Archaeological Survey

The little Zab River in northwestern Iran rises from the mountains Piranshehr and flows from the northwest to the southeast direction to join Iraq from Alan passage. The River basin contains a large number of ancient settlements, and its lower area that is close to the Zab River has been the most interesting place for people in the Neolithic Age. An increasing population during Chalcolithic Age led to the dispersion of settlements. These sites are located in the north of this basin, in a valley and a little plain.

Archaeologically, the Roudbar plain is one of the richest and most outstanding regions in the south east of Iran. Tomb-e Kharg, is the largest site in this region. The site is a multi-period one, but based on the surface material, the main settlement belongs to the historical period. Some things remain unknown about these periods in south-eastern Iran and lack of any reference to them in the authentic authorities, makes this region necessary to be aimed of a particularly urgent archeological research as an underlying and reliable reference. To do this, a topographic map of the mound, as well as the grid map was laid out, in which the region was divided into 10×10m 2 regions. By means of simple random sampling method, 10% of the squares were then sampled. In the light of the study on the collected cultural material, the main settlement dates back to periods ranging from the first millennium BC up to the 8 th or 9 th AD centuries. Moreover, there are some items of painted grey ware, suggesting that this mound leads back to 3 th millennium BC.

In the early 21 st century, during an excavating of a village on Farahan plain, some remains of an important monument including part of a large brick column and several walls were discovered. For a decade, despite national registration, no scientific and comprehensive study was performed on these remains until the time when the remains captured the attention of the authors of this paper during their archaeological study of the Farahan plain. Therefore, considering two main objectives, the chronology of the discovered pieces and determining their real identity, initially, a comprehensive archaeological survey was carried out on the Fardaghan region and samples were collected from different areas of this plain; afterwards, the cultural data were typologically compared. At the next stage, historical evidence was sought in written sources using a historical approach in order to determine the identity of the site. The results indicate that the current building belonged to the Sassanid period that has been also used during the Islamic era after a functional change. It is highly probable that this building is the one mentioned in some written sources such as Ibn Yaghoubi’s Mokhtaser Alboldan . In early Islamic centuries, this fire temple was changed into a fortified castle.

The Qazvin Plain and northern Alborz heights overlooking it are one of the important centers for the development and evolution of cultures in the central Iranian plateau. As we witness the continuous growth and flourishing of civilizations in different periods of time, from prehistoric to the present era in this geographical domain, this could have resulted in favorable environmental conditions such as climate, soil, vegetation and animal husbandry, as well as a suitable geopolitical condition (trade and communications) with far and adjacent cultures. Considering the desirable archeological background of the aforementioned area as well as its complexity, the expansion and evolutionary process of settlements, the paper, through the existing archeological framework intends to take into account cultural activities of communities from the formation of the Safavid rule to the end of the Qajar era in southern foothills of central Alborz, north of Qazvin Plain. In other words, the main purpose of this study is to determine the effect of the transit location and native culture of the proposed area on the formation and development of places, sites and production of cultural materials of late Islamic centuries as well as awareness of closeness and possible cultural relations with each of its adjacent geographical and cultural areas. The research method includes a methodological study of archeology with the application of a historical approach where the most important and documented data is to identify sites, documentary and pottery collection and their study is in a specific and common framework of this science.