نوع مقاله : مقاله پژوهشی
عنوان مقاله English
نویسندگان English
Based on ancient human beliefs, some cultural artifacts contain some values on which artistic forms have been visualized. To understand these values, it is essential to recognize symbolic signs that sometimes had distinct meanings in ancient cultures, as a verbal language representing specific meanings of mythological beliefs. The ancient man created the animals from mud, stone and metal based on his religion and beliefs to worship them. They were sometimes worshiped and revered as totems or ancestors and sometimes because of their natural beauty and power. In Iran, the identity of the animal motifs has undoubtedly been influenced by the environmental conditions, culture and religion of each tribe. Animal motifs can be divided into symbolic domesticated animals, animals that symbolized power, belief, and religion, and sacred animals that were worshipped as gods.
The civilization of Iran is a collection of city-states that formed a unified civilizational body around the beginning of the third millennium BC. The ancient sites of Tepe Giyan Nahavand and Jiroft in southern Kerman are among the most important ancient sites discovered in Iran. Erwin Panofsky applied the iconological method in art studies, moving from the description of artifacts to their interpretation. On this basis, this study uses the iconological method to examine the meaning of the motifs in the artistic media of the Gilgamesh Vase and the Jiroft Vessel discovered from the cultural sphere of Iran.
The ancient sites of Tepe Giyan Nahavand and Jiroft in southern Kerman are among the most important ancient cultural areas discovered in Iran. In the excavations of Tepe Giyan, pottery objects were found, one of which was a clay vase. The age of this artifact dates back to the third millennium BC and symbolically recounts the transition of humanity from the Paleolithic era to urbanization in Iran. In the excavations of the ancient region of Jiroft, stone containers with common visual themes were obtained, one of which is the stone vessel examined in this study. In general, the artifacts found in Jiroft have been collected in the Halilrood region in southern Kerman, located in southeastern Iran. Numerous artifacts obtained from the excavations of the Southern and Northern Sandal Hills prove the authenticity and the extensive artistic production of the Bronze Age civilization in the Halilrood area. The most famous and misleading form of artistic expression in this region is the creation of objects from soapstone and chlorite, which are depicted with geometric patterns and abstract shapes or with reliefs. The heroes and representations of supernatural legends are transformed into combinations such as scorpion-human, animal-human, and lion. Iconography is a method for interpreting the history of culture and art that reveals the cultural, social, and historical contexts of themes and patterns in visual arts. Iconology seeks to clarify the significance of these symbolic markers, which have been repeatedly represented across different cultures, and to interpret them through a scientific approach aimed at elucidating their meanings and understanding their cultural values based on iconological classification and analysis.
In a symbolic linguistic system, the symbolic markers represent themselves as a word, image, or behavior in a metaphoric system. Although iconology is a study of the content of images, it is essentially an attempt to understand the relationship between these markers within a broader symbolic cultural system.
The main question of the research is whether the depicted motifs on these artistic media are representations of previous interpretations of them? Was this geographical area, during the mentioned time period, a single civilizational entity that nurtured shared myths and ideologies?
The present research method is descriptive-historical and based on analytical reasoning. The tools and methods for data collection are based on note-taking and collecting samples of works in museums and libraries. The historical period studied in this research is the 5th to 1st millennium BC. The statistical population of the research consists of two samples—vessels discovered from these historical periods in Iranian civilization. To increase the accuracy and precision of the research results, 33 other pottery and stone artifacts were also purposefully selected as samples, compiled into a table, and examined in terms of their visual characteristics. The present study has purposefully selected among the surviving artifacts those whose visual elements can be examined from a mythological perspective. For this purpose, the ones known as Gilgamesh Vase and Jiroft Vessel have been visually reinterpreted and analyzed through the presentation of images.
The study of motifs in the civilizations of Jiroft and Giyan reveals that these motifs were considered Edenic in that era. Applying the artistic details and skills of the creators is the outcome of a careful observation to indicate the animals that existed around them. At the same time, the power of artists’ imagination in depicting imaginary creatures is also remarkable. The imagination that has created these images can be considered a product of the beliefs of the people of this land. Beliefs that are symbolically depicted relying on the physical powers of these animals provide creative images of the conquest of the power of these creatures. Additionally, motifs of the epic faces of humans and supernatural creatures, which were prevalent in the myths of the people of the Halilrood region during the Bronze Age, can also be seen. These motifs depict conflicts that are not ordinary and have specific meanings that we may never fully understand.
The present study examines the motifs of the two potteries, Gilgamesh and Jiroft, discovered from the ancient site of Jiroft and the Giyan mound, using iconographic methods. Based on this, the results of previous articles regarding the vessels that identified the central image of the vessel with Gilgamesh are incorrect and invalid. This issue also applies to the evidence mentioned in the research text that states the depicted image is of a heroic king. Based on mythological findings, Gilgamesh is a Sumerian myth, meaning this narrative was prevalent in Mesopotamia. Therefore, the spread of this myth in that time in the eastern Zagros and Iranian civilization is impossible. However, regarding the second question, despite the great distance of the ancient mounds from Jiroft and considering the similar and common elements present in both vessels, the proposition of producing shared mythological and ideological narratives in the realm of Iranian civilization is confirmed. In fact, the overall theme of the images contains fixed elements that display a common and uniform concept. From an anthropological perspective, these motifs reflect the thoughts, beliefs, and social structure of a prehistoric society, some of which have survived to this day. On the other hand, there is no evidence to suggest the existence of the Indo-European myth of Mehr in the third millennium BC. Studies of this site confirm a later date for Mehr worship in Iran. The history of Mehr-worshipping communities in Iran dates back to the arrival of Iranian tribes in this region. This date is after the third millennium BC. In general, it seems that the images on the vessels narrate a mythical story, and this story includes the beliefs and myths of the people of that era. As a result, the vessels had a ritual function.
کلیدواژهها English
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