Zoroastrians of Maybod (Yazd): A Historical Archaeological Perspective of the Two Villages, Mazra’e Kalantar and Asr’ Abad

A joint program by the University of Tehran and the University of Leicester carried out a first season of archaeological exploration of Zoroastrian societies in Maybod, Yazd province during May 2016 for two weeks. Historical archaeology is still in its infancy in Iran. Due to extensive modernization vast amounts of data have been lost and therefore most research into the recent past can be considered as salvage program.  The aim of this research is to explore some aspects of the social history and ritual activities of the last communities of Zoroastrian societies of Yazd province based on the analysis of architectural layout, archaeological survey of the contemporary villages, interview, and historical records. Here we represent the preliminary report of the survey results of Mazra’e Kalantar and Asr’ Abad villages. In this paper we have clarified the architectural patterns and the typology of buildings of Zoroastrian communities. We have analyzed two different buildings types of religious and domestic spaces of Mazra’e Kalantar and Asr’ Abad villages. The second part of this paper is focused on the ethnographic results in order to achieve a holistic understanding of life experience based on the historical knowledge of local people.