درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

Climatic events, especially severe droughts, have played a key role in cultural evolution and the challenge of civilizations. Climate change, which affects the natural resources and, consequently, the health and subsistence system of human societies, can lead to increased violence, migration, war, and the spread of epidemics. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the possible effects of climate on important events of the Sassanid era. Extensive regions of the Near East and Central Asia have been more vulnerable to droughts, which often recurred during cooling periods, due to semi-arid to hyper-arid environmental conditions. From the second half of the fifth century AD with the beginning of the cold event of the early Middle Ages, the occurrence of droughts and cold waves caused famines and epidemics. These tensions seem to have triggered many social and political events in the Sassanid realm and neighboring regions. These conditions in the sixth and seventh centuries AD caused the gradual decline and eventual fall of the Sassanid government due to Arab invasions. Historical and paleoclimate studies show that successive wars with Central Asian invaders in dry periods, and the frequent outbreak of plague associated with falling temperatures, especially following the floods of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in AD 628, were affecting factors in the dynasty’s weakness and collapse. Besides, some civil wars and revolts, such as the Mazdaki movement, can be considered as indirect effects of climate tensions that contributed to the gradual decline of the Sassanid Empire. 

“Evil animals” (MP. xrafstar, Av. xrafstra-) are harmful animals created by Ahriman to assist in destroying the world. Pahlavi scriptures present fragments of knowledge on various types of xrafstarân, some regulations and recommendations on how to crush them, and examples of divine reward for those believers who eradicate these evil animals. However, Pahlavi scriptures put urging stress on eliminating xrafstarân, sigillographic evidence from the Sassanid era points to the other direction, showing that in many cases, the Zoroastrian principle of destroying evil animals is ignored, to the extent that images of venomous animals could be seen on seals and sigils belonging to Zoroastrian priests and other elites of the Sassanid era. While in some cases, themes depicted on seals are by the religious recommendations of scriptures, owners’ personal preferences seem to remain the main factor in displaying images on seals. This question remains that depicting an evil animal on a personal seal contradicts religious regulations in Zoroastrianism. This opposition could be caused by diversity in interpretations of scriptures or by the co-existence of various factions of Zoroastrianism. The presence of other religions all over the Sassanid Empire could be one more cause of this discord. Through a comparison between depictions on seals and Pahlavi scriptures, the current study concludes that several images of xrafstarân depicted on seals are related to religions other than Zoroastrian Mithraism, Judaism, Christianism, and even Gnosticism. Moreover, most Zoroastrian scriptures mentioning xrafstarân are written only after the Sassanid era. It seems likely that after the collapse of Sassanid dynastys, some Zoroastrian priests rearranged the classification of beneficent animals created by Ahura and evil animals created by Ahriman. Nonetheless, the vital role of geography and cultural diversity of each region of the vast Sassanid Empire could not be overlooked while studying the presence or absence of animal themes in depictions.

The Qara Zia-eddin plain is considered a prime example of land use in Southeastern Urartu in the Khoy region of West Azerbaijan. Since 2016, archaeological investigations have been carried out in the Bastam hinterland through the Iranian-Austrian cooperation with the aim of investigating the interaction of settlements with local hilltop fortresses and the use of landscape use in the time of the Urartian Kingdom. The starting point of the project work was in the south of the Qara Zia-eddin plain, with the special focus on the range of hills near the village of Chors. The Urartian fortified settlement of Anaqizly Tappeh was explored using both geomagnetic and archaeological surveys.

The rock paintings of Iran are extremely significant and after five decades of research on them, nearly twenty different regions have been identified in different parts of the Iranian plateau. Each of these regions has its own unique local style. One of the most important areas is the “Eshkaft-e-Ahou” site, which has been identified for nearly two decades, but unfortunately, no research has been conducted on it. This research, using field and library methods, describes and compares the motifs of this site, and at the end, after investigating the climatic texture of the region, the authors have tried to reconstruct the life style of the creators of the paintings. This area is located in a very impassable region and in the highest area of the Gav-Bast Mountains. In order to reach the site, one must ascent a long distance with a steep slope of the mountain. Due to the characteristics of the motifs of this place and the potential for shelter, it is possible to determine that a small population of hunters have used this place. This rocky shelter is considered a very inappropriate place in contrast to today’s concepts of settlement definitions.