A 1,400-Year-Old Pahlavi Burial Inscription Near Estakhr, Iran

Someone carved a Pahlavi funerary inscription into a rock frame near Estakhr in southern Iran roughly 1,400 years ago, shortly before the Sasanian Empire collapsed in the 7th century CE. Its text has not been published, so what it says remains unknown.

What was found

The inscription sits on a carved rock frame north of the ancient city of Estakhr, on the Marvdasht Plain in Fars Province. Archaeologist Abolhassan Atabaki identified it as a Pahlavi text connected to a Zoroastrian burial. Pahlavi was the written form of Middle Persian used under the Sasanian dynasty.

How old it is

Reports place the inscription in the late Sasanian period, in the empire’s final centuries, and give no more precise date. The empire fell in the 7th century CE, which makes the carving roughly 1,400 years old. That figure is an estimate drawn from the period, not a measured date.

What we still do not know

No full transcription or translation has been released. Reports do not name the discovery team or the institution behind the find. Further study may reveal details about the person buried, the burial itself, or who made the monument.

Why Estakhr matters

Estakhr lay in Fars, the heartland of the Sasanian dynasty, and it served as an important ceremonial and religious center of the empire. A readable funerary text from this period could add names and religious phrasing to what scholars know about Zoroastrian burial practice.

Sources

Reported by Tehran Times (“Zoroastrian funerary inscription from late Sasanian era discovered in southern Iran”) and relayed by Arkeonews on 11 October 2026. We could not open the Tehran Times original or find a published study, so these details rest on those reports.