double-headed eagle

Double-headed eagle in Jiroft, Iran, 3rd millennium BC

The double-headed eagle is an iconographic symbol originating in the Bronze Age. The earliest predecessors of the symbol can be found in the Ancient Near East (i.e., Mesopotamia and Hittite iconography) and Mycenaean Greece. Most modern uses of the emblem are directly or indirectly associated with its use by the Palaiologos dynasty of the Byzantine Empire, a use possibly derived from the Roman Imperial Aquila. High medieval iterations of the motif can be found in Islamic Spain, France, the Bulgarian Empire and the Serbian principality of Raška. From the 13th century onward, it appeared within the Islamic world in the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum and the Mamluk Sultanate, and within the Christian world in Albania, the Holy Roman Empire, Russia, and Serbia. In a few places, among them the Holy Roman Empire and Russia, the motif was further augmented to create the less prominent triple-headed eagle.