Was Zoroastrian Art Invented in Chorasmia?

Home , Asman, Barsom, Chorasmia (satrapy), Zam

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Frantz Grenet* Collège de France [email protected]

Abstract

Before the recent discoveries of the Karakalpak-Australian Expedition to Ancient Chorasmia (KAE) evidence for Zoroastrianism in Chorasmia was scant, coming only from the official use of the Zoroastrian calendar, the onomastics, and the archaeologi- cally documented funerary practices of the region, while the interpretation of remains of temples or fire chapels is subject to discussion. During the last seasons of work on the material of the KAE excavations at Akchakhan-kala, the royal seat of Chorasmia in the 2nd century BC – 2nd century AD, substantial fragments of wall paintings from the rear wall of the main columned hall of the “Ceremonial Complex” were cleaned and reassembled. It appeared at once that they belong to oversized standing figures, most probably deities. The best preserved image has been identified as Srōsh, god of prayer and protector of the soul after death. The second figure is probably to be identified as a personification of the group of the Fravashis, pre-created souls of the ancestors and protectors of “Aryan people” in battles, also worshipped as deities. A third figure, very partly preserved, perhaps represents Zam-Spandarmad, goddess of the Earth. If these identifications are valid, these deities appear to have been chosen because of their association with the turn of the year. This would be consistent with the possibility that the already known “portrait gallery” of Akchakhan-kala was related to the commemoration of royal and clanic ancestors at the end of the year. Notwithstanding much still needs to be elucidated, it appears already certain that these paintings, dating about the beginning of the 1st century AD, are the earliest documented attempt to create a Zoroastrian art directly inspired by the Avesta. The identification of some figures in the Toprak-kala “High Palace” (2nd-3rd centuries AD) can perhaps be reconsidered in the light of this new evidence.

* Collège de France, 11 pl. Marcelin Berthelot, 75005 Paris, France.

Keywords

Akchakhan-kala – Avesta – Srōsh – Fravashis – Toprak-kala – Zam-Spandarmad – Zoroastrianism

1 Chorasmia and Zoroastrianism

The question relative to the importance or even exclusivity of the Zoroastrian religion in Chorasmia has raised keen interest among all scholars concerned with the history of this country, whether philologists or archaeologists. The earliest indisputable piece of evidence regarding Zoroastrianism in Chorasmia is found in the Avesta, the liturgical book of the Zoroastrians.1 The country appears only once, under its ancient name Xwārizma, at the very end of the list of “Aryan countries” beheld by the god Mithra when he surges at dawn over Mount Harā, the Bāmiyān region (Yasht 10.14). This position in the list is consistent with what is considered the most plausible etymology of Xwārizma: “Netherlands”, namely the lands at the lower end of the Oxus river.2 As for the “Aryan countries”, they designate countries where Zoroastrianism was preva- lent or present at the time of composition of this text. Another section of the Avesta, the chapter 1 of the Vidēvdād, gives a list of sixteen such countries, not mentioning Xwārizma by name. It was long supposed that Xwārizma cor- responded to the first and most eminent country, Aryanem Vaejah, an opinion which was shared by S.P. Tolstov, but the dominant opinion today is that the geographical reality of Aryanem Vaejah, if there was any, is instead to be found in the Hindu Kush or in the Pamirs. The Vidēvdād list is presumably pre-Achaemenid (the central and western parts of the Achaemenid empire are not mentioned)3 and the hymn to Mithra presumably Achaemenid, at least in its existing version (the figure of Mithra, never sleeping and informed by his “many spies”, seems influenced by the ideology of the Great King), so one could suggest that Xwārizma lay quite beyond the sphere of Eastern Iranian countries until the Achaemenid conquest when it was eventually integrated, an assumption which is not contradicted by archaeological evidence.4

1 There is to date no complete modern English translation of the Avesta, but a very reliable one has just appeared in French: Lecoq 2016. 2 MacKenzie 1983, 1244. 3 Grenet 2005, where different views by other authors are discussed. 4 Minardi 2015, 64-81.

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Whether it is so or not, the later Pahlavi literature shows a certain aware- ness that Chorasmia had been an ancient Zoroastrian country. The Iranian Bundahishn (18.6-7)5 claims that the Ādur Farnbag, the sacred Fire of the priests of all Iran, had in the early days of the faith stood on mount Khwarrahōmand in Chorasmia. As there is no other mountain range than Sultan-uiz-dag, undoubt- edly a sacred site judging from the concentration of funerary structures of all periods, this tradition might contain some element of truth.6 We are on more solid ground with the calendar and the onomastics. A proto-Chorasmian inscription on the Isakovka silver bowl7 has provided indisputable evidence that the Zoroastrian religious calendar was in use as early as the late 3rd or 2nd century BC, which incidentally is also the date proposed for the foundation of Akchakhan-kala, the first capital; moreover, this epigraph alludes to the royal celebration of Nowruz, the New Year, for it records a “festive bowl” being presented to a king at that date. Subsequent documents down to the Arab conquest demonstrate the exclusive use of this calendar, as well as a significant proportion of personal names formed from Zoroastrian deities or Zoroastrian notions.8 However, until the last discoveries of paintings at Akchakhan-kala, to which I shall come soon, there was no straightforward archaeological evidence to sup- port the role of Zoroastrianism in Chorasmia. Much has been written by Tolstov and his successors about fire sanctuaries and fire chapels, but I must admit that in this respect I am rather on the sceptical side, as was my sadly missed teacher the late Paul Bernard. The existence in the core of the Akchakhan-kala “Ceremonial Complex” of a enthroned royal fire, a category mentioned once for the early Arsacid period at Asaak, the first capital (Parthian Stations § 11), and more substantially in the Sasanian period, is an exciting hypothesis recently put forward by Michele Minardi,9 but it still has to be discussed. The only self-standing monumental structure which appears to meet the require- ments for a fire temple is at Toprak-kala: a large rectangular enclosure to the east of the “High Palace” with a long access corridor from the lower town in the south. When first explored in 1938-1940 it was found full of ashes, but the walls were almost completely destroyed (fig. 1),10 and no trace subsisted when further excavations were conducted. The position of this structure in relation

5 Transcription-translation Anklesaria 1956. 6 Rapoport 1971, 68-69, 109; Minardi, forthcoming 2018. 7 Livshits 2003 (Inscription No. 1). 8 Livshits in Vaïnberg 2004, 190-191. 9 Minardi in Minardi & Khozhaniyazov 2015; a detailed study of A. Betts and F. Sinisi on the subject is forthcoming. 10 Tolstov 1948a, 123, fig. 62.

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figure 1 Plan of the site of Toprak-kala as in 1940, with the supposed fire temple still visible in the middle of the northern sector (after Tolstov 1948a, fig. 62).

Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia 24Downloaded (2018) 68-86 from Brill.com09/30/2021 05:50:02AM via free access 72 Grenet to the palace can perhaps be compared with that of the still enigmatic “Central Monument” at Akchakhan-kala.11 Still at Toprak-kala, the temple occupying one of the residential blocks (besides a smaller one) in the lower town had several altars, but their use is not clear. The only cult object found there was a pair of horns of a mountain ram decorated with copper bands, possibly symbols of the gods Wahrām or Farn.12 Several small structures in various parts of the Akchakhan-kala Ceremonial Complex, as well as the so-called “burning doorways” in the neighbouring Tash-k’irman,13 appear also to indicate a ritual use of fire, but we are far from the accepted concept of the fire temple. No fire temple is known for the so-called “Afrighid” period contemporary with the Sasanian period, when the Zoroastrian impact can be assumed to have been maximal in Chorasmia. Perhaps then the fire cult was centralized in the capital Kath, which has since disappeared in the Amu-Darya, in the same way as the excarnation process was centralized in the gigantic “Tower of Silence” at Chil’pÿk? Burial in ossuaries is in itself strong evidence of Zoroastrian orthopraxy, and ossuaries at Tok-kala belonging to the period just after the Arab conquest carry inscriptions with typical Zoroastrian formulas, but the initial period of the ossuary practice in Chorasmia is open to debate. The earliest firm evidence comes from the cemetery at Kalaly-gÿr, where the so-called “casket ossuaries” first appear, but the date proposed by the archaeologists, in the 3rd century AD, is perhaps too early. Some uncertainty affects also the first so-called “statu- ary ossuaries”. They were attributed to the post-Hellenistic “Kangyuï period” (now Antique 2) by Yuri Rapoport, but they were considered by Igor Ivanitskï as typologically akin to the stone balbals of the Western Turkish empire (6th-7th centuries), in a maverick article which unfortunately was rejected in the 1990’s by the journal Rossiïskaya Arkheologiya and remained unpublished.14 As for the iconography of deities, there was no certain evidence except for

11 Minardi & Khozhaniyazov 2015; Minardi 2016. 12 Nerazik & Rapoport 1981, 41-56. On the possible interpretation of the image of a mountain goat at the Akchakhan-kala palace as one of Wahrām’s animal incarnations, see Minardi et alii, forthcoming 2018. 13 Betts & Yagodin 2007; Betts et alii in this volume. 14 In my already ancient survey of funerary practices and objects (Grenet 1984, conclusions summarized on pp. 232-235) I tended to follow too closely Rapoport’s then authoritative chronology (Rapoport 1971). Ivanitskï has since contended that ossuary deposits have too often been dated from the buildings where they were found, although the chronological gap can be considerable in the case (most frequent) of a secondary funerary use of ruins. In Minardi’s revised chronology (Minardi 2015) Tolstov’s “Kangyuï period” is renamed Antique 2.

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7th-8th centuries images of the four-armed goddess Nana, whose degree of syncretism with the Zoroastrian Anāhitā remains a matter of discussion.15

2 New Evidence from Akchakhan-kala

Such was the state of our knowledge when, three years ago, at the site of Akchakhan-kala the members of the Karakalpak-Australian Expedition to Ancient Chorasmia began to clean and reassemble fragments of wall paintings excavated at the southern end of the hypostyle hall of the Central Building of the Ceremonial Complex. Stratigraphy had already established that this deco- ration, like the previously discovered “portrait gallery” and “procession scene”, dates from the beginning of the third period of the complex (Stage 3). The absolute chronology of this stage is established at the turn of our era or in the early 1st century AD by a series of radiocarbon dates. It soon appeared that at least three hugely oversized figures, up to six meters tall, used to decorate the southern wall of the hypostyle hall. They are obviously representations of deities (fig. 2).16 I would like to start the discussion of these images with the best preserved one, that originally positioned on the left of the group as it is currently known (fig. 3). There are solid reasons to recognize him as Srōsh, the god of prayer, chief fighter of demons and protector of the soul during the three days between death and judgement. The main argument comes from the repeated motif on the central band of the tunic (fig. 4), a pair of a “bird-priests”, more precisely rooster-priests, wearing such indisputable Zoroastrian ritual attributes as the mouth protection (padām) and the bundle of sacred twigs (barsom). This hybrid figure finds a straightforward explanation in one passage of the Avesta (Vidēvdād 18.14-16), where it is stated that the rooster functions as Srōsh’s aux- iliary priest during the service which takes place at ušahina, i.e. the last third of the night. This association has been already proposed by Oktor Skjaervø for known similar figures which are all postdating the Akchakhan-kala paintings by five or six centuries: depictions on ossuaries from Samarkand, funerary reliefs in tombs of Sogdian merchants living in Northern China, and the Mithraic painting at the top of the niche of one of the colossal Buddhas of Bāmiyān.17

15 See the recent Minardi 2013; Shenkar 2014, 126-127, figs. 115-118. 16 In this section I will summarize, adding some new observations, the contents of two recent publications regarding the Avestan deities of Akchakhan-kala to which I con- tributed (Betts et alii 2015, Betts et alii 2016). All images are copyright to the Karakalpak- Australian Expedition to Ancient Chorasmia (KAE) unless stated otherwise. 17 Skjaervø apud Grenet, Riboud & Yang Junkai 2004, 278-279.

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figure 2 Akchakhan-kala: the three deities on the southern wall of the main hypostyle hall (location of fragments with proposed reconstruction).

In the first two cases the presence of the symbol of Srōsh can be explained by the function of this god as psychopomp; in the third case, at Bāmiyān, the image of Mithra surges from behind a mountain at dawn just after the watch placed under Srōsh’s special protection (Yasht 10.13: “(Mithra) who is the first to seize the beautiful gold-painted mountain tops”). The other motifs present on the god’s costume also deserve scrutiny, for certainly nothing was left to chance in this very sophisticated depiction. The neckband (fig. 5), though less well preserved, appears to be decorated with scenes of transportation on a boat (to note in each of the boats the stern with an animal head, the standing man pushing a pole, the swastika-like motif on the hull as a rendering of whirlwinds). The only deity mentioned in the Avesta in connection with prayers for safe crossing of waters is Srōsh, in his capacity of chief protector against dangers and demons (Yasht 11.4). The safe crossing of waterways was certainly more important in Chorasmia than anywhere else in Central Asia, for due to its width the Oxus can create a real obstacle for communication between the two halves of the country, especially in time of spate. Some other attributes of the god do not find a specific match in the Avestan description of Srōsh. For instance, the short sword (akinakes) at the belt and

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figure 3 The deity to the left (Srōsh): tracing of fragments and proposed reconstruction.

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figure 4 Detail of the “bird-priests” depicted on the central band of Srōsh’s tunic.

figure 5 Detail of Srōsh’s neckband with scenes of boat transportation. the motif of the bustard on his trousers (fig. 6): this latter bird is clearly a symbol of swiftness – a quality attributed to Srōsh but also a characteristic denoting other gods as well. The spectacular mural crown with fiery embra- sures is more puzzling. Probably its size was exaggerated for better visibility, as it stood six meters above ground level. In Achaemenid art such crowns do not exist and there we have only a crenelated variant; the corona muralis appears

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figure 6 Detail of the bustard depicted on Srōsh’s trousers and comparandum. only in Hellenistic and Parthian art, mainly as an attribute of Tyche. I have tentatively suggested that in the present case it could symbolize the so-called “victorious house” (nmānǝm vārǝθraγni) of Srōsh, which according to one of his two Avestan hymns is set on top of the highest mountain and is endowed with its own light inside (Yasna 57.21). The second divine figure, originally standing in the middle of the other two (fig. 7), is less well-preserved although, during the excavation, contrary to the previous one discussed, the fragments of its arms were found. They are uphold- ing a blue arch studded with circles, obviously the heavenly vault with the stars and the sun. Several Zoroastrian deities have a special link with heaven: Ahura Mazdā, Mithra, Asman, but the only divine group which is said to “uphold the sky from below” is the Fravashis, pre-created souls of the ancestors and protectors of “Aryan people” in battles (Yasht 13.29). I propose to take this figure as an

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figure 7 The second deity of Akchakhan-kala (here identified as the embodiment of the Fravashis) painted at the centre of the other two. individual embodiment of the collective group of the Fravashis. The headgear, a round cap ornate with stylized flowers, is very different from that of Srōsh. Such round caps or tiaras were worn by some Arsacid kings, but they are also typical of Sasanian queens, so nothing prevents us from recognizing a female figure. The central band of the tunic of this second deity bears the depiction of a series of paired figures (fig. 8, left), each comprising a priest with mouth-cover and girdle – in this case clearly not a “bird-priest” – and a taller man seated on a throne, also wearing a mouth-cover and wearing a headgear fitted with a royal ribbon. For this attribute Michele Minardi (see his contribution in this volume) has drawn a precise comparison with the image of Chorasmian kings on coins (fig. 8, right).18 Between the two men, we have some curved lines, seem- ingly tongues of flames, surging from a table and reaching the outstretched palm of the enthroned character. I propose to interpret this sequence as the

18 Betts et alii 2015, 1376, fig. 7.

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figure 8 Detail of the scenes of worship depicted on the central band of the tunic of the second deity. homage paid to the individual Fravashis of various kings of the past, as stated in the Frawardīn Yasht. The fact that each throne has a specific shape is perhaps intentional, suggesting a sequence of royal ancestors. The third deity (fig. 9), to the far right of the composition, is poorly preserved. It wears a heavy mantle with an interweaved plant motif, for which Fiona Kidd has proposed close parallels with some fabric motifs in Scythian tombs at Pazyryk and Katanda.19 A gazelle decorates a “plaque” of its costume.

19 Betts et alii 2015, 1390-1391.

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figure 9 The deity to the right with detail showing a plaque with the depiction of a gazelle.

This scanty evidence could suggest the identification of this figure with Zam- Spandarmad, goddess of the Earth, but further cleaning will perhaps bring out other candidates. Although at present it is not yet possible to known whether other colossal figures were depicted on both sides of the triad so far discovered, it is clear that these three gods had a central position on the southern wall of the main columned hall of Akchakhan-kala. The functional association between Srōsh and the Fravashis seems obvious, for these Avestan entities are both directly linked with the fate of the soul after death and they are the main helpers of the faithfuls in their struggles on earth. If the third member of the triad is as hypoth- esised, Zam-Spandarmad, all three deities would have an association with the turn of year, which at that time occurred in or near November, due to the grad- ual shifting of the Zoroastrian year in relation with the solar one. Indeed, the festival for the Fravashis begins in the last days of month Spandarmad and it includes a major service to Srōsh every day. This idea would be consistent with an already formulated hypothesis which sees in the the “portrait gallery”

Ancient Civilizations from Scythia toDownloaded Siberia from 24 Brill.com09/30/2021 (2018) 68-86 05:50:02AM via free access Was Zoroastrian Art Invented in Chorasmia? 81 discovered in the corridors of the Central Building of Akchakhan-kala a way to commemorate the royal and clanic ancestors of the rulers of the site at the end of the year.20 Notwithstanding the points which remain to be elucidated, it appears already certain that these paintings dating at the end of the 1st century BC – beginning of the 1st century AD at the latest are the earliest documented attempt to create a Zoroastrian art directly inspired by the Avesta.21 Achaemenid art, otherwise a main source of inspiration for many details at Akchakhan-kala, never developed original depictions of Iranian gods. The earliest “gallery” hitherto known is the pantheon shown on Kushan coins of the 2nd century AD, mainly adaptations of Hellenistic models, with the Avestan component reduced to a few attributes and sometimes not perceptible at all except in the names of the gods. In light of this new evidence, it now seems that Zoroastrian art was first invented in Ancient Chorasmia, in the context of royal ceremonies and obviously under close control of priests who knew their Yashts and Vidēvdād very well. The discovery that such a refined Zoroastrian icon as the “bird-priest” was not, as hitherto believed,22 a late adaptation of Indian kinnaras, but an original Chorasmian creation pre-dating the Kushan empire, came as a shock to those, including me, who were in September 2014 in the restauration laboratory of Nukus. The possibility remains, indeed, that the Akchakhan-kala paintings have preserved a set of religious symbols which existed also at the same time in other Eastern Iranian regions with a strong Zoroastrian substratum (e.g. Parthia, Sogdiana). But as these countries have not yet yielded anything similar from this early period – despite abundant discoveries of figurative art at Nisa and Erkurgan (Nakhshāb) – this remains an academic speculation, at least for the time being.

3 Reinterpreting Some Evidence from the “High Palace” of Toprak-kala

At the present stage of our knowledge the main problem can be formulated as such: we can well follow the development and diffusion of Zoroastrian art in Sogdiana from the 6th or 7th century AD onwards, but which evidence do

20 Kidd 2012, 83-84 and note 98. 21 On Zoroastrian art the reference is now Shenkar 2014 (published just before the discoveries at Akchakhan-kala). 22 See in particular Riboud 2012.

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figure 10 “Bird-priests” (?), Toprak-kala, “High Palace” (after Rapoport & Nerazik 1984, fig. 51 - left; Abdullaev et alii 1991, I, no. 346 - right). we have for it before, and generally speaking which evidence do we have in Chorasmia? In his publication of the Toprak-kala palace (the “High Palace”), the Chorasmian royal residence succeeding Akchakhan-kala in the 2nd and 3rd centuries, Yuri Rapoport argued that many of the characters painted or modelled in clay found there could be interpreted as Zoroastrian deities or at least that they were related to Zoroastrian cult practices.23 At that time, in 1984, this idea appeared to lack substantiation – at least it appeared such to me, as I rejected in my review of his book and still reject his interpretation of the whole palace as a funerary dynastic temple.24 Now I would not treat this matter so lightly, though I would not always look to Zoroastrian themes where he did. A particularly interesting case is the so-called “warriors playing a wind instrument” (fig. 10), fragments of clay sculptures which were found in two rooms of the palace.25 Rapoport briefly contemplated the possibility that the object covering the mouth of these heads was not a mouth-piece for a flute but a ritual padām. However, he did not dwell on it. Now that we have the bird-priests of Akchakhan-kala, it seems very possible that the Toprak-kala sculptures depict the same creatures. Note in one case (in the “Hall of Warriors”) the arms crossed on the chest, a gesture

23 Rapoport & Nerazik 1984, see in particular the conclusions, 287-301. 24 Grenet 1986. 25 Rapoport & Nerazik 1984, 63-64, 103-106, figs. 29, 51-52.

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figure 11 Toprak-kala, “High Palace”, “Hall of Kings”; conjectural reconstruction and plan (after Rapoport & Nerazik 1984, figs. 56-57). of reference, and in another case (in “Room 8”) the so-called “scales” of the armour which are more likely to be feathers.26 I think that Rapoport in his work came much close to a correct interpretation of the so-called Hall of Kings (fig. 11). All sides of this hall are occupied by niches each containing an oversized figure of modelled clay accompanied by smaller ones located next to an altar, most probably deities and donors respectively. The number of niches, possibly twenty-seven altogether, could correspond to the number of individual deities worshipped in the Zoroastrian calendar. It is however difficult to go beyond this point, because of the lacunose condition of these clay sculptures, entirely missing in some niches and quite

26 Abdullaev et alii 1991, I, no. 346.

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figure 12 Fragments of unbaked clay sculptures found at the “High Palace” of Toprak-kala (from niche 18, after Tolstov 1948b, fig. 60 - left; from niche 19 - after Rapoport & Nerazik, fig. 62 - right). fragmentary in others. Rapoport tried to find some individual correspondences, assuming an anticlockwise order from the entrance.27 Trying to proceed clock- wise, I can propose one correspondence with one Zoroastrian day, namely that of Wahrām (day 20 = niche 18, southern side, no. I (11) on plan) depicted with a hook on his helmet (an iconography attested on Kushan coins) (fig. 12), and possibly the following day Rām (day 21 = niche 19, no II (10) on plan) with this god taking the soul by hand on the way to Paradise (as stated in Iranian Bundahishn 26.29, where Rām is called “the Good Way”, his other name).28 This is not much, I have to admit. I can only hope that a complete study of the fragments will one day be undertaken, not an easy task for they are now dispersed between Nukus, Moscow and Saint-Petersburg, and there is no information about their condition. If this study could prove the existence of a second gallery of Zoroastrian gods in an Ancient Chorasmian royal palace after that at Akchakhan-kala, it would enhance even more the role of the Chorasmian kings and their priestly entourage as promoters of a Zoroastrian iconography.

27 Rapoport & Nerazik 1984, 116-135. 28 Grenet 1986, 132-133. In my tentative interpretation, as well as in Rapoport’s, the succession of niches does not correspond exactly to the succession of days for the last three of four days consecrated to Ahura Mazdā (days 8, 15, 23) are assumed to be dropped in this cumulative pantheon.

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