Kul-e Farah (Persian: سنگ‌نگاره کول‌فرح) (Henceforth KF) is an archaeological site and open-air sanctuary situated in the Zagros mountain valley of Izeh/Mālamir, in south-western Iran, around 800 meters over sea level.

Six Elamite rock reliefs are located in a small gorge marked by a seasonal creek bed on the plain's east side of the valley, near the town of Izeh in Khuzestan.

This was followed by P. Amiet (1992: 86-7) who, making exception for KF I and V, suggested the reliefs manifested the expression of a local monarchy that developed in eastern Elam after the invasion of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar I (ca.

This is an idealized view of a community strengthened through social bonds intimately attached to the notion of sacred space (Kul-e Farah and Kurangun), self-determined ethnic identity (marked by distinctive physical features, particularly long, braided hair), the enactment of specific rituals (processions, animal sacrifice, a communal feasting) and the reinforcement of custom (worship of old Elamite deities).

All together: place, self-representation, and ritual provide a nexus of identity markers defining a population characterized by specific culture and socio-political ideology.

Indeed, this evidence may advocate a belief system where the notion and experience of the supernatural developed out of close association with landscapes of extraordinary aesthetic natural properties.

In the words of W. Henkelman: The sanctuary of Kul-e Farah is “a dazzling complex of iconographic themes, religious concepts, social stratigraphy, and ideological strategies….

It is here, at Aiapir, that we get close to Elamite religion as one possibly can, and it is here that we find the most eloquent expression of a feast that, only a few generations after Hanni, was celebrated in similar form in Pārsa” (Henkelman 2011: 131 and 133).

37) theorized that this display of communal events and complex rituals expressed a “new consciousness” that arose from the settlement and commingling of Iranian-speaking nomadic populations with local Elamites.

Their placement at Kul-e Farah, and the related open air  reliefs in the sanctuaries of Shekaft-e Salman, Kurangun and Naqsh-e Rustam suggests that the natural landscape was an essential component of traditional Elamite cultic ideology and practice.

Hanni stands with his hands clasped wearing a bulbous cap, a waist-length braid, and a heavily fringed garment ornamented with rosettes.

Presiding over the ceremony is a ruler seated on a high-backed throne framed by two tables, the one behind supporting vessels, the one at the front possibly laden with food.

The ruler is accompanied by attendants, a weapon-bearer, archers, six harp players and over a hundred individuals represented similarly with long, braided hair, short garment, and right hand raising a morsel of food (meat?)

The majority of the participants are inside registers, martially organized in rows on both sides of an imaginary focal axial point at approximately the center, and oriented toward it.

Much of the original volume has been lost through surface erosion but a “natural” plastic treatment of body parts through variable carving depths is still evident.

The iconography and structure of the composition are similar to KFII: a large-scale male individual faces an animal sacrifice and makes an index-finger-pointing gesture; behind him stand four worshipers with clasped hands.

The platform-bearers are all similarly represented with a long, fringed garment, a tight, round cap, a neat hair-bun at the back, and a short beard.

The right arm is extended downward and the hand appears to hold an intriguing U-shaped object (perhaps an open-ended “ring” of the type discussed later in this chapter; the left hand is raised to the chest and appears to hold a bow; a dagger is tucked under the belt on the right side of the body; a hatched quiver is carried over the right shoulder; and a long sword (presumably inside a scabbard) with a lunate-shaped pommel hangs from the waist at the back, almost touching the ground.