Sassanid era

Kuh-e Khajeh in Sistan, a mesa 120m height in respect of Sistan plain flat, is located 20 Km south-west of Zabol. This is one of most important historical area in Sistan. In account of its religious and political importance, a series remarkable of structures were built on its flat surface and eastern slight slopes since very ancient times. Despite of the studies of archaeologists and scholars, there have been provided no certain chronology about it and a few studies which have been done are merely based on the architecture of this site. In this research, based on the pottery data it is tried to make a relative chronology on palace of Kuh-e Khajeh. In doing so, the required data was gathered under systematic survey method in the castle’s area. Considering that the recognizing the potteries’ specifications is an important task in the archaeological studies, therefore, the study of potteries’ specifications was given a specific priority. And in doing so, the collected remarkable potteries from the site were classified and typologically studied, accordingly. According to the results obtained from the typology of potteries, Kuh-e Khajeh palace has had three different settlement phases: the first was Parthians, the second was Sassanids and the third was known to be the Islamic phase (6-8 AH centuries), respectively.

In the east of Pahanvar Ray plain, we come to a fertile area (Pishwa/Varamin plain) which has provided suitable conditions for human habitation since the formation of human settlements until today. Due to the location of this plain in the north of the central desert and the border between the two cultural domains of the northeast and the center, the environmental condition and suitable altitude, which are the main factors for the formation of permanent settlements, and the possible existence of extra-regional connections of this area with the neighboring areas, a wide survey was conducted in this area of ​​the plain. It was concluded that during this archaeological investigation, 61 ancient sites from the Sassanid era were found in the east of Varamin and south of Peshwa. It is most likely that Varamin is considered a part of Ray State and based on the available evidence, it is possible that it is the main center of Ray State as well. According to historical texts and archeological data, the state of Ray was one of the important areas of human settlement during the Sassanid period in Iran. Historical texts mention Ray in the Sassanid period, and the number of sites attributed to the Sassanid period in the geographical area of ​​Varamin has not been found until today. Despite this, based on the prominent geographical location of the Varamin region and the references of the historical texts to the Ray state, this region was probably one of the important regions of the historical period in Iran. In the present article, an attempt has been made to describe the historical geography of Ray State in the Sassanid period, while using the archaeological data of the Sassanid period of Varamin, to draw a part of the archeology and historical geography of Varamin in the Sassanid period.