Animal Headdresses on the Sealings of the Bactrian Documents

Animal Headdresses on the Sealings of the Bactrian Documents Judith A. Lerner, New York Introduction The so-called Bactrian documents from northern Afghanistan, consisting of le- gal and economic texts as well as letters, have contributed to our greater understanding of the region between the 4th and 8th centuries. As a crossroads for trade and a theater for conquest, during this time span the region had come under the successive domination by Kushano-Sasanians, Kidarites, Hephtalites and Turks. Nicholas Sims-Williams first reported on the Bactrian documents in 1996 and since then, as the number of documents has grown, has continued to enlighten us on their contents and implications, thereby expanding our knowledge of the language, history, religion and culture of Afghanistan in this period. Some of the documents still have their original sealings: small lumps of clay that bear the impressions of the contractors’, witnesses’ and letter-writers’ seals. The majority of the sealings, however, are not associated with the documents they originally sealed. While more than 150 Bactrian documents are now known, there are many more clay sealings in various collections, unfortunately separated from what they sealed, but which – from their shape and fabric and the style and iconography of the seals impressed on them – can be considered part of this cor- pus. As an art historian, I have been privileged to study the sealings in two major collections, those of Prof. N. D. Khalili (London) and Mr. Aman ur Rahman (Islamabad/Dubai), and in this endeavor to work closely with Nicholas Sims- Williams who has published the documents in the Khalili Collection and will be publishing the inscriptions on the sealings in the Rahman Collection.1 His linguistic knowledge and insights, and his generosity in sharing them, have been critical to my stylistic and iconographic analysis of the sealings. Thus, it is a pleasure to offer this discussion about one of the myriad interesting aspects of the sealings – the headdresses worn by various seal-owners and, specifically for this volume, those headdresses that bear animal heads or complete animal bodies.2 I hope that my offering will help to flesh out, if only slightly, our understanding of the ethnic and cultural milieu that produced the Bactrian documents. 1 Sims-Williams 2000 and 2007. 2 This revises and expands a section of “Some Headdresses on the Sealings of the Bac- trian Documents”, presented at the 6th European Conference of Iranian Studies, Vienna, 216 Judith A. Lerner The Sealings with Animal Headdresses Among all the Bactrian sealings known to me, there only two kinds of animal headdress, both known from examples in the Rahman Collection, and both worn by men, depicted as busts with their heads in nearly frontal view. The first to be discussed is known from three sealings and shows three rams’ heads in profile: the ones in the center and on the right face right, while the other faces left (Fig. 1); thus, in reality, the crown would have consisted of a central ram’s head, placed above the wearer’s forehead, and flanked by a ram’s head at either side.3 The second crown, found in only a single impression, shows two con- fronted horses flanking, perhaps dining on, vegetation (Fig. 2).4 1. Ram’s Heads As read by our honoree, the legible portion of the inscription gives the Middle Per- sian title kanārang (“Lord of the Borderland”). This places the seal within the time of Sasanian rule or domination in Bactria, that is, from the early 3rd century to the latter part of the 5th.5 This is reflected stylistically by the somewhat elongated shape of the face and certain details of the crown which also occur on Sasanian seals and in other Sasanian art; in Bactria, these features, and specifically the stylization of the diadem ties, persist well into the Hunnic period when this treatment of the ties is no longer used in Sasanian Iran. Thus, even though the title may accord with a late 4th-century date, the seal could have been carved as late as the second half of the 5th century, though more likely in the late 4th–early half of the 5th.6 September 18–22, 2007, and delivered at the session that Nicholas Sims-Williams ably chaired. I am very grateful to Michael Alram and Klaus Vondrovec and to other colleagues cited in this article for their suggestions and corrections but stress that any mistakes are entirely my own. 3 Hc013; Hc075; and Hc139. Illustrated here is Hc075. 4 Hc010. The inscription reads σασονο–μ(••ο)γο (κα)ναραγγο (“Sas…, the kanārang”). 5 “Kanārang is the MP version of the Bactrian title karalrang, and means ‘lord of the border-land’ (‘margrave’). It’s only attested in texts during the period of Sasanian rule in Bactria, but of course it’s possible that it continued in use later as a title or as a PN. ‘Persian satrap’ seems to occur at a very late date, probably as a PN” (e-mail of 31 Au- gust 2007). See also Sims-Williams 2002, p. 231. For the late use of this Middle Persian form, see Bactrian Documents G and H, dated to 471 ce and 472 ce, respectively (Sims- Williams 2000). Although Kushano-Sasanian rule ended in the mid-370’s with the ap- pearance of Hunnic peoples, Sims-Williams 2002, pp. 231–233, notes that the succeed- ing century saw the Sasanians making “a last ditch attempt to exert control in Bactria” in the face of the invading Kidarites and then the Hephthalites. (For the dating of this power shift, which was also a cultural one, see also Grenet 2002, p. 206, and now de la Vaissière 2003 [2007], p. 122, who demonstrates that the Kidarites and Hephtalites, along with the Chionites and Alchons entered Bactria in a single “massive migration” in the second half of the 4th century.) 6 Callieri 2002, pp. 122–124, has also recognized the “rather strong” Sasanian influence in related seals and impressions and assigns them to the end of the 4th into the 5th century. Animal Headdresses on the Sealings of the Bactrian Documents 217 © Aman ur Rahman Fig. 1: Impression of the seal of Fig. 2: Impression of the seal of “Sas…, the kanārang” (σασονο – “Farkhund Asp-wi…” (φαροχονδο μ(••ο)γο (κα)ναραγγο), Bactrian. ασποο(ι)[), Bactrian. Clay; impression: ?? × 20.4 mm; Clay; impression: 16.5 × 14.6 mm; sealing: 22 × 25.1 × 12.6 mm. sealing: 24.4 × 28.8 × 15.9 mm. Aman ur Rahman Collection, Aman ur Rahman Collection, Islamabad/Dubai Islamabad/Dubai Like the crowns of the Sasanian kings, two sets of ribbons, one long (a), the other short (b), decorate the upper and lower portions of the kanārang’s crown: a) The long ribbon that secures his diadem falls on his right shoulder and is ren- dered in the “Sasanian” manner: a narrow strip with horizontal striations to indi- cate pleats. Usually doubled to represent the two ends of the diadem at the base of the crown and hanging straight down along or behind the shoulder(s), this type of ribbon occurs on a number of seals and seal impressions with male busts and Bac- trian inscriptions (Figs. 1–2, 4–5).7 Their length and pleating copy the ties that se- cure the diadem of the first Sasanian king, Ardashir I (224–240), and which hang down his back to waist level.8 On the coin obverses of Ardashir I’s successors, from Shapur I (240–272) to the end of the dynasty in 651, the diadem ties typi- cally turn upward above or below the hair at the king’s shoulder.9 Exceptions are 7 In addition to those illustrated here, there are several sealings in the Khalili and Rahman Collections, notably those belonging to one or two individuals named Kirdir-Wara(h) ran. The fragmentary letter to which one of the sealings is still attached has been re- cently dated by Nicholas Sims-Williams to 421 ce (see Sims-Williams 2005, p. 339, where it is given a slightly later date and figs. 4–7). 8 See Ardashir I’s investiture reliefs at Firuzabad (Vanden Berghe 1966, pl. 70), Naqsh-e Rustam (Schmidt 1970, pl. 81: NRu I) and Naqsh-e Rajab (Schmidt 1970, pl. 96: NRa I). 9 Göbl 1971, p. 11. The long diadem ties are also worn by members of the royal family; thus, in Ardashir’s investiture at Naqsh-e Rajab, the bearded figure standing behind Ar- dashir and the female figure (his queen?) appearing to the right of the scene show similar waist-length ribbons (see n. 8). 218 Judith A. Lerner the straight diadem ribbons on the obverse of a gold dinar of Shapur II (309–379), minted at Merv using a locally-struck die (ca. 309–325);10 those of the king and flanking deities on Ardashir II’s Taq-e Bustan relief (379–383),11 and of Shapur II and his son Shapur III (383–388), on the latter’s relief at Taq-e Bustan.12 The long pleated ribbon on the kanārang’s seal may well be an archaizing feature, not unexpected in a peripheral area such as Bactria. Indeed, a gold dinar of Hormuzd (I) Kushan shah, also minted at Merv and placed by Joe Cribb before the reign of Hormuzd II (303–309),13 shows two straight pleated ribbons falling along his shoulder, below Sasanian-style hair bunch. The Shapur II dinar, echoing this archaic ribbon type, seems to have been influenced by the Kushan-Sasanian issue. This archaic way of showing the diadem ribbons becomes a feature of Bactrian dignitaries’ headgear, not only that of the kanārang and the seal of the other of- ficial discussed below, but that of several others (Figs.

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