فصلنامه اثر
پیاپی 79 (زمستان 1396)

Abstract Mausoleums have always had a prominent status in human being’s culture and civilization and constitute a large part of development of architecture through the course of history. Formation and identity of most of these buildings depend on religious figures and or local and regional high-ranking persons. Through the Middle Ages, a majority of society tended to Sufism and governments supported Sufis. This brought them a very prominent social and political status. This process needed places for growth of their social identity and social convergence. It seems that architecture of Khergheh Building which is the research subject of this paper is among a series of mausoleums including Shah Nematollah Vali, Sheikh Abdol-Samad Natanz and Sheikh Ahmad Jam Bastam and all of these monuments are related to Sufism which were widely accepted by the society of the then time. Actually, this mausoleum belongs to Seyyed Dāvūd Fahlavi, one of the Sufis of 8th century Hegira in a village named “Khergheh” at the vicinity of Firouzabad Road to Farāshband. It neighbours the cemetery of that area. As the locals highly respect this mausoleum, it has kept its social and cultural identity alive. This complex enjoys a central domed building along with several chambers attached to it. The plan of the building is criss-crossed and the dome chamber makes it available to reach other spaces in all four directions. One of the prominent features of this monument is Kārbandā decorations on the ceiling of the dome. This paper tries to answer two questions: 1) what are the nature and function of this mausoleum with regard to the regional history and culture? 2) Regarding to its architecture specifications, when was it constructed? This research attempts to find logical and methodological answers and tries to clarify the architectural structure and explains how the tetragonal spaces in the first floor have been transformed into hexagonal spaces in the second floor. In addition, this article aims at understanding its cultural and social identity in respect to its function in different Islamic period. The paper enjoys research historicalanalytical method. The required historical data was gathered through library studies. Then the data was documented and the plan of the building was prepared through field surveys and studies. As there exists no comprehensive study on the relation between the architectonic structure of this building and its function through different Islamic period, this paper is of paramount importance. Based on the findings and with respect to its structural characteristics and comparative studies, this structure dates back to the 8th century Hegira. In addition, this building has been originally constructed based on the Sasanian Chārtāghī’s and local architectonic specifications. Then later in parallel with ritualistic and social identity of the region, it has been transformed into a ribat (Khanqah) and mausoleum.

Considering the fact that there exist numerous metal mines in Iran, many ancient sites of Iran have been established due to their connection to metal mines and mining. In the same relation, Karkas Mountains have always played an important role in the field of metal works through the history of Iran. Although this region of paramount importance in this regard, no specific research has been carried out on its metal works of the Islamic period. This research tries to identify and introduce sites that have had metal work evidences and have been situated at the region of historical Meymeh, the westernmost part of Karkas. Accordingly, petrographic tests have been carried out on slags which were abundantly found on the surface of the sites. This paper firstly attempts to introduce the sites in Meymeh where metal works have been done in. in the next phase, type of metals that have been melted within the Islamic period were identified. At the same time, it had to be known whether petrographic studies can determine the functional index of metal meltage in the said area? How does identification of these functional indices, along with archaeological evidences, impact the upswing of settlements of the Islamic period based the expertise of metal meltage in the region of Meymeh in Isfahan province? In May 2016 five site of metal melting were explored through the abundance of slags on their surface. Five slags were randomly selected for petrographic tests. The results proved that they were all made of iron. The sites where metals have been melted in date back to the Islamic period as the ceramics found on the surface of the sites belong to the said period. The petrographic tests reveal that slags of Rāvanj Site which belong to the Arsacid-Sasanian period are very similar to the ones found in Gazratū Site which date back to the Sasanian-early Islamic period in terms of appearance and texture. This fact proves the continuation of a metal melting technique in a period from the ArsacidSasanian to the early Islamic one. In addition, it seems that metal melting technique and extraction of iron from its ore in Azrān Site were weaker than the one employed in Gazratū Site while these two sites are contemporaneous. This fact can also be analysed through other archaeological finding in a way that the extent of Azrān was large enough to be regarded as a Sasanian-early Islamic city which was situated at an ancient road. It seems that this Sasanian-early Islamic city which was across an ancient road and the quality of its slags was poorer than other older and contemporaneous sites, metal melting was not the main profession of its inhabitants. Regarding the extent of the city and being across an ancient road, the inhabitants’ living was dependant on other things and melting was used very limitedly and its expertise was not so sophisticated in comparison with Gazratū and Rāvanj.

The 700- year old Vaqfabad qanat supplied a part of the drinking water and irrigation of greenery of Yazd through its traditional mechanism till the early years of the recent century. Changes in climate, urban infrastructure including urban water supply system as well as other changes reduced the role of this qanat in the people’s life and urban space. Lack of sufficient documents about the precise direction of this qanat and its related hydraulic structures and the urgent need for documentation of its tangible and intangible aspects as well as documentation of this oral knowledge especially when this qanat is at its ending years ended in carrying out the present research. This paper tries to provide a brief history of Vaqfabad qanat and the direction which passed through the city of Yazd in two historical periods, i.e., 8th and 14th centuries Hegira. In doing so, first of all, historical books and texts about Vaqfabad qanat and other related structures in Yazd were investigated. Later, to have a better understanding of the spatial structure of city of Yazd in the 8th century, researches on city wall and its neighbourhoods in the said century were examined. With regard to the generated data, a two-dimensional image and then a three-dimensional one of the city in the 8th century H. were produced through which the direction of the qanat re-identified. In the second part, texts and documents related to the same qanat in the present century Hegira were also studied. Later, deeds of endowment (VAQF), documents and writings about the direction of qanat and its hydraulic structures within the recent century as well as field investigations for finding the precise direction of the qanat led in positioning the direction and situation of other relevant structures. During the field investigations, number of interviews have been done with knowledgeable persons and elders of different neighbourhoods of Yazd. Next, these interviews were compared with the existing documents and reports. We tried to identify the main direction of the qanat and overlap it on the two-dimensional map of the city. This article provides not only the most precise direction of Vaqfabad qanat in city of Yazd and its related hydraulic structures and overlapping it on the present map of the city, but also a hypothetical image of Yazd in the 8th century H. was generated based on situation of its historical structures including fortification and other places. Afterwards, the direction of qanat in the said century was overlapped on the hypothetical map the city of the same time. Considering the fact that no documented research about the simulation modelling of Yazd in the 8th century has been done, this research has been carried out through similar researches for other cities of Iran and/or abroad as well as documents concerning the spatial structure of Yazd.

The ancient Jey, in Isfahan, enjoys lots of things left from the pre-Islamic period. After dislocation of the city centre from to Yahādāyeh Neighbourhood, this town gradually lost its development and remained as a village at the eastern margin of the city and away from the historical growth. Anonymity and negligence in the cultural heritage of Jey, through centuries, led in the urban management’s inattention to the importance of this historical-natural site. In the second half of the 1990’s, due to the growth of overhead costs of the projects as well as about rise of high-rise building construction, a large part of the agricultural fields of the region has been destroyed and irreversible damages incurred into the historical centre of the Ancient Jey. At the same time, the Comprehensive Planning project of the region neglected the historical-natural aspect of the area and prominent historical properties, as cultural heritage, of the region, were limited and abandoned as forgotten islands. As a consequence, in winter 2003, ICHHTO provincial office in Isfahan prepared a very urgent project to determine the buffer zone of Jey. The project tried to follow two main objectives 1. scientific reconnaissance and clarification of the significance of this historical-natural landscape in development and transition of Isfahan for the city managers. 2. Safeguarding of agricultural heritage, historical properties, natural resources and the urban structure of the town against insecure development under a series of safety recommendations and laws. Determination of the buffer zone of the historical-natural landscape of the ancient Jey engages with numerous conservation and heritage concepts: on-ground and underground architectural and urban properties, water irrigation system and traditional agriculture, and specific topography of the land along with the river. Due to lack of archaeological excavation as for massive expenditure and time, first of all, careful fieldwork was carried out. Then, the updated and old maps have been compared with existing conditions. They have also been juxtaposed with historical documents and texts. In this way, the general structural basics of the ancient Jey especially the town and its suburbs have been identified. In the second phase, for providing a precise limit of the buffer zone, the following points have been taken into consideration: the traditional system of the Iranian urban planning, historians’ descriptions, examination of passageways, a method of land plotting, singling out  residential places from the urban agricultural areas. At the final stage, a series of field investigations and interviews have been carried out carried out. The agricultural systems and the range of cultural impact of the town have been studied. Determination of the buffer zone aims in identifying the cultural assets and providing a document which may extend the lifespan of the properties. The first phase is precise reconnaissance, examination and documentation of the site. In this way, one can foresee future safeguarding circumstances. In the same phase, values and factors that are instrumental in forming identity are defined. The second phase engages with management, planning and setting limits for the regulations. It should be kept in mind that the limits which are based on natural and historical specifications are more stable. The buffer zone and its deferent layers are determined based on the very primary reconnaissance and discernment of range of impact of the property. The third phase is to determine the regulations within the defined limits. The regulations for Jey’s buffer zone are divided into two groups of regulations: prohibitive and didactic. The best time to determine a buffer zone of a historical property is before conducting an urban comprehensive planning project as there exists enough time for carrying out archaeological sounding, documentation and providing an estimation of threads and opportunities.

Geographical and natural factors especially rivers and mountains have always played crucial roles in settlement patterns, regional and transregional relations since prehistory to the historical period and contemporary time. In a period of time these factors facilitated the connections and once were barred the societies from communicating. Araxes River in the northwest of Iran is one of the geographical factors that we know very little about its role in the formation of settlements and regional and transregional transactions through the course time, and its riversides have never been methodologically studied regarding the archaeological point of view. In this relation, in Spring 2003 a methodological survey has been carried out in the southern region of this river for two months to provide a better understanding of its geographical and cultural landscape. This paper tries to explain the project and its preliminary achievements. It also attempts to reconstruct the cultural landscape and settlement pattern of this region through time. In the first phase, a region of 110 Km in the area was surveyed. This area encompasses eastwardly Jānānlū Town, westerly Jolfa Town, northwardly Araxes River and southwardly Kīyāmakī Mountains and Qara Dagh. Besides, some areas in the eastern part were randomly investigated. Among the goals, the following points can be mentioned: reconnaissance the settlement landscape of this region in the period from the 5th to 3rd millennium BC, identification of north-south passages on Araxes River as well as the interrelationship among settlements scattered on the southern Araxes riverside. The survey identified fifty archaeological settlements from the Neolithic to Qajar periods which were documented. The settlements enjoy hills (tepes), outdoor areas, cemeteries, kurgans, several canals and Qanats. Among the identified and registered sites, ten sites belong to the Neolithic/ copper lithic period. Seven sites belong to Bronze Age, and thirty-six ones belong to Iron Age, thirty-seven sites to the historical period and thirty-three sites date back to the Islamic period. The findings reveal although Araxes River has functioned as a natural political borderline in some historical periods it acted as a facilitator of population movements and intraregional cultural relations than acting as a barrier against cultural, economic and political transactions. For example, in the early 3rd Millennium BC (Kura-Araxes Period), Araxes River and its sub-branches functioned as passage wats and directed the Kura-Araxes immigrants. At the time of Urartian kings and much later in the Qajar period, the same river played a vital role in the geopolitics of the region and was regarded as a very strategic communicating point as well as a border between the powers of the then time.

Mausoleum towers are of monuments that their exterior façade is of paramount importance. A type of them enjoys triangular fluted projections in its exterior body and Gonbad-e Qabus is the earliest known tower of this kind. These projections have distance. There is also another tower that resembles Gonbad-e Qabus in this regard. The latter is Mehmāndūst Tower in Damqan that dates back to the Seljuq period in which there existed many architectural innovations. Although there are a number of investigations on this tower, but the author’s research proved that more investigations can be done on its innovations and other points that have not been investigated in this building. It can also be compared with other similar towers that enjoy fluted projections. Consequently, the aim of this research is to study Mehmāndūst Tower in terms of architecture, decorative elements, innovations as well as being as a fluted mausoleum tower. It is worthy of mentioning that the interior of this building is completely simple and lacks a dome at the moment. There is no specific description or image of the dome in any available historical document. For the same reason, the present research is more focused on the exterior part of the tower that constitutes the important part of the mausoleum towers. This investigation uses descriptiveanalytical method and library and field studies have been also used. This research firstly examines previous investigations of Mehmāndūst Tower and then introduces the tower. Later, the exterior part of the monument has been investigated in three parts: the base, middle part and the upper section. Afterwards, the entrance of the tower has been looked into. Thereafter, some facts about the dome have been presented and finally the conclusion has been offered. The findings are divided into three categories: 1) The exterior façade of the tower, 2) Innovations used in comparison with earlier towers, and 3) The exterior façade as one of the fluted mausoleum towers. The most important findings are as follows: based on the old images in brick bond of the exterior façade the horizontal and vertical strips were not as they seem today in a way that the horizontal ones were not empty and it is also probable that the vertical brick bond of the façade would enjoy Angoshfeshārā strips. In addition, the body of the tower had been directly connected to the base and there was no staircase-like point at their place of joint as it looks like today. Contrary to its present situation, it seems that brick bond of the base lacked any decoration. Among the innovations employed in this monument, one can mention its moqarnas that its place and design are quite different from the earlier known towers. This moqarnas stands at the lowest part of the upper section of the tower where it transforms a dodecagonal fluted circumference into a circular form. Moreover, this tower has prominent dissimilarities with other towers with projections: the main part of the exterior body is dodecagonal and its projections function as decorative elements. The upper part of its body is also extraordinary among its similar instances for a number of reasons: appearance of moqarnas at the point of transformation, emergence of a circular part at the top of the fluted section and beneath the dome, complicated decorations, complete separation of decorations from the projected part and their position where the transformation into the upper circular part occurs and finally the proportion of big width of the decorated section to the entire body of the monument. Among all similar buildings, the upper part of Tughrul Tower (belonging to the Seljuq period) resembles Mehmāndūst Tower the most.

Chāh-e Khodādād is one of two districts of the present town of Qal’eh Ganj in the most southern place of Kerman province. It is the trijunction of three provinces of Kerman, Hormozgan and Sistan & Baluchistan. The first season of archaeological survey and reconnaissance of town of Qal’eh Ganj has been carried out as a part of the Iranian National Archaeological Map Project in which the authors tried to clarify the cultural status of the region in different periods in Chāh-e Khodādād District. In addition to the purposes as mentioned above, the present research attempts to analyse and compound the results of this research and to discern regional and trans-regional connections and interactions with the neighbouring areas. This region has a strategic situation because it lies at the trijunction of three significant culturalgeographical zones in the southeast of Iran (Mokrān shores, the Persian Gulf shores and Halīlrūd Rūd (Halīl River). Based on the survey, 66 sites and properties have been identified and registered which belong to the Paleolithic (3 cases), 5th millennium BC (2 cases), 4th millennium BC (10 cases), 3rd millennium BC (27 cases), historical period (29 cases), the Islamic period (3 cases) and the recent century (2 cases). This survey which begins with an investigation on some cases dating back to the middle of the Paleolithic is in line with other similar researches, but it is the starting point of a series of studies in the area in question as well as in the southeast of Iran. The preliminary findings prove, at least, the noticeable potentials of the area under study for further Paleolithic researches. Considering the morphology and forms of the settlements, all of the recollected sites have been divided into eight types of sites including large compound sites, historical cemeteries, ancient tepes (mounds), archaeometallurgical sites, religious buildings, fortresses, petroglyphs and ancient sites with a few numbers of cultural materials. The sites as mentioned earlier which are morphologically
Stone Tools unearthed in the Paleolithic Sites in Town of Qal’eh Ganj
influenced by the geographical factors of their places can be categorised into two different types: plain areas and foothill and mountainous areas. The analysis of the preliminary findings as well as other few investigations in the neighbouring regions in the northern heights of the Persian Gulf including the vast sites of the Bronze Age in the seasonal riversides of the sites under study, these findings can function as a bridge between basin of Jazmurian and the northern shores of the Persian Gulf.