1917.] iV umismatic Supplement No. XXIX . 171 



tombs, says in his description (Travels in Georgia, Persia, 

 Armenia, Ancient Babylonia, etc., Vol. I, pp. 516-524) of this 

 first tomb-relief as follows : "A pedestal of three steps is sur- 

 mounted by an altar evidently charged with the sacred fire, a 

 large flame of it appearing at the top; high over it, to the 

 right, we see a globular shape, doubtless intended for the sun, 

 of which the fire below was the offspring and the emblem." 

 Spiegel (Eran. Altertumsk. Ill, 810) says: "A globe which no 

 doubt is intended for an emblem of the sun or of Mithra." 



Weissbach 



Weissbach 



tombs on the spot, expresses himself as follows : (Ancient Per- 

 sian Sculptures: or the Monuments, Buildings, Bas- Reliefs, 

 Rock Inscriptions, etc.,, belonging to the kings of the Achaeme- 

 nian and Sassanian Dynasties of Persia, by K. D. Kiash, Bombay, 

 1889, p. 140.) " Opposite him (i.e. the king), on a platform, is 

 a burning censer, on the top of which is an emblem of the rising 

 sun." On the excellent reproduction which Kiash gives on 

 Plate xlvii, a shade is drawn into the circle above the fire- 

 altar, which has, I believe, no other purpose than to point out 

 that the emblem is a globe and not a mere circle. A photo- 

 graphical reproduction of this relief, representing a globe, will 

 show on the right or the left side and beneath, according to 

 the distribution of light, a shade which may be mistaken for a 

 crescent. No doubt a celestial orb is represented here, but the 

 crescent which Huesing professes to see in Stolze's work is, I 

 fc hink, nothing else but the shade of the globe, which the 

 photographic reproduction gives unmistakably. Perhaps the 

 difference between the representations of Stolze and Dieulafoy 

 may be explained by the different distribution of light on the 

 occasion of photographing. A. V. W. Jackson (Persia Past 

 and Present, pp 297-8), who visited the tombs, takes the orb for 

 the sun. "The monarch is portrayed in the same manner as 

 n e is seen on the Behistan sculptures, bow in hand, but his 

 attitude is now that of worship before the sacred fire, over 

 winch floats the familiar winged effigy of Auramazda with the 

 emblem of the sun shining in the background." We must 

 *>ear m mind the prominent place ivhich the moon worship 

 undoubtedly held in very ancient times in Babylonia, Armenia 

 and ln Persia under the Sassanians. If Huesing is right, the 

 moon-cult of the Iranians should have existed already at the 

 "me of Darius I. Also Christensen (Orientalistische Literatur- 

 zeitung VII, pp. 49.52) thinks it not improbable that, at any 

 r ate ln the time of Zoroastrianism, the cult of the moon-god 

 was closely connected with fire-worship. 



-The veneration of fire, especially of the fire of the hearth, 

 j 8 one of the most ancient religious conceptions. It is not aston- 

 l8Q1 ng, therefore, to find it also in the Avesta, which preaches 

 everywhere veneration for tiie element of fire. Hence we find 



