Ka'ba-i Zartosht

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The Ka'ba-i Zartosht (alt: Kaba-i Zardusht, Kaba-ye Zardosht), meaning the "Cube of Zoroaster", is a 5th century BCE Achaemenid-era edifice at Naqsh-e Rustam, an archaeological site just northwest of Persepolis, Iran.

The structure, which is a copy of a sister building at Pasargadae,^[1] was built either by Darius I (r. 521-486 BCE) when he moved to Persepolis, or by Artaxerxes II (r. 404–358 BCE) or Artaxerxes III (r. 358–338 BCE). In Frye's opinion "the intention was the same [as that of its sister building], that is, to build a safety box for the paraphernalia of rule in the vicinity of Persepolis as had been done at Pasargadae."^[1]

From a reference to fire altars in a Sassanid-era inscription on the building it has been inferred^[2] that the structure was once a fire altar, or perhaps as an eternal-flame memorial to the emperors whose tombs are located a few meters away. This is however highly unlikely since the lack of cross-ventilation would have soon choked the flame,^[3] and in any case, the author of the inscription is unlikely to have known the purpose of the building seven centuries after its construction.^[4]

[edit] See also

• Naqsh-e Rustam
• authors of inscriptions on the Ka'ba-i Zartosht:
  • Shapur I
  • Kartir

[edit] Bibliography

^ a b Frye 1974, p. 386. ^ Herzfeld 1935, pp. 35-37. ^ Boyce 1975, p. 458. ^ Goldman 1965, p. 306.

Boyce, Mary (1975), "On the Zoroastrian Temple Cult of Fire", Journal of the American Oriental Society 95(3): 454-465 Frye, Richard N. (1974), "Persepolis Again", Journal of Near Eastern Studies 33(4): 383-386 Goldman, Bernard (1965), "Persian Fire Temples or Tombs?", Journal of Near Eastern Studies 24(4): 305-308 Herzfeld, Ernst (1935), Archaeological History of Iran, London: H. Milford/OUP

[edit] External links

• Photographs of the Ka'ba-i Zartosht (in Persian)