Corfù, Nicolas Assur. 2025. Die Bedeutung des Kranzes im spätantiken Orient: zu Thronbesteigung, Kranzübergabe und Religionen im Sasanidenreich. Basel: Schwabe Verlag.
The wreath first appears in funerary culture in the West and in Egypt. Later, it increasingly came to represent victory as well, deriving from the oriental nose-rope with ring, which was adopted and adapted into the West during Greece’s ‘Orientalizing Period’. In Sasanian iconography, the wreath was re-imported from the West: it now symbolizes victory, honor, or a funerary aspect.
This book examines the wreath in East and West from its first appearance up to Late Antiquity. The author develops a new interpretation of the inscription ANRm-b and offers a novel reading of rock reliefs depicting wreath-giving, using a group-theoretical approach from mathematics: as an act of honoring a deceased predecessor of the commissioning Sasanian ruler.