Historical Settlements in Shah Kouh, Nehbandan County, South Khorasan (Fire Temple, Kalate Bal Batu, and Taska Cemetery)

Nehbandan County is considered one of the important areas in the archaeological research of the historical and Islamic period of South Khorasan. The eastern region of Shah Kouh in the west of this county, due to the existence of suitable and favorable climatic and land conditions, contains important and spacious settlements, which shows their importance in intra- and extra-regional interactions in historical times. Among these unique monuments, there are the remaining parts of the building known as Atashkadeh (Fire Temple) in the village of the same name, but unfortunately, only a few parts of this structure are left. According to the results of the excavation project to determine the core zone and suggest the buffer zone of the building as well as the existing architectural evidence and the current architecture in the context of the village, it is believed that this structure was founded with a cruciform pattern and four stone walls and a dome cover. The study shows that this building was built in the Sassanid period and was still standing in the early Islamic centuries as a religious place and in connection with the surrounding sites. Here, some of the nearby sites such as Kalate Bal Batu and Taska Cemetery were introduced and their surface cultural remains were also discussed and analyzed. This research aims to recognize the Fire Temple building according to the archaeological evidence and also to introduce other sites of the historical era such as Klate Bel Beto and Taska. Collecting the findings has been conducted in the field and analyzing them through Library research has been done with a historical-cultural approach and descriptive-analytical method.