The heraldry of early Iranian religion

Book section : Chapter

Writing has served to support both the economic and social structures underpinning religion and to express religious ideas, in most cases of its early use. This is particularly well documented in ancient Egypt and Mesoamerica, but less so in early Mesopotamia, notwithstanding the substantial architectural remains of what have been interpreted as temples, from ancient Mesopotamia. Evidence of religion is extremely illusive in the earliest texts from Iran, the so-called proto-Elamite texts, and the site most closely associated with the proto-Elamite texts, Susa, produced no architectural remains that can be recognized as religious buildings dating to this period. This might well be a feature of the archaeological practice of the lead excavator of Susa, Jacques de Morgan, rather than an actual reflection of the original situation at Susa.1 Due to the dependency of protoElamite on proto-cuneiform, I will first discuss the evidence of religion in the protocuneiform texts, before surveying the proto-Elamite corpus. Due to the nature of early writing and its limited information on social and religious systems, I will also briefly discuss the glyptic evidence (in particular seals) for religion in both Late Uruk (Uruk V–III, c. 3500–3000 bce) and the proto-Elamite period (c. 3100–2900 bce).

Authors: Dahl, JL

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Reviewed (other)
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Host title: Bloomsbury Handbook of Material Religion in the Ancient Near East and Egypt
• Pages: 213-224
• Chapter number: 15
• Series: Bloomsbury Handbooks
• Place of publication: London
• Publication date: 2023-04-25
• Edition: 1st
• DOI: 10.5040/9781350280847.ch-015
• EISBN: 9781350280830
• ISBN: 9781350280816
• Language: English
• Subtype: Chapter