The vessel was… packed with precious objects and placed upside down. What is it? This lidded, silver-gilt vessel is c.150mm tall, and 92.4mm in diameter at the rim. It was discovered as part of the Viking Age Galloway Hoard, filled…
The obvious comparison, here in Britain, is with Hadrian’s Wall – the great Roman fortification that stretches for 73 miles across the country from coast to coast. Yet the Great Wall of Gorgan – built just a few hundred years…
In the 4th to 6th centuries AD, Persia was under attack from the north by the ‘White Huns’ and other powerful groups of steppe warriors. Persia’s response was to create a massive fortification belt – unsurpassed in scale anywhere in the ancient and medieval world, with only the possible exception of China. Eberhard Sauer, Jebrael Nokandeh, Hamid Omrani Rekavandi, Mohammadreza Nemati, and Mehdi Mousavinia have explored the backbone of the system: the densest concentration of mega-fortresses in the late antique world, in the Gorgan and Tehran Plains of Iran.
The image shown here represents a fire altar with a triple-pointed crown in the flames as a central motif, surrounded by plant scrolls containing stylised leopards and tigers.