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An
ancient seal has been discovered by chance which
confirms the information recorded in the text of
the Bistun Inscription in Kermanshah Province, an
expert of the Hamedan Cultural Heritage and
Tourism Department announced on Wednesday.
Fariba Sharifian explained that the Iranian police
recently confiscated the seal from smugglers in
the town of Asadabad in Hamedan Province, adding,
“It is not clear when and where the seal was
unearthed, but the information and reliefs carved
on it narrate significant and interesting
material.”
The seal is made of green jasper, she said.
A cuneiform inscription in ancient Persian on one
side of the cylindrical seal reads “Dadar Shish,
Satrap of Bactria”.
Dadar Shish was an ancient Iranian proper name
which meant brave. It is said that the English
word “dare” is derived from this word.
According to the Bistun Inscription, in ancient
Iran two persons were known by this name: the
Armenian Dadar Shish, who had been tasked by the
Achaemenid king Darius I to suppress the army of
Armenia sent to the region; and a satrap of
Bactria (modern Balkh in Afghanistan).
The Bistun Inscription is a cuneiform text written
on the precipitous limestone rock of a mountain
above the village of Bistun, in western Iran. The
inscription was carved in parallel columns,
repeating the same text in the Old Persian,
Assyrian, and Elamite languages, by order of the
Persian king Darius I. It recounts his genealogy
and conquests.
The other side of the recently discovered seal
bears a relief depicting a horseman who is hunting
a lion with his bow and arrow, with the symbol of
Ahura Mazda above this scene.
“This relief illustrates a story of Darius the
Great hunting lions,” Sharifian said.
According to archaeologists, cylindrical seals
were common in economically and politically
developed societies of the time.
Seals have been employed in Iran since the
Neolithic era. The Achaemenids used them for
administrative purposes.
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