Report of the Findings of the First Season of Archeological Excavations in Ghal’ah Ghalandaran Hill in Shazand County

The hill of Ghal’ah Ghalandaran is located in Shazand County in Markazi Province midway between Arak and Borujerd. The area of this hill is about 10,000 m2; its height is about 8 m from its surrounding land, and it has a relatively circular shape. The results of the first season of archeological excavations on the hill, which were finished in 2016, demonstrate that Ghal’ah Ghalandaran Hill is mostly a huge adobe platform which was erected with the purpose of building a palace or perhaps a state building. Based the reports of stratigraphy workshops, the constructors initially erected an earthy hill with alternative layers of clay, sand, and gravel with a height of four meters, on which they built an adobe platform with a 250 cm diameter. Available proofs also indicate that there was once a 40×50 m building in the northwest-southeast longitudinal direction on the adobe platform. The chronological study of this platform and the related structure shows that the discovered pottery artefacts between the adobe layers and the other findings belong to the Achaemenid period or before that (Median Period). Nevertheless, an accurate chronology of the hill demands more laboratory research. Apart from the mentioned potential periods, another human residence period has been identified on the hill which, based on clayware findings (particularly golden clayware), is related to the Middle Islamic period. In fact, after the Median structure was abandoned, Ghal’ah Ghalandaran Hill remained deserted for at least 1,500 years and, then, was used again during the Islamic period.