No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Representation of Aphrodite and Eros on Sasanian Clay Bullae: Evidence from the Fire Temple of Ādur Gušnasp at Takht-e Solaymān
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 January 2025
Abstract
This article examines five Sasanian bullae from the fire temple of Ādur Gušnasp with seal impressions depicting Aphrodite and Eros, and Aphrodite Anadyomene. It is argued that the original seal with Aphrodite and Eros likely dates from the late 1st century BCE to the early 1st century CE, reused between the 5th–7th centuries CE, while the Aphrodite Anadyomene seal is from the 2nd or 3rd century CE. Contextualizing these findings within Graeco-Roman and Iranian cultures, this article explores reinterpretations of Graeco-Roman iconography for both Zoroastrian and non-Zoroastrian audiences, as well as highlights that bullae with concave impressions of cylindrically curved objects on the reverse had once been attached to vessels, not just documents. Additionally, this article also discusses other sealings on the new bullae, some with Middle Persian inscriptions, identifying a mgw (priest) and an astrologer, providing the first attestation of the word axtar (constellation) on a Sasanian seal.
- Type
- Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Association for Iranian Studies
References
Akbarzadeh, Daryoosh, Cereti, Carlo. G., and Sinisi, Fabrizio. Glyptic Antiquities from the Museum of Khoy, Western Azerbaijan, Iran. Roma: Instituto per l'Africa e l'Oriente, 2009.Google Scholar
Azarnoush, Massoud. The Sasanian Manor House at Hājiābād, Iran. Firenze: Casa Editrice Le Lettere, 1994.Google Scholar
Azarpay, Guity. “Bullae from the Pahlavi Archive at the University of California, Berkeley.” In Ērān ud Anērān: Studies Presented to Boris Il'ič Maršak on the Occasion of His 70th Birthday, edited by Compareti, M., Raffetta, P., and Scarcia, G., 61–70. Venezia: Libreria Editrice Cafoscarina, 2006.Google Scholar
Barfi, Sirus, Amiri, Mosaib, Malekzadeh, Soodabeh, and Daryaee, Touraj. “A Concise Report on Some Newly Found Sasanian Sites in Kazerun.” e-Sasanika Archaeology 16 (2013): 1–29.Google Scholar
Bivar, Adrian David H. Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Stamp Seals in the British Museum. Stamp Seals II: The Sassanian Dynasty. London: The British Museum, 1969.Google Scholar
Bonner, Campbell. Studies in Magical Amulets, chiefly Graeco-Egyptian. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1950.Google Scholar
Brandt, Elfriede. Antike Gemmen in deutschen Sammlungen, Band. 1: Staatliche Münzsammlung München. Teil 3. Gemmen und Glaspasten der römischen Kaiserzeit sowie Nachträge. München: Preußischer Verlag, 1972.Google Scholar
Canepa, Matthew P. “The Transformation of Greco-Roman Paideia in Sasanian Visual Culture: Plate with a Goddess.” In Persia: Ancient Iran and the Classical World, edited by Spier, J., Potts, T., and Cole, S. E., 335–37. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2022.Google Scholar
Cazzoli, Sara, and Cereti, Carlo G.. “Sealings from Kafir Kala: Preliminary Report.” Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia 11 (2005): 133–164.Google Scholar
Çakmak, Lisa A. Mixed Signals: Androgyny, Identity, and Iconography on the Graeco-Phoenician Sealings from Tel Kedesh, Israel. PhD diss., University of Michigan, 2009.Google Scholar
Delatte, Armand. “Études sur la magie grecque, IV, Amulettes inédites des Musées d'Athènes.” Le Musée Belge 18 (1914): 21–96.Google Scholar
Delatte, Armand, and Derchain, Philippe. Les intailles magiques gréco-égyptiennes. Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, 1964.Google Scholar
Frye, Richard. “The Use of Clay Sealings in Sasanian Iran.” Acta Iranica 12 (1977): 117–24.Google Scholar
Furtwängler, Adolf. Beschreibung der geschnittenen Steine im Antiquarium. Berlin: W. Spemann, 1896.Google Scholar
Furtwängler, Adolf. Die antiken Gemmen: Geschichte der Steinschneidekunst im Klassischen Altertum. Leipzig: Giesecke & Devrient, 1900.Google Scholar
Gignoux, Philippe. “Cachets sassanides du British Museum.” Acta Iranica 12 (1976): 125–48.Google Scholar
Gignoux, Philippe. Catalogue des sceaux, camées et bulles sassanides de la Bibliothèque Nationale et du Musée du Louvre, II. Les sceaux et bulles inscrits. Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale de France, 1978.Google Scholar
Gignoux, Philippe. Noms-propres sassanides en moyen-perse épigraphique. Iranisches Personennamenbuch II 2. Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1986.Google Scholar
Gignoux, Philippe. Noms propres sassanides en moyen-perse épigraphique. Supplément [1986–2001]. Iranisches Personennamenbuch II, 3. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2003.Google Scholar
Gołyźniak, Pawel. Engraved Gems and Propaganda in the Roman Republic and under Augustus. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2020.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Göbl, Robert. Die Tonbullen vom Tacht-e Suleiman: ein Beitrag zur spätsāsānidischen Sphragistik. Berlin: D. Reimer, 1976.Google Scholar
Gulick, Charles B., trans. Athenaeus. The Deipnosophists. London: William Heinemann, 1937.Google Scholar
Guthrie, Kenneth S. The Pythagorean Sourcebook and Library: An Anthology of Ancient Writings which Relate to Pythagoras and Pythagorean Philosophy. Grand Rapids: Phanes Press, 1987.Google Scholar
Gyselen, Rika. Catalogue des sceaux, camées et bulles sassanides de la Bibliothèque Nationale et du Musée du Louvre, I. Collection générale. Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale de France, 1993.Google Scholar
Gyselen, Rika. “L’«Archive du Tabarestān»: bulles, sceaux et manuscrits.” In Reflets d’époques sassanides et post-sassanide (224–760 A.D.) (Res Orientales XXX), edited by Gyselen, R., 83–134. Bures-sur-Yvette: Le Groupe pour l’Étude de la Civilisation du Moyen-Orient, 2023.Google Scholar
Gyselen, Rika. “Note de glyptique sassanide, 6. Le phénomène des motifs iconographiques communs à l'Iran sassanide et au bassin méditerranéen.” In Ērān ud Anērān: Studien zu den Beziehungen zwischen dem Sasanidenreich und der Mittelmeerwelt; Beiträge des Internationalen Colloquiums in Eutin, 8.–9. Juni 2000. Oriens et occidens; Bd. 13, edited by Wiesehöfer, J. and Huyse, Ph., 83–103. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 2006.Google Scholar
Gyselen, Rika. “Réemploi de sceaux à l'époque sassanide.” Studia Iranica 20 (1991): 203–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gyselen, Rika. “Sasanian Glyptic, an Example of Cultural Interaction between the Hellenistic World and the Iranian World.” In Coins, Art, and Chronology: Essays on the Pre-Islamic History of the Indo-Iranian Borderlands, edited by Alram, M. and Klimburg-Salter, D. E., 293–301. Wien: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1999.Google Scholar
Gyselen, Rika. Sasanian Seal and Sealings in the A. Saeedi Collection. Leuven: Peeters [Acta Iranica 44], 2007.Google Scholar
Gyselen, Rika. “Some Thoughts on Sasanian mgwh-Seals.” In Faszination Iran Beiträge zur Religion, Geschichte und Kunst des Alten Iran: Gedenkschrift für Klaus Schippmann, edited by Farridnejad, Sh., Gyselen, R., and Joisten-Pruschke, A., 87–100. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2015.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gyselen, Rika. “The Parthian Language in Early Sasanian Times.” In The Parthian and Early Sasanian Empires: Adaptation and Expansion, edited by Sarkhosh Curtis, V., Pendleton, E. J., Alram, M., and Daryaee, T., 61–68. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2016.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Havelock, Christine M. The Aphrodite of Knidos and Her Successors. A Historical Review of the Female Nude in Greek Art. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1995.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huff, Dietrich. “Technological Observations on Clay Bullae from Takht-e Suleiman.” Mesopotamia 21 (1987): 367–90.Google Scholar
Humbach, Helmut. “About Gōpatšāh, His Country and the Khwārezmian Hypothesis.” In Papers in Honour of Professor Mary Boyce, 325–34. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1985.Google Scholar
Jex-Blake, Katharine, and Sellers, E.. The Elder Pliny's Chapters on the History of Art. London: Macmillan, 1896.Google Scholar
Johnston, Ian., trans. Homer the Iliad. Arlington: Richer Resources Publications, 2007.Google Scholar
Kettenhofen, Erich. “DEPORTATIONS. ii. In the Parthian and Sasanian Periods.” In Encyclopaedia Iranica, edited by Yarshater, E., online edition available at https://iranicaonline.org/articles/deportations (accessed June 30, 2023), 1994.Google Scholar
Kousser, Rachel. “Creating the Past: The Vénus de Milo and the Hellenistic Reception of Classical Greece.” American Journal of Archaeology 109, no. 2 (2005): 227–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lerner, Judith. A., and Skjærvø, Prods Oktor. “Some Uses of Clay Bullae in Sasanian Iran: Bullae in the Rosen and Museum of Fine Arts Collections.” In Sceaux d'Orient et leur employ (Res Orientales X), edited by Gyselen, R., 67–87. Bures-sur-Yvette: Groupe pour l'Etude de la Civilisation du Moyen-Orient, 1997.Google Scholar
Lerner, Judith A. “Thoughts on a Reused Roman Seal with a Middle Persian Inscription.” In In Search of Cultural Identities in West and Central Asia: A Festschrift for Prudence Oliver Harper (Inner and Central Asian Art and Archaeology, vol. 3), edited by Colburn, H. P., Hensellek, B., and Lerner, J. A., 275–85. Turnhout: Brepols, 2023.Google Scholar
Lesperance, Paul. Symbols and Objects on the Sealings from Kedesh. PhD diss., University of Minnesota, 2010.Google Scholar
Livshits, V. A., and Xurshudjan, E. S.. “Le titre mrtpty sur un sceau parthe et l'armenien mardpet.” Studia Iranica 18 (1989): 169–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lukonin, Vladimir G. “Political, Social and Administrative Institutions: Taxes and Trade.” In The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 3:2, edited by Yarshater, E., 681–746. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacKenzie, David N. “Gōbadšāh.” In Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. X, Fasc. 1, edited by Yarshater, E., 18. New York: Bibliotheca Persica Press, 2001.Google Scholar
Macuch, Maria. Rechtskasuistik und Gerichtspraxis zu Beginn des siebenten Jahrhunderts in Iran. Die Rechtssammlung des Farroḫmard i Wahrāmān (Iranica 1). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1993.Google Scholar
Macuch, Maria. “The Use of Seals in Sasanian Jurisprudence.” In Sceaux d'Orient et leur employ (Res Orientales X), edited by Gyselen, R., 79–87. Bures-sur-Yvette: Le Groupe pour l’Étude de la Civilisation du Moyen-Orient, 1997.Google Scholar
Moradi, Yousef, and Hintze, Almut. “A Flaming Bust on a New Clay Bulla from Taḵt-e Solaymān: an Epigraphic and Iconographic Analysis.” In The Sasanians in Context: Art, History, and Archaeology, edited by Daryaee, T., Catanzariti, A., and Farhad, M.. 2025.Google Scholar
Moradi, Yousef, and Hintze, Almut. “A New Sealing of Pērōz from Tak̠t-e Solaymān and its Historical Context.” In Persia (552 BCE–758 CE): Primary Sources, Old and New (Res Orientales 28), edited by Gyselen, R., 113–36. Bures-sur-Yvette: Groupe pour l’Étude de la Civilisation du Moyen-Orient, 2020.Google Scholar
Moradi, Yousef, and Hintze, Almut. “The Main Seal of the Sanctuary of Ādur Gušnasp and some other Administrative Sealings from Taḵt-e Solaymān.” In Sometimes Sasanians, always Ēr (Res Orientales 29), edited by Gyselen, R., 75–99. Bures-sur-Yvette: Groupe pour l’Étude de la Civilisation du Moyen-Orient, 2022.Google Scholar
Pannuti, Ulrico. Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli. La collezione glittica II. Roma: Istituto poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, 1994.Google Scholar
Perikhanian, Anahit. The Book of a Thousand Judgements (A Sasanian Law-Book). Costa Mesa: Mazda Publishers, 1980.Google Scholar
Potts, Daniel T. “Gopatshah and the Human-Headed Bulls of Persepolis.” Electrum 6 (2002): 9–14.Google Scholar
Reinach, Salomon. Pierres gravées des collections Marlborough et d'Orléans: des recueils d'Eckhel, Gori, Lévesque de Gravelle, Mariette, Millin, Stosch, réunies et rééditées avec un texte nouveau. Paris: Firmin-Didot et Cie, 1895.Google Scholar
Rtveladze, Edward V. “Gopatshah of Bactria (A Nephrite Plate with Depictions of a Bactrian Ruler and a Bull-Man).” Ancient Civilization from Scythia to Siberia 4 (1997): 294–305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schlegel, Catherine M., and Weinfield, Henry. Theogony and Works and Days. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2009.Google Scholar
Sena Chiesa, Gemma. Gemme del Museo Nazionale di Aquleia. Padova: Associazone Nazionale per Aquileia, 1966.Google Scholar
Seidl, Ursula. “Aphrodite mit Eros in der sasanidischen Kunst.” In Ivories, Rock Reliefs and Merv: Studies on the Ancient Near East in Honour of Georgina Herrmann, edited by Wicke, D. and Curtis, J., 53–63. Münster: Zaphon, 2022.Google Scholar
Serwint, Nancy. “Aphrodite and Her Near Eastern Sisters: Spheres of Influence.” In Engendering Aphrodite: Women and Society in Ancient Cyprus, edited by Bolger, D. and Serwint, N., 325–50. Boston, MA: American Schools of Oriental Research 7, 2002.Google Scholar
Snijder, Geerto A. S. “Antique and Mediaeval Gems on Book Covers at Utrecht.” The Art Bulletin 14 (1932): 4–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spier, Jeffrey. Late Antique and Early Christian Gems. Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag, 2007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spier, Jeffrey. “Late Antique and Early Christian Gems: Some Unpublished Examples.” In Gems of Heaven: Recent Research on Engraved Gemstones in Late Antiquity, c. AD 200–600, edited by Entwistle, C. and Adams, N., 193–207. London: The British Museum, 2011.Google Scholar
Stampolidis, Nikolaos C. Les sceaux de Délos 2, Ho erotikos kyklos. Paris: Dépositaire de Boccard, 1992.Google Scholar
Unvala, Jamshedji M. “Gopatsah.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 5 (1964): 505–506.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vollenweider, Marie L. Deliciae Leonis. Antike geschnittene Steine und Ringe aus einer Privatsammlung. Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von Zabern, 1984.Google Scholar
Waegeman, Maryse. “ΑΡΩΡΙΦΡΑΣΙΣ. Aphrodite's Magical Name.” L'antiquité classique 61 (1992): 237–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walters, Henry B. Catalogue of the Engraved Gems and Cameos Greek, Etruscan and Roman in the British Museum. London: The British Museum Trustees, 1926.Google Scholar
Weber, Dieter. “New Arguments for Dating the Documents from the “Pahlavi Archive.” Bulletin of the Asia Institute 22 (2008): 215–22.Google Scholar
Weber, Dieter. “Pahlavi Documents of Windādburzmihrābād, the Estate of a Zoroastrian Entrepreneur in Early Islamic Times (With an Excursus on the Origin of the Fulanabad-Type of Village Names).” Bulletin of the Asia Institute 28 (2014): 127–47.Google Scholar
Weber, Dieter. “Two Unknown Documents from the ‘Pahlavi Archive’.” Sasanika Papyrological Studies 3 (2019): 1–6.Google Scholar
Weiß, Carina. Die antiken Gemmen der Sammlung Heinrich Dressel in der Antikensammlung Berlin. Würzburg: Ergon Verlag, 2007.Google Scholar
Zwierlein-Diehl, Erika. Die antiken Gemmen des Kunsthistorischen Museums in Wien Band 2 Die Glaskameen. Die Glaskameen. München: Prestel, 1979.Google Scholar
Zwierlein-Diehl, Erika. Glaspasten im Martin-von-Wagner-Museum der Universität Würzburg. Band 1: Abdrücke von antiken und ausgewählten nachantiken Intagli und Kameen. München: Prestel, 1986.Google Scholar