Performing Renewal: Acoustic Semiotics, Collective Festivity, and the Spatial Re-Creation of the World in the Myth of Jamshidian Nowruz.

Among the foundational narratives of Iranian cultural memory, the mythological association of Nowruz with the reign of Jamshid occupies a distinctive position. Although often interpreted as a calendrical celebration or seasonal festival, the tradition can also be understood as a sophisticated cultural model through which ancient Iranian societies conceptualized collective renewal, social cohesion, and the aesthetic reconstruction of time itself. This article investigates the Jamshidian Nowruz tradition through an interdisciplinary framework combining mythology, archaeology, visual culture, performance studies, acoustic semiotics, and cultural memory theory. The study argues that Nowruz in Iranian mythological imagination functions not merely as a commemorative event but as a total cultural performance in which sound, movement, spectacle, architecture, and communal participation collectively generate an experience of cosmic regeneration. Drawing upon Pahlavi literature, the Nowruznameh, epic traditions, archaeological evidence from Chogha Mish, and visual representations of musicians and dancers in ancient Iranian material culture, the article explores the emergence of sound as a medium of social organization and symbolic transformation (Boyce, 1975). The analysis further situates Iranian celebrations within broader Near Eastern traditions by comparing the Jamshidian festival with Mesopotamian Akitu ceremonies and Egyptian renewal rituals. While acknowledging structural similarities among these traditions, the article demonstrates that Iranian mythological narratives increasingly emphasize collective creativity and cultural participation rather than passive submission to divine authority (Assmann, 2011; Eliade, 1959). The findings suggest that music, ritual movement, and festive performance occupied central roles in shaping collective consciousness long before the emergence of written notation. Archaeological and iconographic evidence indicates that artistic performance served as a mechanism through which communities negotiated memory, identity, and cosmological order. Ultimately, the Jamshidian Nowruz tradition may be interpreted as one of the earliest Iranian formulations of art as a social technology of renewal.