Zoroastrian Dakhma of Turkabad in Ardakan, Yazd, Iran

Document Type : Original Article

Author

RICHT

Abstract

A dakhma, also known as Tower of Silence is a place where Zoroastrian people used to put the dead bodies of their loved ones. A similar structure from the Sasanian period was discovered in Bandian Dargaz, along with excavations conducted at Gelālak of Shushtar, Saleh Davood of Shush, and Shoghab of Bushehr, as well as other researches and excavations across various regions of Iran. It provides evidence that Zoroastrians practiced a burial ritual involving the removal of flesh from the body of the deceased and subsequent collection of bones, which were then placed in a container known as an ossuary. This intriguing method served as a motivation for the author to undertake more extensive studies on Zoroastrian burial rituals. This article focuses on the archaeological excavations conducted in the Torkabad’s Dakhma of Ardakan, Yazd, shedding light on this particular aspect.

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🔓 © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Tissaphernes Archaeological Research Group, Tehran, Iran. Open Access. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The ethical policy of Ancient Iranian Studies is based on the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines and complies with International Committee of Ancient Iranian Studies Editorial Board codes of conduct. Readers, authors, reviewers and editors should follow these ethical policies once working with Ancient Iranian Studies. The ethical policy of Ancient Iranian Studies is liable to determine which of the typical research papers or articles submitted to the journal should be published in the concerned issue. For information on this matter in publishing and ethical guidelines please visit www.publicationethics.org.

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Ancient Iranian studies
Volume 3, Issue 8 - Serial Number 8
January 2024
Pages 57-83

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History

  • Receive Date: 05 May 2023
  • Revise Date: 09 June 2023
  • Accept Date: 30 July 2023

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