Tag: Archaeology

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Books

Sasanian and Islamic Settlement and Ceramics in Southern Iran

Priestman, Seth M. N. & Derek Kennet. 2023. Sasanian and Islamic settlement and ceramics in Southern Iran (4th to 17th century AD): The Williamson Collection Project (British Institute of Persian Studies Archaeological Monograph Series 8). Oxford: Oxbow Books.

This monograph comprises the final publication of a study supported by the British Institute of Persian Studies and undertaken by Seth Priestman and Derek Kennet at the University of Durham. The work presents and analyses an assemblage of just under 17,000 sherds of pottery and associated paper archives resulting from one of the largest and most comprehensive surveys ever undertaken on the historic archaeology of southern Iran. The survey was undertaken by Andrew George Williamson (1945–1975), a doctoral student at Oxford University between 1968 and 1971, at a time of great progress and rapid advance in the archaeological exploration of Iran.

The monograph provides new archaeological evidence on the long-term development of settlement in Southern Iran, in particular the coastal region, from the Sasanian period to around the 17th century. The work provides new insights into regional settlement patterns and changing ceramic distribution, trade and use. A large amount of primary data is presented covering an extensive area from Minab to Bushehr along the coast and inland as far as Sirjan. This includes information on a number of previously undocumented archaeological sites, as well as a detailed description and analysis of the ceramic finds, which underpin the settlement evidence and provide a wider source of reference.

By collecting carefully controlled archaeological evidence related to the size, distribution and period of occupation of urban and rural settlements distributed across southern Iran, Williamson aimed to reconstruct the broader historical development of the region. Due to his early death the work was never completed. The key aims of the authors of this volume were to do justice to Williamson’s remarkable vision and efforts on the one hand, and at the same time to bring this important new evidence to ongoing discussions about the development of southern Iran through the Sasanian and Islamic periods.

From the Oxbow website
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Journal

NeHeT  7 

The issue 7 of the NeHeT journal is now available. The latest issue of this Egyptological journal is dedicated to reports of current research about Tell el-Herr and North Sinai under the direction of Catherine Defernz.

The following papers contribute to our understanding of the Achaemenid Egypt:

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Articles

Fulayj: A Sasanian to Early Islamic Fort in the Sohar Hinterland

Priestman, Seth, Nasser Al-Jahwari, Eve MacDonald, Derek Kennet, Kawther Alzeidi, Mark Andrews, Vladimir Dabrowski, Vladimer Kenkadze, Rosalind MacDonald, Tatia Mamalashvili, Ibrahim Al-Maqbali, Davit Naskidashvili & Domiziana Rossi. 2023. Fulayj: A Sasanian to Early Islamic Fort in the Sohar Hinterland. Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 52 (2023): 291–304.

Fulayj fort: an oblique aerial view looking across the structure to the north‑east (photograph by Davit Naskidashvili)

Fulayj fort is located on the fertile al-Bāṭinah plain of Oman, 12 km inland from Ṣaḥam and 32 km south-east of the key urban centre and major medieval port of Sohar (Ṣuḥār). The chance discovery of the site by Nasser Al-Jahwari in 2012 provided an important breakthrough in our potential understanding of the late pre-Islamic and initial Islamic period occupation in Oman. Finds collected during the first survey of the site were inspected by Derek Kennet and identified as likely to be of late Sasanian or very early Islamic date. Following further recording in 2014, a broad, multidisciplinary archaeological investigation was launched in 2015. Two seasons were completed by a joint British-Omani team in 2015 and 2016. Following a break in operations, a third season of fieldwork was completed in 2022.1 These investigations have confirmed the initial dating of the fort and substantially enhanced our understanding of all aspects of its planning, construction, history of occupation, internal organization, nature of use, etc. It is possible that Fulayj formed part of a wider defensive military cordon protecting the commercial and agricultural potential of the fertile coastal strip and urban centre of the Sohar hinterland. These wider aspects will be returned to again for further consideration below.

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Journal

Historia i Świat (12)

Issue twelve of Historia i Świat (2023) has been published. Contributions to this issue relate to Iranian archaeology.

  • Zohreh OVEISI-KEIKHA, Hosseinali KAVOSH: The Investigation of residential architecture in the Bronze Age. Tape Yal, Sistan and Baluchestan province, Iran
  • Sepideh JAMSHIDI YEGANEH: Cremation in Elamite period (Sukkalmah): Hirbodan site
  • Alireza ASKARI CHAVERDI: Achaemenid Settlement in Shiraz Plain: Tol-e Sefid Sadra
  • Morteza KHANIPOUR, Hamed MOLAEI KORDSHOULI: Cairn Burial of the historical period around Khansaar dam, Toujerdi district of Fars province, Iran
  • Ehsan KHONSARINEJAD, Reza RIAHIYAN GOHORTI, Sahar TAVAKOLI: Arrowheads in the cultural-historical property repository of the Administration of Cultural Heritage of Kerman. An Introduction
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Journal

Iran, Volume 61, Issue 1 (2023)

The table of contents of the latest issue (61/1) of the journal Iran:

  • Ali Khayani & Kamal Aldin Niknami: More Early Bronze Age Seal Impressions from Chogha Maran, Western Central Zagros
  • Yasmina Wicks: Probing the Margins in Search of Elamite Children
  • Davide Salaris: The Equestrian Relief of Hung-e Azhdar: A Historical Memory for the Dynastic Lineages of Elymais
  • Esmaeil Sharahi, Hossein Sedighian & Meisam Nikzad: Excavation at Tahyaq – A Subterranean Rock-Cut Architecture Complex in Khomein, Markazi Province, Iran
  • Saeed Amirhajloo & Hossein Sedighian: Recent Archaeological Research in South Iran: Excavation at the Old City of Sirjan (The Site of Qal’eh Sang)
  • Marc Czarnuszewicz: Challenging Narratives of “Missionary” Ismaʿilism in Buyid Iran: Reconsidering the Sira of al-Muʾayyad fī al-Din al-Shirazi through Socio-economic Contextualisation
  • Denis Hermann & Fabrizio Speziale: Scientific Knowledge and Religious Milieu in Qajar Iran: Negotiating Muslim and European Renaissance Medicine in the Subtleties of Healing
  • Kioumars Ghereghlou: A Forgotten Money Heist: The 1746 Mission of Nadir Shah’s Chief Merchant in Russia Revisited
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Journal

Iranica Antiqua, Volume 57

The table of contents of the latest issue (57) of the journal Iranica Antiqua:

  • Kathryn KELLEY, Logan BORN, M. Willis MONROE, Anoop SARKAR: On Newly Proposed Proto-Elamite Sign Values
  • Mohammad BAHRAMI: The Evidence of a Castle of the Ellipi Kingdom in Khorramabad, Western Iran
  • Esmail HEMATI AZANDARYANI, Hossein NASERI SOMEEH, Mehrdad MALEKZADEH, Hossein TORABZADEH, Michael ROAF: Haji Khan. A Median Temple in Hamadan Province, Iran
  • Anahit Yu. KHUDAVERDYAN, Seda H. DEVEJYAN, Ruben H. DAVTYAN, Azat A. YENGIBARYAN, Arshak A. HOVHANESYAN, Shota A. VARDANYAN: Disability and Murder. A Paleopathological Case of Ankylosing Spondylitis in a Woman from the 7th-6th Century BC Lori Berd Burial (Armenia) with Skeletal Evidence of Probable Fatal Blade Injuries
  • Amir SAED MUCHESHI, Mohammad E. ELIASVAND, Shoaib FAIZI, Amir ESNA-ASHARI, Shreya SARMAH, Mojgan SEIF PANAHI, Ali BEHNIA: Qaleh Qamchoqay. An Archaeological Investigation into a Defensive Castle in the Province of Kurdistan, Iran
  • Mahnaz SHARIFI: Second Season of Excavation at Cham Routeh in Seimare, Ilam Province, Iran
  • Mozhgan JAYEZ: What has been done and what has to be done? Statistical Assessment of Iranian Paleolithic Research 1906-2021
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Journal

Journal of Iran National Museum (2.2)

The second issue of vol. 2 (2021) of Journal of Iran National Museum is published. It contains 14 papers, exploring aspects of Iranian archaeology.

Table of contents:

  • Sirvan Mohammadi Ghasrian; Iraj Beheshti; Omoalbanin Ghafoori: The Petrographic Analysis of Early Chalcolithic Period J Ware of Mahidasht Stored at National Museum of Iran
  • Sepideh Maziar; Marjan Mashkour; Laura Manca; Homa Fathi; Jebrael Nokandeh; Roya Khazaeli: Study of Yanik Tepe’s Bone Object in the National Museum of Iran
  • Amir Saed Mucheshi; Ali Vahdati: The Bronze Stamp Seals of Marlik in the National Museum of Iran: Evidence of a Connection with the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex in the Bronze Age
  • Marya Tabrizpour; Mohammad Taghi Atayi: Plants of Qasrdasht: Evaluation of Charcoal Samples
  • Pegah Goodarzi; Arkadiusz Sołtysiak; Mostafa Dehpahlavan: Bioarchaeological Studies and Strontium Isotopes Analysis on Human Remains from Historical Period from the Site of Shahr-i Qumis, Semnan Province
  • Farhad Solat; Philip Forsythe; Afshang Parhizi Rad: Notes about a Greek Inscription on a Parthian Period Male Statue in the National Museum of Iran
  • Parsa Hossein Sabri; Gholamreza Avani: Iranian Tradition During 8th AD Century, Through the Dirham Coinage of Abbasid Caliphate: Study a collection of Sasanian clay bullae in the National Museum of Iran, returned from the United States of America
  • Afshin Khosrowsani: The Cultural Landscape of the North of Behbahan (Tashan) from the Sasanian Era to the Present
  • Hossein Sabri; Gholamreza Avani: Iranian Tradition During 8th AD Century, Through the Dirham Coinage of Abbasid Caliphate
  • Fereshteh Zokaei: Egyptian Mamluk Dinar Coins in the National Museum of Iran
  • Hassan Ali Borhani Rarani; Elaheh Noorian: The Influence of the Water Resources Management on Changing the Administrative Geography of Khorasgan of Isfahan from Safavid Epoch to the Present Time: Reconsideration of Tablets Texts‘s Sarcophagus of Shah Isma‘il I in Ardabil and Iran National and The Walters Art Museum
  • Ali Borhani Rarani; Elaheh Noorian: The Influence of the Water Resources Management on Changing the Administrative Geography of Khorasgan of Isfahan from Safavid Epoch to the Present Time
  • Homayoun Khosheghbal: Williamson Surveys in Southern Iran and his Collection
  • Liliy Niakan; Parvaneh Soltani: The National Museum of Iran’s Department of Conservation: The Pioneering Steps
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Online resources

Derbent: What Persia Left Behind

Derbent: What Persia Left Behind, is a documentary directed by Pejman Akbarzadeh. For more information, including a timeline and screening schedules, visit derbentonline.com.

Trailer

Registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the 6th-century Derbent (Darband) fortification complex is considered the largest defensive structure of Sasanian Persia (Iran) in the Caucasus.
“Derbent: What Persia Left Behind”, also explores the unique architecture of the massive fortress, and how it has been preserved for some fifteen centuries by Persian, Arab, Turkish and Russian rulers. Built strategically in the narrowest area between the Caucasus Mountains and the Caspian Sea, the fortification includes the northernmost Middle Persian (Pahlavi) inscriptions in the world, which are in danger of destruction. The 42-km defence wall of the complex that extended toward the Black Sea had already been destroyed in the Soviet era.

From the film’s website
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Books

Gandhāran Art in its Buddhist Context

Rienjang, Wannaporn & Peter Stewart (eds.). 2023. Gandhāran art in its Buddhist context. Oxford: Archaeopress Archaeology.

This book considers Gandhāran art in relation to its religious contexts and meanings within ancient Buddhism. Addressing the responses of patrons and worshippers at the monasteries and shrines of Gandhāra, papers seek to understand more about why Gandhāran art was made and what its iconographical repertoire meant to ancient viewers.

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Books

The Rediscovery and Reception of Gandhāran Art

Rienjang, Wannaporn & Peter Stewart (eds.). 2022. The rediscovery and reception of Gandhāran art. Oxford: Archaeopress Archaeology.

From the archaeologists and smugglers of the Raj to the museums of post-partition Pakistan and India, from coin-forgers and contraband to modern Buddhism and contemporary art, this fourth volume of the Gandhāra Connections project presents the most recent research on the factors that mediate our encounter with Gandhāran art.