Beyond Discovery: Religion, economics and administration in Sasanian Iran through new clay bullae from Taxt-e Solayman

世界遗产索莱曼（Taxt-e Solayman），或“所罗门王座”，位于伊朗西阿塞拜疆省。它是“战士和军事首领之火”的故乡，在中波斯语中是：Adur Gushnasp，萨珊帝国（公元224-651年）三个最神圣的琐罗亚斯德教之火之一。2002年至2008年间，在当时的伊朗文化遗产组织（Iranian Cultural Heritage Organization）的赞助下，尤瑟夫·莫拉迪（Yousef Moradi）在那里挖掘了824个萨珊时期的粘土球，上面有近2000个印章印痕。因此，他为萨珊王朝的历史找到了一个新的伊朗原始来源，而萨珊王朝的历史在很大程度上依赖于非伊朗人的叙述。这一发现的突出特点不仅在于它来自伊朗琐罗亚斯德教最重要的宗教中心之一，而且它的来源也很可靠。因为，与大多数其他收集的萨珊印章不同，这一枚来自于一次受控的、有完整记录的挖掘。现在收藏在阿塞拜疆的乌尔米亚博物馆，未出版，公众无法进入。本项目的目的是以一种方法创新的方式对其进行分析和出版，包括印刷和在线，并通过展览、三维模型和复制品提高其公众知名度。利用现有的3D成像、计算机视觉和人工智能技术，将开发一种新的方法来阅读碑文，这些碑文提供了丰富的个人和地名、行政头衔和宗教短语。封条上的图像将被分类和解释，以便理解图像的起源、扩散和意义。对球茎化学成分的实验室分析将检查球茎的粘土是来自单一来源还是来自不同的地方。同时进行的热分析将揭示热暴露的程度，以及泡在存档后是否在意外火灾后作为一个整体被烧毁，或者它们是否在与物体分离后被单独用受控火烘烤。使用“连锁操作”方法，我们将通过将一块粘土转化为具有文化意义和功能的具有法律效力的物体来研究创造泡的过程。制造序列包括原材料的选择、提取、成形、修改和转换到附着在物体上，然后移除、烘烤和存档的步骤。将通过显微镜检查大泡的反面，寻找它们曾经密封过的物体的痕迹。这将为计算机建模技术提供信息，以重建一个球是如何被发送者首先贴在一个物体上，然后被接收者取下的，它被贴在什么样的物体上，以及它是用于识别和授权，还是用于封闭和保护。作为第一个提出这一系列问题并将这些方法应用于孔洞的项目，将产生、分析和解释前所未有的数据，为解读铭文和图像、孔洞的生产过程、密封实践、印章在萨桑社会中的作用、琐罗亚斯德教火神庙的经济活动，以及它与不同社会和宗教团体（包括犹太人和基督徒）的互动提供新的见解。研究结果将以文章和两卷本的形式印发，将在《伊朗铭文大全》丛书中出版，内容包括封印做法、铭文、肖像，并提供一份完整的说明性目录和图版。与元数据一起在网上发布的电子数据集将提供所有824个水泡的照片和线条图，以及3D模型。所选球囊的复制品将在一个研讨会上提供，并在英国和伊朗乌尔米娅博物馆的展览上展出，那里储存着球囊。

The World Heritage Site of Taxt-e Solayman, or 'Throne of Solomon', is located in the province of Western Azerbaijan in Iran. It was home of the 'fire of the warriors and military chieftain', in Middle Persian: Adur Gushnasp, one of the three most sacred Zoroastrian fires of the Sasanian Empire (224-651 CE). There, between 2002 and 2008, during archaeological excavations under the auspices of the then Iranian Cultural Heritage Organization, Yousef Moradi excavated 824 Sasanian clay bullae, bearing almost 2,000 seal impressions. He thus recovered a new Iranian primary source for Sasanian history, which largely relies on non-Iranian accounts. The outstanding feature of this find is not only that it comes from one of the most important religious centres of Zoroastrian Iran, but also that it has a secure provenance. For, in contrast to most other collections of Sasanian seals, this one comes from a controlled and fully documented excavation. Now housed in the Museum of Urmia in Azerbaijan, it is unpublished and inaccessible to the public. The purpose of the present project is to analyse and publish it in a methodologically innovative way both in print and online, and to enhance its public visibility through exhibitions, 3-D models and replicas. Exploiting existing technologies of 3D imaging, computer vision and artificial intelligence, a new methodology will be developed for reading the inscriptions, which provide a wealth of personal and place names, administrative titles and religious phrases. The iconography on the sealings will be categorized and interpreted in order to understand the origin, diffusion, and meaning of the imagery. Laboratory analysis of the chemical composition of the bullae will examine whether the clay of a bulla comes from a single source or from different locations. Simultaneous thermal analysis will reveal the degree of heat exposure and whether the bullae were burnt in the aftermath of an accidental conflagration as a whole after being archived, or whether they were baked individually with a controlled fire after having been detached from the object. Using a "chaine operatoire" methodology, we will investigate the process which created bullae by transforming a lump of clay into a culturally meaningful and functional object bearing legal force. The manufacturing sequences include the steps by which the raw material was selected, extracted, shaped, modified, and transformed to be attached to objects, and later removed, baked and archived. The reverse of the bullae will be examined through the microscope for traces of the objects they once sealed. This will inform computer modelling techniques for reconstructing how a bulla was first affixed to an object by the sender and later removed by the receiver, on what kind of object it was attached, and whether it served for identification and authorization, or for closure and protection.Being the first project to ask this set of questions and to apply these methodologies to bullae, unprecedented data will be produced, analysed and interpreted to provide new insights into the reading of inscriptions and the imagery, the production process of bullae, sealing practices, the role of seals in Sasanian society, the economic activities of the Zoroastrian fire temple, and its interaction with different social and religious groups, including Jews and Christians. Results will be disseminated in print as articles and as a two-volume book to be published in the series Corpus Inscriptionum Iranicarum, covering sealing practices, inscriptions, iconography, and providing a full descriptive catalogue with plates. An electronic dataset, published online with metadata, will provide photographs and line drawings of all 824 bullae, and 3D models. Replicas of selected bullae will be made available at a workshop, and at exhibitions in the UK and at the Urmia Museum, Iran, where the bullae are stored.