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Image of world's oldest metal flag on stamp
Thursday, February 15, 2007 - ?2005 IranMania.com
LONDON, February 15 (IranMania) - The Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts Organization (CHTHO) and the Iran Post Company, in a collaborative effort, have printed a stamp bearing a picture of the world?s oldest metal flag, CHTHO reported.
The stamp is scheduled to be introduced during the two-day International Conference of Seventy Years of Iranian Anthropology, which will begin in Kerman on February 18.
The stamp has been printed on a four-piece sheet, with the other three stamps of the series depicting the Abarqu Cypress, a traditional Bakhtiari wedding, and the logo of the conference.
The metal flag and two large brass plates bearing fish and deer patterns were discovered by an archaeological team led by Mir-Abedin Kaboli in the Khabis district in the east of the Shahdad region of Kerman Province in 1971.
The artifacts, which are kept at the National Museum of Iran, date back to the 3rd millennium BC.
At 4.5mm in thickness on the edges and 2mm in the middle, the square-shaped metal flag, which measures 23.4 centimeters in width and length, is attached to a 128-centimeter metal pole in such a way that it can rotate.
A figure of a perching eagle has been fixed to the top of the flagpole and the flag bears engravings of a seated goddess of rain with a woman standing behind her.
Three women and a rectangular garden with two palm trees are also engraved on the lower right side of the flag while another palm tree is engraved below the standing woman?s feet on the lower left side. Figures of two lions are on the two sides and a cow with long horns is seen in the middle.
An image of the sun in the form of a flower can be seen between the goddess and the three women, and two swirling motifs representing flowing water surround all the figures on the top and bottom.
About 30 foreign researchers from Europe, the Middle East, the United States, and Japan are scheduled to present papers during the conference, which is being organized by the Anthropology Research Center.
