Plate decorated with a story of Bahrām Gōr from Turushevy

Culture
Early Islamic Iran
Date
Late 7th century
Medium
Silver with gilding
Dimensions
21.7 cm diameter
Weight
1155.6 g
Form
Plate
Inscription
Middle Persian
Graffiti
-
Collection
State Hermitage Museum
S-252
FindSpot
Turushevy, Russia

Image credit

State Hermitage Museum Website

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Notes on dating, attribution, imagery, or markings

A Middle Persian inscription is located on the base of the vessel in three lines. The reading of the inscription states the owner of the vessel, a Mihrbozet/Mihrbozed, and the weight. Livshits and Lukonin read it with a weight of 250 drachms (Livshits and Lukonin 1964: № 8), and Brunner reads it as ’71 staters, 3 drachms’ (Brunner 1977: № 12).

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Image Gallery

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Image credit

1: State Hermitage Museum Website; 2-3: Trever and Lukonin 1987: № 13; 4: Author's own photograph.

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Bibliography

Inclusion in key Eurasian silver publications

Marshak, B. I. Istoriia vostochnoi torevtiki III-XIII vv. i problemy kul’turnoi preemstvennosti. Saint Petersburg: Akademiia Issledovaniia Kul’tury, 2017.

Marshak (Marschak), B. I. Silberschätze des Orients: Metallkunst des 3.-13. Jahrhunderts und Ihre Kontinuität. Leipzig: E.A. Seemann, 1986.

Orbeli, I. A., and K. V. Trever. Sasanidskii metall khudozhestvennye predmenty iz zolota, serebra, i bronzy. Moscow-Leningrad: Akademiia, 1935.

Trever, K. V., and V. G. Lukonin. Sasanidskoe serebro: sobranie Gosudarstvennogo Ermitazha: khudozhestvenniia kul’tura Irana III-VIII vekov. Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1987.

Additional Publications

Bortvin, N. N. “Po sledam vostochnykh karavanov.” Ural’skii Sledopyt 9/1935 (1935): 3-13.

Brunner, Christopher J. “Middle Persian Inscriptions on Sasanian Silverware.” Metropolitan Museum Journal 9 (1974): 109–21.

Livshits, V. A., and V. G. Lukonin. “Srednepersidskie i Sogdiiskie nadpisi na serebrianykh sosudakh.” Vestnik Drevnei Istorii, no. 3 (1964): 155-176.

Lukonin (Loukonine), V. and A. Ivanov. Lost Treasures of Persia: Persian Art in the Hermitage Museum. Washington, D.C: Mage, 1996).

Overlaet, Bruno, ed. Splendeur des Sassanides: l’empire perse entre Rome et la Chine, 224-642. Brussels: Musées royaux d’art et d’histoire, 1993.

Shmidt, A. V. “Raboty po istorii material’noi kul’tury Urala za 15 let.” Problemy istorii material’noi kul’tury 9-10 (1933): 25.