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Very few Sasanian seals inscribed in Middle Persian bear the motif of a fire altar, and it is even rarer that the inscription bears any relation to the motif. Two seals corresponding to these standards are presented here. one of which. engraved in a very neglected script, had been published in 1978 without the whole inscription having been understood. The other seal inscribed in a clear lapidary writing made it possible to understand the inscription which relates to a personal Fire installed in a determined place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excavations at the settlement of Tappe Bardnakoon in the Central Zagros region unearthed a hitherto unidentified administrative centre of the late Sasanian Empire. Among the materials found were a large corpus of 559 clay bullae. The 22 administrative clay sealings in the sigillographic archive of Tappe Bardnakoon increases the corpus of administrative bullae currently known. In general this latter group of bullae is homogeneous in terms of layout, shape, and dimension. The administrative sealings suggest that Tappe Bardnakoon was then located in the canton Rawar-kust-1-rodbar which was part of the province of Gay and the region of Spahan. They show the administrative relations between Tappe Bardnakoon and the adjacent regions of Huzestan and Pal's, and in particular with the provinces of Ram-Ohrmazd, Ohrmazd-Arda.5ir, Weh-Andiyok-Sabuhr and Ig. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new non-destructive sampling method for the lead isotope analysis of lead objects using acidified cotton swabs. The results are indistinguishable within error margin from conventional sampling methods. This method was applied to a series of Sasanian lead coins from the Royal Museums of Art and History as well as a private collection. Elemental analysis was performed using micro-X-ray fluorescence. Isotopic analysis was performed using multi collector-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. Lead isotope analysis showed that at least four distinct sources of lead were used over time by the Sasanians to produce coins. Elemental analysis revealed three compositional groups distinct from the isotope groups, showing that a change in composition did not necessarily follow a change in raw materials supply. The uniformity of isotope compositions within particular periods, and of chemical composition across different mints, may point to a central control of both raw material supply and composition of Sasanian lead coins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]