TEHRAN — The ancient Silk Road led to cultural exchanges between China and Iran, leaving visible marks on today's Iranian cultural tradition, one of which being the 12-animal zodiac, an Iranian historian has said.

China celebrated the Year of the Rabbit on Jan. 22 according to its lunar calendar. In the Chinese calendar and zodiac, the rabbit is the fourth in the 12-year cycle of animals.

"Like in China, the upcoming new year in Iran, which will begin on March 22, is also the Year of the Rabbit," China Daily quoted Kourosh Salehi as saying on Wednesday.

"What's interesting is that throughout its evolution and history, the concept of the animals has entered Iran's culture from China and East Asia," said Salehi, who is a historian and international affairs expert at the International University of Islamic Denominations.

"Iranians, in addition to naming and enumerating the years based on their ordinal numbers according to the solar Hijri calendar, still say what animal each year represents," Salehi explained.

The researcher believes that China's cultural impact on Iran is also reflected in the three-hare (or three-rabbit) symbol found on different artifacts.

The circular motif is very well-known and appears on paintings and pictures, either carved on coins, trays, and metal objects or painted on clay dishes and tiles. It has been discovered all over the world, including in East Asia and West Asia. A tray from the Middle Ages bearing this symbol was discovered in Iran.

According to Salehi, the three-rabbit carving discovered in Iran is exactly in line with the ones found in prehistoric samples discovered in China, demonstrating the influence of Chinese culture on Iranian culture during the Ilkhanate (1256–1335) era.

Salehi claims that at the time, the rabbit symbol, which can be seen on some metal artifacts and coins discovered in Iran, was thought to have been brought there by Chinese painters and artists.

Salehi says he has two very intriguing coins with the symbol in his personal collection and makes reference to other items discovered in Iran that have roughly the same rabbit-based symbol.

According to the graphological analysis of the coins and the design of the frames around the rabbits, it can be assumed that the artifacts date back to the Ilkhanate era. In Iranian culture, the subject of rabbits was often mentioned in ancient, religious, and mythological stories of Iran.

The three rabbits are depicted at the center of a round object, chasing each other in a circle, which is one of the distinctive features of the three-rabbit symbols on all the artifacts discovered in Iran so far. This suggests that the circle of life, fertility, and death is still ongoing.

According to Salehi, the rabbit represents fertility, quickness, cunning and social life from the perspectives of semiotics and mythology.

AFM