[Verginius Rufus]

According to Herodotus, the Persians did not have statues of their gods (1.131).

Whether he was accurate on that point, and whether the Persian practice was as old as the Hebrew practice, I don't know.

[SunkenCiv]

The Zoroastrians used a fire; one Zoroastrian community in India claims to have never let theirs go out, even when they were on the move, for over 2000 years.