Djamali, Morteza and Rashidian, Elnaz and Askari‐Chaverdi, Alireza and Aubert, Cyril and Brisset, Elodie and Demory, François and Faucherre, Nicolas and Gandouin, Emmanuel and Lahijani, Hamid and Marriner, Nick and Naderi‐Beni, Abdolmajid and Parnell, Andrew (2021) Early Sasanian landscape modification: New geoarchaeological evidence from the Ardashir Pond in southwest Iran (Palace of Ardashir, third century CE). Geoarchaeology, 36 (6). pp. 925-942. ISSN 0883-6353

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Abstract

The Sasanian period (224–651 CE) marked an era of large‐scale urban projects insouthwest Asia, including Iran's semi‐arid highlands, with particular efforts to ma-nipulate water bodies. This study presents a recent interdisciplinary investigation ofa spring‐fed pond at the entrance of the Palace of Ardashir (Firuzabad plain,southwest Iran), part of a recently registered World Heritage site. Historical ac-counts suggest that the entire water system of the plain, including the pond, un-derwent a hydraulic re‐organization at the beginning of the Sasanian period, a factthat has never been investigated geoarchaeologically. A series of sediment coreswere retrieved from the pond to probe its evolution and examine the extent of itslandscape modification. The cores were sedimentologically described andradiocarbon‐dated with age–depth models established based on 57 AMS (accel-erator mass spectrometry)14C dates to understand the basin's depositional history.The results indicate that (i) Ardashir Pond has existed as part of a larger wetlandcomplex since at least 4500 years ago, (ii) it was substantially enlarged at the be-ginning of the Sasanian era, and (iii) it was abandoned at the end of the Sasanianperiod. The Ardashir Pond is one of the first geoarchaeologically investigated casestudies to demonstrate the Sasanian landscape in the framework of the“Iranshahr”sociopolitical concept.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	Archaeology; human intervention; landscape; Late Antiquity; Sasanian architecture; waterresource;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Science and Engineering > Mathematics and Statistics Faculty of Science and Engineering > Research Institutes > Hamilton Institute
Item ID:	15499
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1002/gea.21880
Depositing User:	Andrew Parnell
Date Deposited:	15 Feb 2022 12:32
Journal or Publication Title:	Geoarchaeology
Publisher:	Wiley
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	Publisher
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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