SOAS Research Online

Abstract

The fragment of the bulla under discussion here (inv.no. 10917) is one of 824 clay bullae recovered from the World Heritage site of Taḵt-e Solaymān during archaeological excavations conducted in 2002–2008 by an Iranian team under the direction of Yousef Moradi. Of unusually large size, the obverse of our bulla shows a male figure on horseback extending a beribboned diadem with his right hand. The obverse also bears two lines of a Middle Persian inscription on its circumference. Examining the iconography and the inscription of the bulla, this article argues that the horseman represents king Pērōz (r. 459–484) and that the inscription is a fragment of the royal titulary characteristic of this particular Sasanian king. The iconography depicted on the bulla is interpreted as further evidence for the equation of the king and the god Ahura Mazdā, and for the Zoroastrian notion that the material world mirrors the spiritual world. Moreover, it is suggested that our bulla with the impression of Pērōz’s seal would have been attached to a document or a wrapped commodity sent from Pērōz’s court to the fire temple of Ādur Gušnasp and would have guaranteed its authenticity. The bulla is located in the wider historical context of imperial Sasanian Iran and interpreted as testifying to royal gift-giving within the context of Zoroastrian pilgrimage as well as to the king’s devotion to and respect for the fire temple of Ādur Gušnasp.