Islamic clay figurines from excavations at Istakhr and a suggested use of the animal-shaped specimens

This paper deals with the Islamic hand-modelled clay figurines from the excavations carried out at Istakhr (Fars region, Iran) by the Oriental Institute of Chicago in the 1930s and the Joint Italian-Iranian Archaeological Mission in 2012. S. Mancini presents detailed descriptions of these artefacts, including some technological notes relating to fabrics, as well as a few comparisons help to propose their chronological attribution. M.V. Fontana suggests that the animal specimens can be understood as figurines which children usually placed on the roofs of their houses pending the end of panjī-mas and to welcome in the New Year at the end of a long-lasting ritual of Zoroastrian tradition, as can also be seen in some Seljuk glazed ceramic “house models”.