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HOME :
Near Eastern Art :
Sassanid Art : Sassanian Brown Agate Seal
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Sassanian Brown Agate Seal - FJ.0446
Origin: Amman, Jordan
Circa: 200
AD
to 600
AD
Dimensions:
.875" (2.2cm) high
x .875" (2.2cm) wide
x .75" (1.9cm) depth
Collection: Near Eastern
Medium: Agate
Additional Information: hk, sold
Location: Great Britain
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| Description |
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In 244 A.D., Ardeshir I founded the
Sassanid
Dynasty, the last native Persian Kingdom to
rule
Ancient Iran before the Islamic conquest.
The
Sassanid era was a golden age of Persian
culture
that witnessed the revival of
Zoroastrianism, an
ancient mystical religion native to these
lands,
and a literary Renaissance spurred by the
translation of many Old Persian epics
recorded in
cuneiform into the Middle Persian language
of
Pahlavi written in an alphabet derived from
Aramaic. By introducing heightened
international
trade and commerce they created a legacy
of
political and economic diplomacy. They
sponsored trade with the Romans (later on
the
Byzantines), their archenemy, to the west
and the
Chinese to the east. Excavations in China
have
unearthed gold and silver Sassanid coins
covering a span of many centuries until the
demise of the Empire during the reign of
Khosrow II. However, the fall of the Empire
had
already started with a series of wars waged
under the rule of Khosrow I, the father of
Khosrow II. Challenged by the
intensification of
the same international commerce that had
bore
such wealth, struggles for national power
and
international prestige had escalated to an
ungovernable degree. In the face of threats
to his
royal house, Khosrow II embarked upon
military
campaigns that would prove unsuccessful.
By
the close of his reign, the once mighty
Sassanid
Empire came to an end, paving the way for
the
rise of Islam in the Middle East.
A star and a crescent moon, associated
with the
ancient Persian faith of Zoroaster, flank this
elegant portrait of a Sassanid noble. The
inscription is a name: “Moraspand”, which
was
common among the Sassanid aristocracy.
One
needs only to look upon this proud image to
understand that the sitter is a man of
importance. Through this small but
powerful
talisman, we touch directly upon that
ancient
life.
- (FJ.0446)
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