A study on the decorative motifs of relief pottery attributed to the Sassanid period

Pottery, as the most important archaeological find, has a very important role in describing and interpreting the cultures and civilizations of the past. According to researchers, pottery is a significant source for obtaining information about the reconstruction of human behavior in archaeological studies. One of the perspectives and approaches to the study of ancient pottery is to study the impact of cultural and non-cultural factors on pottery production. From this perspective, pottery is considered as a reflection of human cultural behaviors.Meanwhile, our knowledge of Sassanid period pottery, despite many excavations in various Sassanid regions, is very little. Among the reasons for this; The simple passing of the Sassanid layers in the excavations is the focus on other findings of this period and the lack of publication or incomplete publication of the pottery findings of the Sassanid sites. The pottery of the Sassanid period, like other periods, is known, among which one of the main characteristics of Sassanid pottery in this period. Among these, one of the main features of Sassanid pottery is its "locality" and their other feature is the remarkable stability of many forms and the existence of homogeneous forms of pottery in a wide area of the Sassanid territory, which according to The style and shape of the decoration are different from each other in different areas. In fact, in this period, the forms are almost identical with differences in the details of the cross-sectional shape, but what makes them "local style", in addition to their different technical characteristics, is the different decoration in each area. In this research, using a descriptive-analytical method, we study the relief pottery attributed to the Sassanid period that has been mentioned in various sources. So far, no comprehensive research has been done on the decorative motifs of such utensils, the meaning and content of their decorative motifs . Reflect some of the religious, political or social ideas of the time. The purpose of research is to classify the decorative motifs of such vessels, to obtain the meanings and themes of their decorative motifs and to discover the currents that affect the creation of such motifs. The results show that these pottery with human, animal, plant and geometric motifs and with a molded method, mostly express political, religious, military and sports narratives in human motifs and mythical and realistic meanings and themes in plant and Animal motifs. It should be said that the Sassanids in these pottery, using the mold method that has been used before in the Parthian period and being influenced by Chinese, Roman and Greek forms, have tried to repeat their attribution to the pre-Parthian period, the Achaemenids. In other words, these motifs show the continuity of ancient oriental motifs that were used during the Sassanid period.