BETWEEN ASTRAL COSMOLOGY AND ASTROLOGY. The Mazdean Cycle of 12,000 Years and the Final Renovation of the World

In the present paper the author focuses on the origin and development of the chiliadic or millenary doctrine in the Iranian pre-Islamic tradition, from the earliest Avestan attestations down to the Pahlavi sources. The treatment of this main subject implies that it is defined the concept of time in the earlier Iranian period and that it is followed its evolution, which represented a turning point in the theological speculations and liturgical aspect of the Mazdean tradition. It is necessary to take into consideration the different influences that such an Iranian development may have received in the course of the centuries alongside other ancient prestigious cultures, which were strongly interested in time-reckoning and time interpretation, both for calendrical needs and for the determination of celestial and terrestrial omina.