Image: Priests procession at Persepolis

Description: Priests procession at Persepolis. This relief is one of a group of several showing the same kind of procession scene. it decorates the Tachara, Darius the Great's private palace at Persepolis, Iran. According to Werner Dutz, it shows Median and Arachosian priests carrying various gifts and animals for a ritual of sacrifice. During Achaemenian time, Zoroastrism was under a primary form, resulting in the main practice of Mazdeism. 2 Lakes were considered as holy: Hamun-e Orumyeh in Media (Now in Azarbaidjan-e Gharbi province), and Hamun-e Halmand in Arachosia (now at the border between Iran and Afghanistan). It could explain why are the priests medians and Arachosians, identified with their clothings and hats. But controversies also exist, and some scholars do not think the relief shows priests, but servants at to the royal court bringing the necessary for the royal dinners. Achaemenian dinners were very important political ceremonies, and the possibility exist that this reliefs was made to remind the magnifiscence of these dinners where very few priivileged nobles were invited according to the king's will or agenda. Taken in Persepolis, City of Marvdasht, Province of Fars, Iran, April 2008.
Title: Priests procession at Persepolis
Credit: originally posted to Flickr as Procession
Author: dynamosquito
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