Righteousness is Good: A New Interpretation of the Seal from Yarim Tepe in the Daregaz Plain, Khorasan, Iran

Abstract

This paper discusses a Sasanian sealstone discovered in 2014 at the archaeological site of Yarim Tepe in Khorasan, northeastern Iran. Although a surface find, the fact that this sealstone is provenanced is significant because this sets it apart from thousands of unprovenanced Sasanian sealstones which, coming from the antiquities market, are held in museums and private collections around the globe. The seal shows a bust in profile and an inscription that arcs above the bust from shoulder to shoulder. Through a stylistic analysis, we date the seal to the 3rd–4th century CE. The article offers a new reading and interpretation of the inscription and argues that the image shows a conventional portrait rather than a specific individual.