The Iconography of Leopard and Snake Symbol of Jiroft Artifacts During the 3rd Millennium B.C.

Based on ancient human believes, some cultural artifacts contain some values on which artistic forms have been visualized. Aiming to understand these, it is necessary to know the symbolic markers which sometimes had distinct meanings in ancient cultures, as a verbal language, were representative of especial meaning of mythological believes. Iconology is trying to clarify the significance of these symbolic markers which based on different cultures were repeatedly the represented and interpret them via scientific method aiming to clarify these meaning and getting to know their cultural values based on the iconographic classification and analysis. In symbolic linguistic system, the symbolic markers represent themselves as a word, image, or a behavior in a metaphoric system; although iconology is a research on the content of the images, but basically, it’s an attempt to understand the relationship between these markers in a broader symbolic metaphorical cultural system. Having iconological approach, the current paper trying to understand the symbolic significance of leopards and snakes in the chlorite artifacts of Jiroft in the 3rd millennium B.C. Aiming to getting that and understanding the cultural context and the representative methods of its believes of the period are required. The dominance belief of the Great Goddess and its influence on figurative motives especially the role of leopards and snakes in that period will be mentioned via iconography.