped hall. This reconsideration of elements,from Mesopotamia under Sasanian rule, in Umayyad architecture is based on spatial analysis but may well be extended to architectural motifs

This study explores one the major new developments in Iranian culture that emerged during this chaotic yet creative period between Alexander and Islam. During this era, several Iranian-speaking or Iranian-influenced dynasties, from Anatolia to South Asia, established sanctuaries that honoured the sovereign, his relatives and ancestors (both actual and mythological) in conjunction with cult rendered to the gods and, in some cases, funerary monuments. While it is useful to describe the phenomenon’s basic outlines, it is important methodologically to resist the temptation to posit and look for a uniformly replicated ‘system’ informed by the best-documented sites. The goal of this study, therefore, is comparative rather than reconstructive. Idiosyncratic local concerns, artistic and architectural technique, as well as non-Iranian global forces impacted the individual development of each sanctuary just as much as their patrons’ engagement with the developing forms of Middle Iranian kingship.

E. Shavarebi, "A Reinterpretation of the Sasanian Relief at Salmas", Iran and the Caucasus, Vol. 18, Issue 2, 2014, pp. 115-133.

Abstract: A Sasanian relief is located at Salmās in north-western Iran. This relief depicts Ardashīr I and his successor Shāpūr, who give rings to two standing men who are not exactly recognised. In this article the relief of Salmās will be examined from iconographic, geographical, and historical points of view, and I will try to diagnose the standing men’s identity.

This article analyzes the scene of the Sasanian king combating a lion in two rock reliefs. Most Sasanian Bas-reliefs belong to the first 150 years of the dynasty and most are located in modern Fars province. The reliefs typically depict the king’s investiture by a deity (who is usually Ahurā Mazdā, but, in some reliefs, Mithra or Anāhitā), the king with courtiers, the king with his family, the king at war, the king’s triumph over his enemies, and the king fighting and hunting wild animals. Two of the bas-reliefs of the king killing animals show him killing lions. One is located at Sar Mašhad and the other, less-known, is kept in the Haft-Tanān Museum, Shiraz, and was discovered at the foothills of Pahnu (Pahnā) Mount in Dārāb. In the ancient Near East, the lion symbolized power, courage, and ferociousness: whoever could confront it successfully was regarded as powerful and brave; consequently, many kings have been portrayed fighting lions (and other wild animals) during this period.
Key words: Bas-relief, Sasanian, Lion, King as Hunter, Sar Mašhad, Haft-Tanān

Кулешов Вяч. С. Серебро за меха из Страны мрака: памятники византийской, восточной и западной торевтики и нумизматики в сакральной экономике югорского общества V–XV вв. // Византия в контексте мировой культуры : Материалы конференции, посвящённой памяти Алисы Владимировны Банк (1906–1984) / Редакционная коллегия: В. Н. Залесская, Е. В. Степанова (научные редакторы) и др. (Труды Государственного Эрмитажа. [Т.] LXXXIX.) СПб.: Издательство Государственного Эрмитажа, 2017. — С. 363–372.

An almost unknown variety of ceramics, archaeologically unattested, embellished with a plethora of painted motifs, has appeared more often on the antiquities market over the last twenty years. While precise studies have not been made, many pieces have entered private collections. These ceramics include many typologies: jars, dishes, and human and animal shaped vases finely painted with dark brown decoration over a yellow ochre or red background. The so called “pearl roundel” motif of animals in roundels surrounded by “pearls”, and continuous horizontal bands of “pearls” are favorite decorative motifs. Very similar ceramics were noted several years ago during investigations in Afghanistan but the political situation did not allow further research. Scholars continue to debate the dating of these ceramics; dates from the sixth to the thirteenth century have been suggested. The frequent use of decorative motifs such as “pearls” and “pearl roundels” suggest a more precise chronology and confirm Central Asia as the most probable place of origin. Any attribution to Sasanian or Sogdian art should be reconsidered in the light of recent investigations and findings. Moreover, “pearled roundels” with a wild boar head in profile do not necessarily point to the pre Islamic period.

The helmet depicted on the capital at Ṭāq-e Bostān is the main evidence for employment of lamellar helmets by the Sasanian warriors. It seems that the decorated helmets of the kind were the marks of high status and were adopted by the Iranian warriors from the steppe peoples, most likely after recovery of control over the territories formerly conquered by the Hephtalites. Steppe nomads popularized this form of military gear throughout Eurasia. Another depictions which seem related to the personage on the capital at Ṭāq-e Bostān are representations on the reverses of the coins of Xusrō II, sometimes named as “Anāhitā” type. Similarity between the coinage and the capital allows to identify the personages as the same. This excludes the goddess as possible portrayed personage. Similarly possibility to identify the personage as Vərəθraγna-Bahrām should be refuted due to connection with Bahrām Čōbīn. If the emissions of the coins with the personage in the lamellar helmet were to commemorate the revenge over the murderers of Emperor Maurice than mentioning the name of Bahrām in positive context would be inappropriate. The most likely solution seems existence of secular system of allegories in Sasanian art which would allow transition of various meanings without the refrence to the yazatas.

The shahs of the early Sasanian dynasty faced the challenge of establishing their legitimacy as the rulers of an imperial polity after rising to power through military insurrection. The early shahs of the dynasty sought to locate themselves within the religious, mythic, and historical context to link themselves to the glorious rulers and dynasties of Iranian myth and history, while simultaneously espousing Mazdean virtue.
Through the concepts of Ērānšahr and Farr, the notion of the territorial unity of the Mazda-worshiping peoples prescribed in the Avesta and the divinely-bestowed glory of rulers, respectively, the motivations that underlaid Sasanian statecraft during the first four generations of the dynasty are contextualized.
The idea of Ērānšahr as a sacrosanct territorial delimitation of the homelands of the Mazdean peoples was first employed to validate and legitimize the rebellion of the Sasanians against the Parthian Aškānīān dynasty. After the civil war that established Ardašīr I as šāhanšāh, the defense of Ērānšahr as both a tangible expanse of territory and
a religious concept was used to justify punitive and retaliatory military action in the west against the Roman Empire, as well as to acquire the Central Asian holdings of the Kushan Empire. The claim to the sole possession of Farr was similarly employed to justify first rebellion, and then conflicts with the Kushan Empire, whose own rulers claimed Farr from Mazdean divinities.
Establishing the religious, mythic, and historical contexts to which the early Sasanian dynasts were subject illuminates the motivations for imperial policy and allows the scrutiny of those policies and actions to transcend the biases inherent in non-Iranian sources for the period. Furthermore, privileging autochthonous sculptural, epigraphic, and numismatic productions produces an innovative analysis of early Sasanian statecraft cognizant of, and rooted within, Iranian cultural paradigms.

The famous “Shapur Cameo” from the collection of Bibliotheue Nationale is an important ob- ject and appears in various studies of Sasanian art, as well as of arms and armour. Studies focus on dating of the object, identification of the scene or identification of the depicted personages without asking the basic question whether the cameo is surely genuine. The conclusion of the article is that the arguments pointing to its nineteenth century origin prevail. It must be stated that the Sasanian elements are employed in very skilled manner both in terms of composition and majority of depicted details, however indecisive nature of the picture which does not clearly define the victor, unclear clothes or garb of the Persian figure, archaic sword of the Roman figure, his awkward position, and not tied tails of the horses, allow to believe that the person who designed the cameo was not fully aware of Sasanian realia. The Sasanian elements are gathered from the limited range of references. The separate argument is that cameos are not type of art favored in Sasanian Iran.

The set of mold-impressed tiles bearing low-relief representations of the so-called Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove (Zhulin qixian) and Rong Qiqi from the late fifth-century CE brick-structure burial at present-day Xishanqiao near Nanjing, Jiangsu province has been recognized as one of the most iconic works of ancient Chinese pictorial art. Whereas the previous scholarship has emphasized its Chinese style and iconography, this paper argues that the Xishanqiao master introduced hand gestures that originated and developed in Indo-Iranian art traditions to portray the Chinese heroes as unconventional, noble, wise, and respectful and to mark the deceased as socially and morally distinctive. It further demonstrates that the geographical and temporal gap between the Xishanqiao and West imagery could have been bridged by the transmission of Buddhist art via the Silk Road(s), the network of intercultural exchange. In doing so, the paper examines the forms of hand gestures of the Chinese sages at the site of Xishanqiao in comparison with earlier and contemporary gestures of veneration in Central and West Asia, as well as in Buddhist art. Ultimately,
this paper reveals how some traditionally praised “Chinese” artworks were actually the fruit of cross-cultural interaction yet to be further appreciated.

The article offers a reassessment of the identity of the female figure found on the relief of the Sasanian king Narseh at Naqš-e Rostam. Based on the iconographic analysis of the relief and the discussion of the arguments put forward by A.Sh.Shahbazi and U.Weber, it is concluded that the figure is not a queen but rather a goddess. She is most probably to be identified with the goddess Anāhitā, to whom Narseh was perhaps personally devoted.
This discussion is followed by a critical examination of the pictorial
representations of Anāhitā in the pre-Islamic Iranian world. It is emphasized
that Anāhitā was a western Iranian goddess whose worship was probably
imported to Bactria after this part of the eastern Iranian world came under
the rule of the Sasanian kings.