Winged figure bearing diadem and cups, Taq-e Bostan, Kernamshah Province. Sasanian, late 6th or 7th century. The motifs on both the facade and interior of this cave resemble Roman (Byzantium) art so strongly that it seems higly likely that artists from Constantinopple were responsible. One source, the poet and traveller Al-Hamadhani (968-1008), reported that the sculptor was one Fatus (or Katus) ibn Sinimmar Rumi (ie. a man from Byzantine Rome). The reliefs at Taq-e Bostan decorate two grottoes cut out into a cliff beside a large pool and are a continuation of a tradition begun by the Achaemenians, in which monumental reliefs are utilized to proclaim the power of the throne and the divine right of its occupant to rule.