A relief from New Nisa: some interpretation issues

This paper is the last in a series of publications in the Brief Communications of the Institute of Archaeology (KSIA) dedicated to fragments of the terracotta relief featuring a war elephant. The final paper is divided into two separate parts. The first part presents fragments of the relief we had at our disposal with reconstruction of the entire composition based on the available material (See KSIA issue 264). The second part published in the present issue examines some aspects of its assessment as a cultural and historical asset. Observations made during the excavations and consideration of foreign policy factors of that time suggest that the relief was made between the middle of the 2nd century BC and the middle of the 1st century BC. Its discovery in the ‘Parthian nobility necropolis' provides grounds to believe that it was related to a grave of an individual who belonged to the Parthian elite and had something to do with elephantry. Despite being preserved only in fragments, this relief has a high cultural value as it is the first find of this kind. It sheds some light on earlier unknown aspects of local history and culture.