Archaeoastronomy and Ancient Technologies (Dec 2015)
The shadow of God and the Zurvan iconography
Abstract
This article presents the results of a study of the Zurvan image's forming in the iconographic canon of Zurvanite myths. The relevance of the chosen topic is due to the following reasons: 1) in modern Iranian studies there is no universally recognized iconographic canon of a Zurvanite mythologem in general and a depiction of Zurvan in particular; 2) the presence of Zurvan's depiction in the Saratsk petroglyphic composition of XVIII-XVII centuries BC (Khakassia, Minusinsk Basin); 3) discovery of a "Shadow of God - Shadow of Zurvan" optical phenomenon topped with a solar halo in the Saratsk sanctuary of Khakassia; 4) the impact of the Zurvanite mythologem on the processes of Monotheistic theology formation. The discovery of the "Shadow of God" appearance in the Saratsk sanctuary made clear that the dichotomy of iconography of the Zurvan image was determined by a light-to-shadow pictorial aggregate of anthropomorphic "Shadow of the Creator" formed by the shadow of "The World Mountain" and the light-carrying head crowning this shadow. In the Saratsk sanctuary of Khakassia these dichotomous presentations about the Creator were embodied in the Khakassia's Saratsk petroglyphic composition. The discovery of the optical phenomenon of "Shadow of God" in the Saratsk sanctuary lets us to identify missing component of the iconographic image of Zurvan who is a central deity of the Saratsk petroglyphic composition and confirm the stability of the iconographic archetype of a bell-shaped attire of Creator of the world that exists for more than three millennia of formation of monotheistic theologemic basis of the civilization. In the light of Zurvan-Mazdean content we substantiate in the Saratsk petroglyphic composition and the compositions of the "Temple of the Universe Creation" which we attribute to Fedorovo culture bearers in Khakassia we consider it necessary to point to the tentatively name of the deities' images with the names of Zurvan, Ahura Mazda and Angra Manyu. Despite the obvious nature of the Zurvan-Mazdean mythologem embodied in these petroglyphic compositions at the moment we do not have a sufficient amount of evidences to name these depicted deities with theophoric names. At the current stage of our research it's correct to name the presiding deity of Fedorovs in Khakasia as a pre-Zurvan. A manifestation of that deity in the existent and non-existent dynamic of the Aryans universe was its good and non- good incarnations which can be properly described as proto-Ahura Mazda and proto-Angra Manyu respectively similar to Amesha Spenta in Sassanian mazdayasna who were good emanations of Ahura Mazda - the Almighty. Since we don't know any other Aryan name for the Time deity except Zurvan in our publications we call it Zurvan by default.
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