Caspian

Philippe Gignoux was born in Solaize (Isère) on 1 March 1931. He completed his secondary education at Dominican College of Oullins (Rhône) near Lyon. He graduated in Persian Language from École nationale des langues orientales vivantes, and studied at Ecole pratique des hautes études (EPHE) (IVth and Vth sections) and at the Catholic Institute of Paris. 

Bandian Dargaz site in Khorasan, is one of the fire temples dating back to the Sasanian period. In this fire temple, carved miniature motifs including animals such as goat, deer, ram, cow, horse, snake, scorpion, wolf, fox, turkey, swallow and dove have been found. In this article, carved miniature motifs are examined and analyzed. 

Amlash is one of the most important parts of Guilan Province in northern Iran. It has endured unending political and military turmoil due to its special geopolitical and geostrategic position, during the early and middle Islamic eras. The establishment of numerous castles in the area is one of the manifestations of this state of affairs during that period. This study, based on library and field study, is aimed at analyzing the factors that might have led to the formation of the castles. The library studies included a review of literature on military castles and fortresses for an analysis of the factors that might have contributed to the castles in the Amlash region. The field studies included direct observation of the locating, photographic imaging, and numerical measurement and topographical features of those castles.

Archeological survey of all counties in Mazandaran Province was carried out under the master plan of drawing an archeological map of this province. In this setting, coastal areas of the city of Nowshahr were reviewed for the first time, with a focus on the mountainous area of Kojur district which was studied in order to complete the previous research conducted there. A book entitled Archaeology and History of Nowshahr jointly authored by Seyed Mehdi Mousavi Kouhpar and Shahin Aryamanesh was published in 2021. In this book, the authors have investigated all aspects of the Parthian kingdom and goes beyond the political history of the Parthians to familiarize the readers with the archaeology, history, culture, religion, art, and society of the Parthians.

Historically, the Caucasus region during the Sasanian period was among the important parts of Iran. Many studies have been conducted by archeologists, historians, and linguists on this region. The book entitled Middle Persian Inscriptions of the Era of Khosrow Anushirvan in Darband, Caucasus (Dagestan) by Cyrus Nasrollahzadeh is one of the attempts to investigate this region through available inscriptions.