Every design here begins from a documented emblem rather than an invented one. Researching them turned up something we did not expect: much of what is repeated about these symbols is modern, and some of the marks themselves are twentieth-century designs quoting much older sources. We have said so in each case. What follows is not ancient symbols faithfully reproduced — it is how modern Iran assembled a visual identity out of far older material, which is a better story and a truer one.
The royal falcon carried as a standard by the Achaemenids.
The best-known symbol of Iran — and the one most confidently explained on the least evidence.
Unusually for an old emblem, we know when most of this design was decided — and who decided it.
The name does not mean “thirty birds” — and the creature on this print may not be the bird from the Shahnameh.
An ancient myth, an Achaemenid capital, and a drawing made by a student in 1961.
A 1971 emblem built around an object twenty-five centuries older than itself.
Four quarters that disagree with each other, put on one shield anyway.
If the sun has a face, you are looking at a version older than 1933.
The only design in this collection that no one invented.
The Imperial Coat of Arms is the one to read first if you only read one. Its four quarters carry three of the other symbols in this collection, so it explains most of the rest.