Poster Description
The poster image/logo is taken from the plaque discovered in Ziwiye hill in Saqqez (750 BC.). Ziwiye is the name of an ancient castle in Kurdistan province, about 40 kilometers east of the city of Sqqez. This region was part of the territory of the Mannaeans who ruled the region in the first millennium BC. And whose name is mentioned in the inscription of the Assyrian king Saragon ii (722-705 BC.). The image on the golden plaque consists of two rows of engraved hybrid mythical animals and at the center of each row, there is a “Tree of life” which is surrounded by goats in the upper row and by winged caws in the lower row. The tree of life is encircled by a number of hybrid animals that are, for the most part, a combination of human, bird, and cow. There is a rabbit engraving at the corner of each raw and q row of engraved pine-like plant motifs around the plaque. In the most ancient civilization. The tree of life is associated with fertility and the presence of an eternal spirit. This tree is one of the most repeated motifs in Zagrosian art. In the rock reliefs of Taq-e, Bostan in Kermanshah, two trees of life, as symbols of life and immortality. Have been carved on both sides of the arch. At the center of Ziwiye Golden Plaque, there are also two trees of life surrounded by a golden mountain goat (Kel) and a number of mythical animals. The aesthetic style used in Ziwiye etalworks is called Zagrosian artistic style –as well as native, Iranian, Folk, Mannaean, Medes, and Lorestan Style- which demonstrates the connection of this style to the local/Native Cultures, Myths, and beliefs of the Region. Ziwiye Golden Plaque is currently preserved at the National Museum of Iran.
The image of the mountain goat by the tree of life is one of the most Common motifs in ancient Eastern art. This animal has long been a symbol of power as well as resistance to harsh environmental condition due to living in arduous mountains and high altitudes over 4000 Meters. The goat has also been praised due to the resemblance of its horns to the crescent moon and has been associated whit the Goddess of Rain and fertility. The crescent horns whit their knots are among the key features of the native representations of the mountain goat which is also used in Ziwiye Plaque. Based on the ancient beliefs of the indigenous people of the area, the goat can be read as a symbol of creation, birth, and fertility as well as the representation of the vegetation deity. In same area, Lorestan for instance, the mountain goat is sometimes associated with the sun and sometimes with the moon; the former representing heat and dryness and the latter rain and, accordingly, fertility. The Curved horns of the mountain goat are associated with the crescent and therefore considered to be the cause of rainfalls. In Susa and Elam, the mountain goat has been a symbol of prosperity, among other things. In spite of different, sometimes contradictory, interpretations of the mountain goat, what is certain is that the goat is the most dominant tothemic animal in Zagrosian.
