Aniconic in the context of "Aniconism in Christianity"

A xoanon (/ˈzoʊ.ənɒn/ , Greek: ξόανον; plural: Greek: ξόανα xoana, from the verb Greek: ξέειν, xeein, to carve or scrape [wood]) was a wooden cult image from Archaic Greece. Classical Greeks associated such cult objects, whether aniconic or effigy, with the legendary Daedalus. Many such cult images were preserved into historical times, though none are known to have survived to the modern day, except as copies in stone or marble. In the 2nd century CE, Pausanias described numerous xoana in his Description of Greece, notably the image of Hera in her temple at Samos. "The statue of the Samian Hera, as Aethilos [sic] says, was a wooden beam at first, but afterwards, when Prokles was ruler, it was humanized in form". In Pausanias' travels he never mentions seeing a xoanon of a "mortal man".

Since the beginning of the serious study of the history of Buddhist art in the 1890s, the earliest phase, lasting until the 1st century CE, has been described as aniconic; the Buddha was only represented through symbols such as an empty throne, Bodhi tree, a riderless horse with a parasol floating above an empty space (at Sanchi), Buddha's footprints, and the dharma wheel.

This aniconism in relation to the image of the Buddha could be in conformity with an ancient Buddhist prohibition against showing the Buddha himself in human form, known from the Sarvastivada vinaya (rules of the early Buddhist school of the Sarvastivada):

Buddha's footprints (Sanskrit: Buddhapada)( Tibetan: སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཞབས་རྗེས། ) is an important Buddhist symbol which is commonly depicted as icons shaped like an imprint of Gautama Buddha's foot or both feet. There are two forms: natural, as found in stone or rock, and those made artificially. Many of the "natural" ones are acknowledged not to be genuine footprints of the Buddha, but rather replicas or representations of them, which can be considered cetiya (Buddhist relics) and also an early aniconic and symbolic representation of the Buddha.

The Nabataean religion was a form of Arab polytheism practiced in Nabataea, an ancient Arab nation that was well established by the third century BCE and lasted until the Roman annexation in 106 CE. The Nabateans were polytheistic, worshiping a wide variety of local gods, as well as deities such as Baalshamin, Isis, and Greco-Roman gods, including Tyche and Dionysus. They conducted their worship at temples, high places, and betyls. Their religious practices were mostly aniconic, favoring geometric designs to adorn sacred spaces. Much knowledge of Nabataean grave goods has been lost due to extensive looting throughout history. The Nabataeans performed sacrifices, conducted various rituals, and held a belief in an afterlife.