Investiture of the first Sasanian king Ardašīr (left) by Ahura Mazdā (right). Nāqš-e Rostām (224-241 CE)

איקונוגרפיה דתית בעולם האיראני הקדם-אסלאמי, בין אניקוניות לאנתקופומורפיזם

The “Figure in the Winged Wheel”, relief from Persepolis

Assur in the winged disk. Nimrud, North-West Palace, slab 23

Miiro (Mithra) Mao Oromozdo

Athšo Pharro Nana

Śiva Buddha

SarapisHeracles

Achaemenian king worshipping before a goddess (Anahita?). Achaemenian seal

from Gorgippa.

Fragment of a foot of a huge acrolithic statue, “Temple with Niches”, Aï Khanum, Bactria (2nd c. BCE)

Tāq-e Bostān: Investiture of Shapur II; from left to right: Mithra, Shapur II, Ahura Mazdā

“Cults where there is no iconic representation of the deity (anthropomorphic or theriomorphic) serving as the dominant or central cultic symbol, that is, where we are concerned with either (a) an aniconic symbol or (b) sacred emptiness. I shall call the first of these two types “material aniconism” and the second “empty-space aniconism”.

Mettinger, T.N.D. (1995), No Graven Image?: Israelite Aniconism in its Ancient Near Eastern Context, Stockholm, p. 19.

Sarmatians sacrifice to a sword.

The stele from Ust’ Alminsk, Crimea. 2nd c. CE

The “Sword-god” from Yazılıkaya, 1225 BCE

“[These were] Sarmatian numeri from the North of the Danube, who brought with them a treasury of hero tales that eventually became the core of the Arthurian and Holy Grail legends”.

Littleton, C. S. and Malcor, L. (2000), From Scythia to Camelot: A Radical Reassessment of the Legends of King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table and the Holy Grail, New York, Garland, pp. xxiii

Tang-i Sarvak II. North-Western face relief

Tang-i Sarvak II. North-Western face relief

Assyrian cultic chariot. The Lachish relief

Worshipper before the sacred empty cart. Urartan seal

Urartan stele showing empty chariot

Tomb of Xerxes, Nāqš-e Rostām

The two monumental plinths at the Sacred Precinct at Pasargadae.

A Coin of Ardašīr (223/4-241 CE)

A Coin of Shapur I (240-272/3 CE)

Examples of Sasanian coins showing a bust on the fire altar

Sasanian seals with a bust on the altar surrounded by flames

A bust surrounded by a nimbus of flames on the coins of Khosrow II (590-628 CE)

Coins of Kushan-shah Pērōz I (c. 250 – 265 CE) showing bust on the altar. Bactrian legend: “BAΓO NANA”

Unique Achaemenian seal showing a worshipper before a fire altar and what seems

to be a symbol of water

The “Sippar tablet”, 9th c. BCE, showing the anthropomorphic statue of Šamaš whithin the temple while ouside the structure the god is

represented by his sun-emblem

Henkelman, W.F.M. (2008), The Other Gods who are: Studies in Elamite-Iranian Acculturation Based on the Persepolis Fortification Texts, Leiden

Seal impression from the Persepolis Fortification Archive

gētīg - “the material, earthly (world), that which can be apprehended through the senses”.

mēnōg - “that which is non-material, non-sensual, intelligible, incorporeal and unperceived by the senses”.

Šāyast ne šayast (15.1-5)

(15.1) It is revealed by a passage of the Avesta that Zardušt was seated before Ohrmazd and was learning his word by heart and he spoke to Ohrmazd, saying “Your head and hands and feet and hair and face and tongue (are) visible to me even as those of my own, and you have such clothes as men have. Give me (your) hand, so that I may take hold of your hand”. (15.2) Ohrmazd said “I am an intangible spirit it is not possible to take hold of my hand”. (15.3) Zardušt said “You (are) intangible, and Wahman and Ardwahišt and Šahrewar and Spandarmad and Hordad and Amurdad (are) intangible and when I depart from before you, and do not see you and them also since that person whom I see and worship, of him there is something (perceptible) should you and those seven Amahraspand’s be worshipped likewise or not?” (15.4) Ohrmazd said “Listen. I say to you, oh Spitamān Zardušt! Each one of us has given to the material world a foster-mother [representative] of his own, where by the proper activity which he makes in the spiritual world is made current in the material world” (15.5) (In) that material world of mine, I, who am Ohrmazd, (preside over) the just man, and Wahman over cattle, and Ardwahišt over fire, and Šahrewar over metals, and Spandarmad over earth and virtuous woman, and Hordad over waters, and Amurdad over plants.