Elamica 4 – 2014 Platforms of Exaltation Elamite Sculptural Reliefs from the Highlands: Kūl-e Farah VI Javier Álvarez-Mon 1 The Kūl-e Farah sanctuary, as a dazzling complex of iconographic themes, religious concepts, social stratigraphy, and ideological strategies, deserves the full attention of students of Achaemenid culture (W. F. M. Henkelman 2011b, 131) Table of Contents: §1. A Short Introduction; §2. Previous studies and Dimensions; §3. Part I: Description; §4. Part II. Divine and Royal Elamite Imagery atop a Platform; §4.1. Divine Figure; §4.2. Royal Figure; §4.3. Hand Gestures; §4.3.1. Index Fingers-pointing Gesture; §4.3.2. Clasped Hands Gesture; §4.4. Hair Styles; §5. Conclusion: Summary, Dating, Commentary and Significance. §1. A Short Introduction The Zagros highland region of Ʈzeh/MƗlamƯr is nestled in a mountain valley about 800m above sea level. The valley is a natural gateway linking the lowlands with the high plateau. During the early Islamic period the caravan road from Suse to Isfahan made its way through the valley and the ancient city of Izeh (Idhah/Izah), at the time one of the most important regional centers 2 . In sharp contrast to the arid landscape of the lowlands, Ʈzeh/MƗlamƯr receives high rainfall and snow runoff washing down to seasonal lakes occupying the central part of the valley. Excellent grazing land and steep mountain slopes studded with oak trees add to the stunning scenery 3 . In the words of Austin H. Layard: “Mál Amír is perhaps the most remarkable place in the whole of the Bakhtiyárí Mountains. On all sides the most precipitous mountains rise almost perpendicularly from the plain” (Layard 1846, 75). Carved on the surface of cliffs and boulders in four different locations in the valley are a total of 1 Javier Álvarez-Mon, Associate Professor in Near Eastern Archaeology and Art, Macquarie University, Australia. 2 The large artificial unexamined tepe reported by Layard to have existed east of the present town of Izeh may indeed have contained these and, most possibly, older remains (Layard 1846, 74-5). 3 “There is more timber than in any part of Persia with exception of the Caspian provinces” (Curzon 1892; reprinted 1966, 285).