Sumerians referred to southeastern Iran as Marhashi. It's as good a name as any, and we need one for this distinctive culture. Iran is huge, and has many different culture regions that were different countries in ancient times: Elam (Khuzistan), Luristan (Zagros mountains), Fars to the southeast, and still further east Kerman and Iranian Baluchistan (the area where these goddess seals are found). These ancient countries (except for Elam, not known by those names until much later!) have some shared themes: ceramics painted with ibexes, or bronzes of ibexes; female figures in terracotta, stone, ivory or, later on, bronze.

Years ago, I discovered an article on the "Marhashi seals" with pictures of three impressive cylinder seals depicting a snake goddess and a horned goddess, whose votaries were women. These seals are named after the private collections they ended up in. Recently, while assembling the digital images in my Iran folder for this month's visual webcast, I found more online.

It's always a stunning experience when only a few images can be found, although you search through books and articles for more, without sucess; and then, after many years or decades, thanks to digital media, more come to light—and lots of them. These seals are relegated to obscurity, by virtue of their content and their backwater provenance (though in the early bronze age these cultures were cultural bridges between Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley).

The "Foroughi Seal" impression. An enthroned goddess has an elaborate horned headdress and serpents rearing up from her shoulders. (Some resonance here with the me powers of Inanna and Ishtar, which emerge from their shoulders and sometimes look snakey). A woman is kneeling before her, with a libation vessel in her right hand. Above to the left, another figure hovers, holding up a snake. Snakes also set off the scenes on the seal. The large bird above the goddess recurs in other seals. Another deity, animal-headed seems to be seated on a cow or bull.

Goddess enthroned in shrine, with rampant serpents coming out of her shoulders. An eagle stands before her. Women advance toward the goddess in procession holding snakes at their waists; below them are female musicians, beating a drum and playing a lyre. Known as the "New York seal."

This one is different. The goddess is still enthroned in her shrine, which is surrounded by rays, but she holds a single snake. Below, women sit around an altar with arms upraised (at least one source calls it a board game; but then what would the flower or bird sitting atop it be?) Above the altar rises another goddess, horned, possibly ibex-headed, again with snakes in her hands. The "Rosen seal."

These are the first three 'Marhashi' seals I was able to find. Twenty years down the road, the internet has made others visible. Of course, there were more. There nearly always are; the problem is tracking them down.

This one has no other identifying info other than its provenance in SE Iran. It shares elements with those above: a goddess, here surrounded by serpents; again the female devotees facing an altar (which is definitely not a board game, and has the horned corners seen in other stone altars of SW Asia). The eagles are there too, along with chimeric horned human-headed birds.

Another group of seals have women gathered around an enthroned goddess, but now she is horned and winged. Snakes are still part of the scene, coiled around each other. Tepe Yahya, National Museum of Iran 892.

The winged goddess its attended by women, and animals below (some of them also winged. Jalalabad NMI 2699

Antoher winged goddess, horned; the other figure is called a grain goddess.

Lucky to find one in color, a white marble seal from a tomb in Shahdad, Kerman. A much clearer expression of what they call a grain goddess, though a tree would answer as well—a goddess of growing plants, in any case. Facing her is a horned godess, and many ibexes.

Here a central enthroned goddess with horns is seated within a blaze of glory (calling to mind the Zoroastrian concept of Xvarnah or Farah). She is flanked by a grain goddess on one side and a goddess with rampant snakes coming out of her body on the other side. From the Black Stone Temple of Sacrifices, Sarianidi 2005

Is this her again? holding a snake as in the Rosen seal, but the deity's sex is less certain. (Male figures often have long hair too.) The divinity sits atop a mounttain range with trees, and is adored by two male figures, one with a bow slung over his arm, the other with snakes emerging from his chest. A horned figure sits nearby, holding a branch, on a serpentine throne. And there are lions...

The goddess of growing things here appears amidst a tree (a theme known from Syria to northern India)

Grain goddess seated on snake, with ibexes. The white stone seal was found at Gonur, Grave 23, in Turkmenistan, but of SE Iranian make.

Winged goddess with snakes in hand, and adorant women. Shahdad seal, NMI 899.

This is the last of the photos I found, and it's murky, but you can make out the goddess of growth at left, seated, a kneeling ibex, and a winged goddess standing, with at least one snake. Shahdad, Kerman (after Hakemi 1997).

The others are drawings, and of poor quality, so the artistry doesn't come through, but the themes do.

On this 2 cm gold seal, the goddess of growth is seated above two ibexes. The scorpion goddess (who is found in ancient Iraq, Iran, and Pakistan) is there, along with snakes, eagle, and what I read as an ibex-man. Al Sabah Collection LNS 4517

Horned goddess on throne and a growth goddess standing.
SE Iran. Ligabue collection, Italy.

Horned, winged and plant goddesses, with serpent, on another seal of southeast Iranian make, found at Susa in the far west. Not only did Elam trade with this eastern region, and Elamite seals have been found there as well, but it's hypothesized that Elamite or a closely related language was spoken in southeastern Iran, and maybe even more widely than that.