A Case of Religious Architecture in Elymais: The Tetrastyle Temple of Bard-e Neshandeh

Abstract

This study provides a new approach and interpretation of a remote Elymaean tetrastyle temple found in the course of excavations conducted at the sacred terraces of Bard-e Neshandeh in the mid-19th century. Perched on the heights of the Zagros mountains in the current province of Khuzestan (sw Iran), the shrine on the lower terrace reflects an innovative synthesis of structural elements engaging both Mesopotamian and Iranian templates and it occupies a special place in the records of temple architecture of the Iranian world before the Sasanid conquest. According to this investigation, a re-evaluation of the tetrastyle temple is proposed in order that it will yield new insights and progress of understanding on the cultic monumental apparatus in Hellenistic and Parthian Elymais.1