PAZHOHESH-HA-YE BASTANSHENASI IRAN
Year:2019 | Volume:8 | Issue:19 |Papers Count:12

In the Holocene, despite the increase in climate sustainability compared to the last glacial, Abrupt Climate Change (ACC) has occurred repeatedly and periodically on global and regional scales, which have affected the culture and lifestyle of human societies. Effective human responses to these climatic events have always been possible through adaptation or migration. The cooling/warming climatic periods that have come with natural consequences such as extreme weather events (severe droughts, dust storms, heat waves, cold spells, torrential rainfalls and floods), due to the destruction and reduction of crop production, famine, social conflicts, widespread migration, displacement, disease outbreaks and rising mortality rates have also had significant effects on the physical and mental health of humans. This research seeks to answer the main question of how Holocene Abrupt climate changes have led to the decline and collapse of prehistoric cultures in the cultural region of North Central Iran (NCI). Given that the set of consequences during the current global climate change (global warming) are taking place, and there is also evidence from a historical period in this regard, it is likely that prehistoric cultures, during climate change periods, have fallen for reasons mentioned. This research deals with the possible culture-climate association in NCI during the 7th to 5th millennia B. C. s. According to the paleoclimate research and the archaeological information, at least 4 effective climate change (Cooling/Warming-Drought) events are likely to be a challenge and disruption to the inhabitants of this region. Likely, most of the Sialk I period have been spent in a relatively unfavorable climate, but there was a mild and wet climate in the late period, as well as the early Cheshmeh Ali phase. It seems that the first cultural flourishing period in NCI has occurred between about 5300-5000 B. C., and the second progress period, related to the late Cheshmeh Ali period, between about 4700-4400 B. C. . By the late 5th millennium B. C., there has been a cultural decline and a decrease in the number of settlements in most areas of the region.

The periods from 6300 until 5600 B. C. E in Fars region are known as the Mushki and Jari periods. The architectural remains as well as geometric stone tools, wild animals’ bones, particularly horses, are all indicating the existence of a seasonal settlement based on hunting in Tol-e Mushki which is transformed into a sedentary settlement with a distinct type of architecture and a subsistence based on agriculture in Tol-e Jari B. The distinct cultural phenomenon probably linked to Mushki period could have been caused by a sudden climate change. It is suggested that the weather became cold and dry for centuries, until around 6200 B. C. E when the conditions again improved. Furthermore, these climate changes have had direct influences on socioeconomic strategies of Neolithic societies in the Fars. However, the relationship between culture and climate is only one of the possible explanations for the observed cultural changes; more studies are needed. The majority of archeologists believe that severe climate changes following the 8. 2 ka Event forced Neolithic societies to adapt to new conditions. It is possible that some of them migrated to regions with more tolerable conditions while others found alternative survival strategies such as hunting or food collecting instead of cultivating. Intermountain valleys in Fars region are required to be studied precisely and extensively in order to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of this period. During a survey by the authors in 2015 in the Bavanat River Basin in northeastern Fars, the most prominent Neolithic occupation of the region was identified in Hormangan, a site first excavated in 2016. The excavation sought to understand cultural characteristics, investigate subsistence strategy according to studies based on vegetal and bone finds and regional and intraregional interactions. There is an attempt in this paper to introduce the findings of the first excavation season, and then define chronological importance of the Neolithic site in the province. There were two recognized settlement phases revealed through the excavations which show migration from the other valleys to the Bavanat region during latter half of the 7th millennium, due to climatic changes.

The assemblages of archaeological sites is the matter of the greatest importance in the spatiotemporal divisions, so any error in identifying the internal patterns of those, will be a direct reflection on their comprehensive archaeological analysis. The prehistoric chronology and periodization of the Iranian Central Plateau generally have based on tepe Sialk’ s, more than eighty years chronology. According to it, the fourth millennium B. C. includes the sub-periods of Sialk III4-5, Sialk III6-7b, Sialk IV1, and parts of Sialk IV2. The way in which these sub-periods are distinguished and differentiated have always been unclear and very generalized. While the sialk periodizatiom was based on architectural strata, its comparative studies have all been based on ceramic styles led to many errors in the process of inter-regional transformations and their chronological recognition. Most of these problems seem to be caused by insufficient attention to evidence of short-term events in archaeological studies. The results of recent studies in Meymanatabad has indicated the inability of such a generalized division, due to the lack of attention to the short-term cultural events and the inflexible normative perception of the concept of culture. This, despite the fact that over the past century, due to the great changes in the definition of the concept of cultural change and its various stages chronology and periodization, archaeological studies in the interests of the inter-regional and site distinctions and short-term criteria endorsement, passed over the old rigid normative and generalized definitions of culture. Continued studies of excavations such as tepe Meymoon-abad in Robat-karim, presenting sufficient evidence of such that errors, which emphasize on the necessity of review the Iranian central plateau prehistoric periods old studies and their divisions. Therefore, this paper in addition to the fluidity of spatiotemporal dimensions of cultural boundaries emphasized to the recognition and differentiation of cultural processes in short-term divisions.

Achaemenid Period in Iran. Buildings with columned halls dated to Median Period were discovered in Nush-i Jan and Godin. Similar buildings were also present in Baba Jan, Ziwiye, Hasanlu, Kordlar and Bastam as well. Among these buildings, the oldest example of columned hall belongs to Hasanlu, where seven buildings including columned hall were constructed in three successive periods of Hasanlu V, IVc and IVb, dated to ca. 1250-800 B. C. The main common characteristic of these buildings is their central part, which was constructed in form of a columned hall, along with other common components and elements, such as: a portico and an anteroom in entrance, a stairway passed around a central column on a side of the anteroom, ancillary rooms situated along the sides of the hall, benches constructed on sides of the hall, columns added at the sides of the hall, raised hearth in the center of the hall, and a platform opposite the entrance of the hall. Use of these common characteristics in Hasanlu continued for about four centuries and led to formation of a particular architectural tradition. In regards to the origin and the prototype of this architectural style, as well as its continuity and subsequent changes until the Achaemenid Period, different notions were brought up. Some scholars have sought the origin of this style out of the Iranian plateau. Others have considered it as a linear or multilinear evolution. Most of these opinions are based on the basis of the theory of diffusion. The present essay brings up a different opinion about the formation of this architectural style in Hasanlu. On the basis of this view, the construction of columned halls can be taken as an internal innovation in indigenous architecture of Hasanlu, considering their common features with other contemporary buildings without a columned hall in Hasanlu

In the excavation of Al-Untash-Napirisha (The Site known as Chogha Zanbil), tubular glass rods were found. However, so far, no comprehensive research has been conducted about them in the form of an investigational article and only constituent elements of a few glass pieces which had been entered the Corning Museum of Glass in New York have been analyzed and determined. In the excavation done by Roland de Mecquenem and Michaleon in the years between 1935-1939 AD and 1946 AD in this site, many tubular glass rods, weighting almost 100 kg, had been discovered. In the description of these findings, it was assumed that they were long glass beads in dark blue and white or amber color with lengths of 20 to 28 cm. that in some of them bronze rods had remained. After World War II, between1951 to 1962 and during the excavations done by a French group in Ziggurat by Roman Ghirshman, pieces of wooden doors with bronze rods in them had been discovered. With the development of human knowledge today and the engineering science applied to archeology, a discipline referred to as archaeometry has been formed. The results of analyzing a single sample kept in storages of Susa Castle by conducting fluorescence x-ray method in laboratory of faculty of science in Tarbiat Modarres University, in comparison with the results of this same analysis on four samples done in Corning Museum of Glass shows that Elamite glassworkers produced these glass rods with a specific goal in their minds. The combination of various materials results in the production of blue and purple to black color glass. For instance, if copper oxide is mixed with potassium and sodium, a color spectrum of turquoise blue is created. The second and most important reason of creation of this blue color is the combination of Fe2O3 with the sulfur existing in the plant ash, creating a spectrum of blue color. Generally, the Elamite glassworkers were familiar with the features of the pigments and materials, also, they could be used to degree of amount of the raw materials in Choghazanbil glass rods to make them, so These glass tubes were more resistant because being used in the door of temples proves. The hypothesis that in the glass working sites of Choghazanbil, elites familiar with the knowledge of materials were employed for supervision and the same supervision systems were used.

In the first half of the 1st millennium B. C. and before the formation of the Median Kingdom, i. e. 10th-7th centuries B. C, many petty states were formed in the western parts of Iran which were considered as the eastern neighbors of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The campaigns of Assyrian armies into the Zagros Mountains have been reported in Cuneiform inscriptions with significant details which provide us with remarkable knowledge on the Zagros petty kingdoms. In fact, the Assyrian written documents are the most significant sources for localization of the Zagros toponyms. Despite passing of more than a century from the beginning of the studies relating to the historical geography of Neo-Assyrian Empire, however, localization of some Zagros petty states has been the subject of dissensions between scholars. The present study deals with the localization of the Zagros place-names and petty states such as Namri, Bit-Hamban, Karalla, Parsua and Allabria which are considered to be in modern provinces of Kermanshah and Kurdistan in western Iran. The main question is where these place-names are exactly located? In order to reach a valid answer, we have analyzed geographical data of the Neo-Assyrian inscriptions particularly those which reporting the Assyrian army campaigns into western Iran. We also try to identify the well-known late Iron Age sites of western Iran with the mentioned place-names. The result of the study indicates that Namri could be localized in western parts of modern Kermanshah while Hamban and Parsua are situated respectively in central and northern part of the province. Karalla is situated in Hawraman (Oraman) and Allabria can be localized north of it.

Investigating the first signs of political, economic, and cultural exchanges in the world should be explained. Iranian people played major role in communication routes, especially in the Iranian Plateau during emerging prehistoric periods, as link of Orient and Occident. Excavated sites in Iranian Plateau, Afghanistan, and central Asia lying at the border of the main modern routes and tracks, show that the earliest residents of these sites lived exactly along the tracks replaced nowadays by modern routes and used them to link different places (Majidzadeh, 1982: 59). One of the most important historic main routes was the so-called “ Great Khorasan Road” which played a major role linking together different cultures and civilizations. Pataq Defile is one of the key parts of the Great Khorasan Road linking Khorasan and Mesopotamia. In this present paper, the authors develop archaeological and historical studies about one of the most important sections of Great Khorasan Road known as Pataq defile, Median Gate, or Zagros Gate. Indeed, mentions of the Pataq defile in historic sources indicate firm correspondences with “ Median Gate” or “ Zagros Gate” geographical term. Studying the historic and archaeological sources, the authors identified the real significance of the defile. By several surveys and through investigation in historical sources including the travel logs, we were able to give more details on the defile, leading to a better understanding of historical changes through aerial photographs and GIS analysis.

After the falling of Parthian dynasty done by Ardeshir Babakan, in the first decades of Christian century, a new emperor named Sassanid originated. Historical sources show that the first Sassanid kings were the founders of the great cities. Ardeshir and Shapur I began to develop ancient cities and build new towns. At that time, the ancient cities of western Iran were centers for industrial production and trade, as well as for the establishment of security of Royal Routes. One of these cities called Shapur-khast was founded by Shapur I. The main monumental buildings remained of it are the Castle of Shapur-Khast and Shapuri bridge. Shapur-Khast castle was as the governing castle called as Falak al-Aflak castle. The location of this city is considered to be one of the most important cities in the west of the east (Kermanshah to Isfahan) and north-south (Shush in Hamadan), both in terms of military strategy and exploitation of natural and geographical complications and in terms of communication status. The question we will address in this article is how to select the Shapur-khast Template for Sassanian designers? The purpose of this study is to execute the location of the city and adapting the form of city with the Sassanid architects design patterns in Shapur I ancient era.

Many holy monuments & burials were built in various places of Iran. These structures which are known as Imamzad-e have special features. It also be mentioned that these Imamzad-e constructions, as a form of burial structures. In some of the cases, are the Sufi’ s or some great people’ s graves and burials which are respected by Muslims, as holy places and have the structure, architectural decoration. In the Fars province, there are a number of such these graves, that have the function of a monastic. However, due to lack of evidences about the date of the construction of some burials, the construction date of some places like Imamzad-e Shohada (Sultan-Ibrahim) Khorrami-DehBid is unclear. In the Fars, there are similar architectures and decorations similar to the Ilkanid era and the Timurid era. The purpose of this research, with the historical-comparative investigation, is answering some of the related questions: 1) based on the structure & decoration type of the Imamzad-e Shohada, which era does the building of Imamzad-e belong to? 2) what are the factors and features of Imamzad-e Shohada’ s formation, type, and function? At the first, a survey was carried out, then based on the gained written references and based on the evidences of other similar places, and decoration of Imamazad-e Shohada was compared with existed similar architecture in the regions of Fars province and its neighbour, such as Kerman, Yazd & Isfahan. then, the results of the investigation to a number of other holy buildings, constructions, monuments & monasteries dated to the Ilkanid-Timurid era. At the end, regarding the characteristics and evidences of this Islamic holy building & its structure, decoration, feature, and form there are evidences of a monastic function in the Imamzad-e Shohada. The final results of this study also show that the Imamzad-e Shohada is related to the time of the 8 to 9 A. H.

Sheikh Safi Al-Din Ardebili’ s collection is one of the most prominent masterpieces of Iranian-Islamic architecture. The foundation stone of this complex after the death of Sheikh Safi al-Din Ardebili in 735 AH / 1335 AD was placed by Sheikh Sadr al-Din Musa-his son and his successor in the Safavid leadership, and was completed in the following periods. This collection should be considered as a treasure trove of dozens of valuable Islamic inscriptions which have been presented in the form of various arts such as tiles, carvings, metal lattice, mosaic, lattice and fuel wood. The Islamic inscriptions can be classified into three groups of verses, hadiths, and allegations. The mention of “ Allah, Muhammad, Ali” is the most frequent one. But the question is, why is the reason for repeated use of this mention in the collection of Sheikh Safi Al-Din Ardebili? Due to the origin and application of the abovementioned collection, the words, including the decree of “ Allah, Muhammad, Ali” , can be based on Sufi traditions. Especially since these words were mentioned throughout the period of the Safavid sheikhs and sultans and later on in the language of the disciples mostly Qizilbash, and still in Jutem Alawi-Bektashi Anatolia, Roman Ilya and the Balkans as the heroes of the Safavid Sufism and the last survivors Tahrath Qizilbash is used. Also, the mention of “ Allah, Muhammad, Ali” is evident in the inscriptions existing in many buildings and Sufi objects from the Mongol era to the contemporary period. This research seeks to rely on historical sources and historiography, archival documents, field observations, and archaeological studies in a descriptive-analytical way, while studying the reflection of the mention of “ Allah, Muhammad, Ali” as a Sophia’ s notion in architecture Sheikh Safi Al-Din Ardebili’ s collection examines the use of it in the past and present with the disciples of the Safavid tradition.

In the early Islamic sources, Narmashir has introduced as one of the five main cities of Kerman and a part of the southeast economic exchange network. But it is unknown because archaeologists have often focused on the Bam and Jiroft. The questions are: what are the types of Islamic ceramics in the Narmashir, and what periods are they related to? How does the ups and downs of life in the Narmashir and its transnational cultural relations? What are the features of local ceramic production in the Narmashir plain? The purposes of the research are: “ the study of Islamic ceramic and production evidence in the Narmashir” , “ typology and relative chronology of ceramics” , and “ explaining the periods of the prosperity of Narmashir” . The data have collected via “ documentary and field” method, and the research method is “ descriptive-analytical” . Based on the results, the ceramic types in Narmashir include the unglazed simple wares, wares with carving or added motifs, molded wares, pseudo-prehistoric ceramics, monochrome glaze, underglaze carving or added motifs, slip-painted wares, Sgraffiato, underglaze or overglaze painting, lusterware, and blue and white wares. These types of ceramics show the cultural relations with Jiroft, Gobayra, Sirjan, Soghan, Minab, Kish, Siraf, Nishapur, Esfahan, Rayy, Qasr-e Abu-Nasr, Marvdasht, Pasargadae, Sisakht, Boyer Ahmad, Susa, Ras al-Khaimah, Musandam, Hadramaut, Bahrain, Basra, Samarra, Raqqa, and Lashkari Bazar. Some samples of ceramics are imported in Narmashir. Some others are local, but they are imitated from foreign samples. The unglazed molded wares are locally produced and they have localized motifs. Also, the life of the old city of Narmashir has started from the Sassanid era, it peaked during the Saljuq and Qara Khitai period, and continued until the Timurid. But, its population declined during the Safavid period, and it has abandoned after the Safavids. So, only a few villages remained in the plain.

The awning is one of the architectural elements of the urban spaces of Iran, which is still found in many historical cities such as Nain. Based on the studies carried out up to now, there are not research which done to examine the historical texture awning in Nain and especially the typological analysis of these valuable elements. Therefore, the present study first examines the typology of the Nain awnings. For this purpose, firstly, theories existing in the typology discourse were investigated and architectural theory that is a multi-dimensional schema composed of physical organs and combined schema of organs were appropriately recognized. Accordingly, the present study has studied 15 awnings of Nain historical texture and will try to provide a proper type-classification based on this theory. The data collection method is library-field method with deep interviews and research method is qualitative with an analytical-descriptive approach. Establishing the awning on passage leads to the creation of space and the high-level application of passage, and this space created at the high surface of passage by the awning is limited to the owner of the two bodies of passage, and therefore belongs to two owners located on both sides of the passage. The typological findings show two types of awnings. The first type is with the highest percentage of frequency, without architectural spaces, and only covering the passage. The second type of awning, although all have room spatial organs or porch on the passage as a common schema but according to how these elements are combined, the orientation of the awning, as well as the different life which was in each case, is divided into three awnings including awning having room with openings in two facades, awning with a combination of a room and a porch in a one facade, and awning having porch in two faç ade. Based on the results of oral studies in relation to the kinship relationship or lack of kinship relationship scheme of awnings owners, in the first type, the kinship owners of the two sides of the passage belong to a family, and with the establishment of the awning, the entrance of the houses is also installed below awning. In the second type, awning ownership belongs to one of the parties with the consent and agreement of the owners of the two sides of the passage that have not kinship relationship to each other.