Garrus ware is considered one of the most distinctive ceramic traditions of Iran during the 11th–13th centuries. Despite the exceptional richness and diversity of its figural motifs, no systematic study of this pottery tradition has yet been conducted. This research gap persists even though the figural imagery of Garrus ware provides valuable insights into the cultural strata of western and northwestern Iran and the mechanisms underlying the continuity of visual traditions in this region. This study pursues three principal objectives: the systematic introduction and classification of the figural motifs of Garrus ware; a comparative analysis of these motifs with pre-Islamic and Islamic visual traditions in Iran and neighboring regions; and the interpretation of these motifs as evidence of the collective visual memory of western and northwestern Iran. The central research question examines how a regional ceramic tradition was able to preserve and reproduce cultural layers spanning several millennia. Accordingly, the present study adopts a descriptive-analytical methodology. The dataset is based on the examination of 85Garrus-style ceramic vessels bearing figural representations. The analysis of these motifs employs a combined theoretical approach integrating three distinct conceptual frameworks. The findings demonstrate that, from the perspective of cultural memory, the imagery of Garrus ware emerged through the interaction between active and accumulated memory, a process that explains both Shahnameh-related imagery, social scenes, and older motifs such as birth imagery. From the perspective of the afterlife of images, archaic visual forms retained their formal energy across semantic ruptures and re-emerged within the Islamic context. From the standpoint of the longue durée, the long-term geographical and cultural structures of the Zagros region provided the necessary foundation for this continuity. The combined application of these approaches reveals that visual continuity in Garrus ware was not entirely conscious, but rather operated through the deep layers of regional cultural memory.