About a time when women were worshipped as Goddesses & Women, Life, Freedom was reality
Palaeontology confirms that the Mother Goddess was the first divinity to be worshipped in Ancient Iran.
Persian sculptural ceramics starts almost with the initial steps of civilization in Iran. A Goddess female fertility clay figurine called Venus of Sarab found in Kermanshah in the west of Iran and dated to 7000 B.C. is considered as one of the oldest ceramic sculptures found in the plateau of Iran.
Mother Goddess
The perception of the earth as a female entity is one of the most striking consistencies in global and historical spiritual belief.
The potential of the female body to grow and nourish new life has led to a spiritual association between feminine agency and generative powers of creation.
People in southern, southeastern, northern, northwestern, and central Iran worshiped mother figures. Women, as mothers, were held in very high esteem in these regions. Local inhabitants had a robust feminine culture in which mothers played a central role.
But let's look at Iran, formerly known as Persia, in the Neolithic time.
First of all, the Iranian plateau was a massive geographical region with various ethnic and cultural traditions that developed parallel to each other in this vast area and even reached up to Anatolia. Iran is home to one of the world's oldest continuous major civilizations.
An important part in Iran's history is the Neolithic revolution. 10.000 years ago, the development of agriculture, livestock farming, and urban living began in the Iranian plateau and was a major turning point in human history.
Fertile Crescent
The Fertile Crescent where most of humanity's first major crops were grown, was located around
Elam, an ancient civilization centered in the far west and southwest of modern-day Iran. In villages such as Susa were many findings of female figurines in honor of the earth.
Researchers also assume a prosperous pre-dynastic period for the neighboring region of Mesopotamia (today: Iraq and Syria):
"As far as we can reconstruct this from early sources and art evidence, the life of the Neolithic advanced civilizations was entirely concentrated on the preservation and refinement of life... Ancient Orientalists agree that the oldest epochs in each case left behind a first flowering of art which was hardly surpassed by the later phases. It is characterized by natural dignity and simplicity as well as by a serene mood of life and humorous features, while the later monuments of art are marked by the striving for the demonstration of power and monumental splendor, and their motifs became more and more somber and warlike." Carola Meier-Seethaler
Anāhitā
One Goddess was especially important in pre-Islamic Iran: Anāhitā. From her roots as an ancient Indo-European water deity her status was unrivaled by any other Iranian goddess throughout the course of three successive Iranian empires over a period of a thousand years.
According the Mazdean Creation tradition, any source of water represents Anāhitā. Thus, any river, spring or well is sacred since it potentially represents the “whole creation of water” concept. Since water is important for farming, we can assume the special importance set on her.
But just like the story with Old Europe, these matriarchal cultures of the Near East were about to be transformed by the patriarchal organized Indo-Europeans.
They invaded the Iranian plateau and Mesopotamia by 3000 BC and brought with them their tripartite social structure (consisting of kings/priests, warriors and producers) and their belief in male Sky god(s). The Goddess and worship of the earth had no place any longer.
Civilization transformed radically, warmongering between states commenced and the life of women began to change. Until about 2000 BC women still participated fully in sacred activities, owned property and business.
Samuel Noah Kramer, an Assyrian scribe, believes that the priests and scribes of Sumer were selectively and deliberately recording myths in such way as to further women's political ends.