Discovered Architecture in Tepe Ziviyeh; Castle or Sanctuary in the First Millennium B.C. in Western of Iran

Western Iran during the first millennium had been fraught with significant incidents in the Assyrian and the Urartian era. In this historical period, the Mannaean local government had been frequently invaded by the Assyrian and the Urartian. Therefore, these invasions and the need to defend the country and its national structures had obliged the Mannaean government to construct strongholds so as to prevent plunder and destruction. Apparently it is the time a structure is built on Ziviyeh hill which is known to be a castle by researchers. In the present study, according to the major structure of the building and the tombs around this site, Ziviyeh is suggested to be an important temple. Paying careful attention to this structure and the excavated areas around the Ziviyeh hill, it is claimed that at that time, besides constructing castles, Mannaean government used to build some buildings for undertaking specific rituals. This must be noted that religious rituals had always been of considerable importance for the governments. The major question is: lf the structure discovered in Ziviyeh is not a castle, what had been used for? Explaining this, the authors have tried to hypothesize that the probable use of the Ziviyeh structure had been religious and ritualistic circa 7th to 9th century B.C. in the Western Iran. This study having an analytical-historical approach, using field studies and library data, tries to introduce the structure and study data and their co-relations.