Shekaft-e Salman Relief I

Carved inside a rectangular panel about 8.5 m above ground level, this relief depicts two men, a boy, and a woman standing in profile oriented toward the cave making worship gestures before a fire stand. The first man in the group raises his arms in front, flexed at the elbow. His hands are closed into a fist, index fingers extended. He has a long beard, a pair of long side-locks ending in a curl, a “visor” hairstyle, a long braid that extends down the back and ends in a curl at waist level, and wears a short, belted garment. The second man clasps his hands together at the waist. He has a similar garment, face, hairstyle and physique to the previous. The boy behind him wears a comparable garment and adopts the same clasped-hands gesture. The woman, standing last in line, has her right hand raised with the index finger extended in an upward-pointing gesture. Her left hand is in front of the waist and may be grasping a folded textile. Her neck is adorned by a necklace with an extension (or a braid?), which runs along the line of the arm. It seems that the original panel, which dates to around the 12th century, had shown only the second man, the boy and the woman, and that the fire stand and the man closest to it were 11th-7th century additions. In the 7th-6th century BC, a poorly preserved Elamite inscription was added over the lower part of the relief by Hanni, kutur (caretaker, protector, ruler) of Ayapir.