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The catalogue
4 places to sift through. Narrow by kind, country, period or how firmly each one is established — contested and pseudoarchaeological claims are labelled here, never hidden.
🇮🇷 Iran · Rock art
Achaemenid Empire (Darius I) to Sassanian · Achaemenid Persian; Parthian Arsacid; Sassanian
522 BCE Darius trilingual on cliff 66 m high — cuneiform Rosetta for decipherment, Parthian–Sassanian roadside fringe.
🇮🇷 Iran · Rock-cut
Hellenistic–Parthian (Seleucid to Mithridates I) · Seleucid Greek–Iranian magus syncretism (Heracles–Verethragna)
Zagros cave 4 triple chambers with koine 'Heracles rests here' inscription 3rd–1st BCE and spring cistern.
🇮🇷 Iran · Temple complex
Sassanian Empire (224–651 CE), late Sassanian zenith · Sassanian Zoroastrian (Ahura Mazda, Anahita, Mithra) court art
Sassanian Zagros spring iwans: Shapur II/III small and Khosrow II great with boar hunt and armored cavalry.
🇮🇷 Iran · Rock art
Mesolithic to Bronze Age (c.8000–2000 BCE) · Zagros rock-art tradition (pre-pottery to Bronze)
Lorestan painted cave 40 m galleries (150+ black/red paintings, hunters/ibex, c.8–2 ka) in Kuhdasht.
