The Deities on the Kushano-Sasanian Coins
The Deities on the Kushano-Sasanian Coins

Summary/Abstract: This article deals with Kushano-Sasanian coins, aiming to interpret the images of deities used on their reverses. The topic has occasionally been discussed in numismatic studies on the Kushano-Sasanian series, and some images have also been examined in archaeological literature on Central Asia. Yet Kushano-Sasanian religious imagery has never really been the subject of specific treatment. In fact, such series provide extremely interesting evidence of the religious imagery of the Sasanian period, due to the conventions which governed typological selection, since these allowed a more varied iconographic repertoire in comparison with what we can see on the imperial issues. Contrary to previous hypotheses of the phenomenon of syncretism produced by the supposed Bactrian religious specificity, the analysis results in a picture showing a fully Zoroastrian imagery, which absorbed iconographic features of Sasanian and Kushan derivation against the background of the presence of the new Sasanian power.

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