Namādʹshināsī-i naqshʹbarjastahʹhā-yi Hakhāmanishī

Achaemenid rock reliefs rank among the richest surviving sources for the political history, ideology, and visual culture of ancient Īrān, yet their dense repertoire of symbols has long resisted systematic reading. This study sets out to remedy that gap, offering a thematic classification of the carved imagery alongside a sustained attempt to decode its symbolic content. Drawing on iconography, semiotics, and hermeneutic theory, and combining written historical sources with first-hand fieldwork at the monuments, the author moves beyond mere description towards interpretation of the figures, plants, animals, and composite creatures that populate the reliefs. Particular attention falls on the winged disc commonly identified as the farvahar, the question of Cyrus and the Dhūʹl-Qarnayn tradition, and the relationship between Achaemenid imagery and Zoroastrian belief, illuminating how a worldview was rendered in enduring stone.