Naqsh-e Rajab is a compact archaeological site in Fars Province, a few kilometres north of Persepolis and near the ancient city of Estakhr. Its four relief panels were cut into the limestone walls of a small rock recess during the early Sasanian period, in the third century CE. The setting is modest compared with Persepolis, but the carvings make the site a concentrated record of a new dynasty presenting its kingship, court and religious authority in stone.
The Sasanian dynasty began under Ardashir I, who defeated the last Parthian ruler and established a new imperial order in Iran. Naqsh-e Rajab includes a scene of Ardashir’s investiture, in which a ruler receives the ring of sovereignty from the divine figure Ohrmazd. The work belongs to a wider tradition of royal investiture imagery at Fars sites. It presents rule as more than military success: kingship is shown as a divinely sanctioned office, staged through a carefully composed encounter.