نشریه پژوهش های باستان شناسی ایران
پیاپی 9 (پاییز و زمستان 1394)

What prompted the author to write this article was the importance of theories application in archaeological fieldworks. Unfortunately, of the mistaken activates of the past works in US and EU, is fully attention to publication of the reports of excavations and surveys, which there is still serious doubt on their accuracy;however, they understood that the reports by themselves would not solve any of the ancient societies problems. During the past two decades and the expansion of the international relationship of the Iranian archaeologists, who inherited the given behavior of their American and European colleagues, with scientific development, especially in archeology, archaeological theories and frameworks of thought that the archaeological world had already experienced during the 60s and 70s, Iranian archaeological community was faced with a large amount of scientific information, methods and theories. It is interesting to state that thiskind of discussions in European and American societies were raised over time via discussions and seminars. Accordingly, it is reasonable to archaeologists who have worked in these countries, to have a better understanding of the idea above presented. The debate is not on the verity or untruth of the theoretical frameworks, but is over the essence of these theorization process. In contrast, in recent years young and aspiring archaeologists found this data two or even three translated sources. Those who had the English language competence referred to relevant articles. In both cases, the sudden confrontation with what young archaeologists they were created confusion. Some were thinking that byintroduction of a thought, the previous idea or mental framework has expired;or as “New Archaeology” or “Processual” has its own special class, they tried to follow up the vanguard activities. As will be explained below, all strategies on the basis of theirquestions and applications are important. Each approach has its own strengths and weaknesses as for “Processual Archaeology”. That is why “Post-Processual Archaeology” emerged, but this is not to ignore the strengths of many aspects of “Processual Archaeology”. Archaeologists should spend much of their time trying to discuss on the basics of archaeology and the most important aim is to increase our understanding of the human past;archaeologists should try to answer the ‘How’ and ‘Why’ questions on past not just ‘What”; therefore, if our goal is to know more about the human past. Traditional approaches tended to regard the objective of archaeology mainly as reconstruction piecing together. The current aim of archaeology is not only simply achieving cultural material and make some assumption of their time being, but also the progressive aim is to reconstruct the subsistence of dead people. We are eager to suggest a clear picture of the subsistence of dead people and their environmental exploitation.And we are following some questions such as the reason of life-styles, behavioral patterns and the way that the lifestyles and cultural material. To sum up, we are trying to explain the changes. There are still some archaeologists with old efficiance procedures while they are aware of the inefficiency of old procedures and have no answer of their irresponsibility. The most outcrop of the “New Archaeology” is making the mixture in between theory and practice. However, there still no contract on the implication of a further objective has been termed the reconstruction of the life ways of the people responsible for the archaeological remains. We are certainly interested in having a clear picture of how people lived, and how they exploited their environment. But we also seek to understand why they lived that way: why they had those patterns of behavior, and how their life ways and material culture came to take the form they did. We are interested, in short, in explaining change.There are still archaeologists who are using old fashions, while they know their methods are useless. They know that their methods are not able to reconstruct the past. They are not responsible for their non-academic behaviors. The most important issue of the New Archaeology is integration of Theory and Method in archaeology; however, there is disagreement over whether many concepts can be considered ‘theoretical’ or whether they are merely neutral techniques or methods outside the purview of theory.

Stone-heaped graves are among the most frequent sites identified during the Kouhrang surveys. They are always in the shape of individual heaps of local stones which bear, on the basis on the few excavated examples, more than one stone-aligned grave chamber. In most cases one to four of them could be recognized alongside the crest of the stone ridges, but examples of as many as 10 are observed in certain places. The field observations show that overwhelming majorities of them have been plundered and ruined in the past. The majority of such sites, on the basis of surface sherds, could be attributed to the Achaemenid and Parthian periods. Pre-Islamic cemeteries are characterized as clusters of stone heaps and in most cases it is hard to be differentiated from stone heaps that have been collected from the farmlands by the locals. Other categories of sites have a rather low frequency in the survey area. One of the interesting points about the Kouhrang surveys is the low frequency of classic mounded sites which are, normally, among the most numerous occurring sites in other places in the Iranian Plateau. The types and frequencies of the surveyed sites clearly shows that the Kouhrang area has been the favorite niche for ancient nomadic people as do for the modern ones.

In Archaeological Studies of the Fertile Crescent, the Central Zagros region is very important, due to its special geographical and geomorphological features, mountains and plains between the mountains and creates the appropriate environment for the formation of the settlement in various eras. The most important indicators of cultural changes in the Chalcolithic period are human-environment interaction, population growth, expansion of cultural exchanges, more specialized jobs, technology development Tooling, familiarity with the metals and metallurgy, focus on rural and food production. The needed information research is obtained through the archaeological survey; statistic data of the research are obtained of five regions of Asadabad, Skinheads, Kangavar, Sahneh and Harsin. Here, by survey the 152 Chalcolithic sites in the region, we are trying to investigate the settlements and population increase phenomenon on the basis of newly discovered evidences; as there is increasing number of settlements during the early to late Chalcolithic period. Overall, the analysis shows that most of data is about the sites related to late Chalcolithic period and Maximum area and average altitude in the whole areas as well and the next group with largest number and area is sites attributed to Middle Chalcolithic. This evidence suggests that during the early to Late Chalcolithic period settlements needed more lands to settle, so they move to the highlands. But it also requires appropriate conditions for living in highlands as these areas have all the necessary parameters for population growth; this conditions to increase the extent of the settlements and population would provide by rising trend of altitude and also sites close to rivers during the early to late Chalcolithic and it seems that in this region over-population is a widespread phenomenon. As the matter of fact, 89/57 percent of surveyed sites are located at an altitude of 1500 to 1800 meters above sea level (a.s.l) on the hilly area of piedmonts. This area is drained by several branches of the river; due to the relatively high slope areas has high-dens networks, both seasonal and casual. The sediments of surrounding mountains are heavey-densed due to the influence of seasonal networks around the slopes which resulted expanding the settlements and farms to down-stream slopes. In addition, about 62/5% of sites have located at a distance of less than 1000 meters from seasonal streams and networks. One of the common perceptions of people concentrations along the rivers would be mobility and nomadism; since the water supply needed temporarily for living along the rivers. Due to the high risk of being sedentary along the rivers, the sites must be locating in such condition which is away from the risk of flooding. Some evidence suggests that the nomadism started during chalcolithic period in Central Zagros for the first time. It certainly has been related to increasing settlements during the given period due to increasing of mobility or populations, changing conditions and looking for suitable places. On the other hand an increasing of chalcolithic settlements in the region, leading to different subsistence systems responding the population requirements. Looking at the data of this research about Kangavar valley (eastern Central Zagros) is evident that in the number of settlements there has been growth from the West to the East of the region during early to Late Chalcolithic period and this is probably due to the high pressure of population growth have moved towards western areas.

In this article, 62 sherds gathered during archaeological surveys of Tappeh Ghabrestan-e Darreh Shahr have studied and analyzed. The site is located at the northwest of modern Darreh Shahr city, one of the towns in Ilam province, on a natural mound, and is a graveyard related to nomadic settlements which. Tappeh Ghabrestan was discovered during the archaeological survey carried out at 2005 for first time, then, was re-surveyed at 2006, having better sampling and make clear that illegal diggers have ruined several graves. The results of indicates that very probability, Tappeh Ghabrestan had assisted in Second quarter of 3rd millennium B.C. The first half of 3rd millennium B.C. is one of the main periods in Central Zagros in which deep changes and culture transformation has happened. One of the most important dimensions of the given transformation is abrupt presentation of the monochrome painted pottery tradition of Susa IVA/Godin III, which endured more than a millennium and outspread over Central Zagros. Extension of this pottery tradition changed the Central Zagros to an independent culture region, at most of the Bronze Age. Formation quality and sudden presentation of this pottery tradition is still ambiguous, on the other hand, it is not certain that the monochrome painted pottery tradition of Susa IVA/Godin III appeared at which areas for first time. Pot-sherds from Tappeh Ghabrestan are comparable to those from Early Bronze age discovered from Kunji cave, Mir Vally, Dowl Pahn and Abdanan area graveyards and their potteries belong to second mid of Susa III period; in any case, ceramic fragments of Tappeh Ghabrestan have the most and the closest similarities with potteries from Susa III period, especially, potteries discovered from levels 13-15, in Ville Royale I (Susa IIIC). In fact, discovered material from Tappeh Ghabrestan and some graveyards such as Mir Vally and Dowl Pahn have indications of Proto–Elamite period (phases IIIB-IIIC). This tradition was dominated in southern districts of Central Zagros before the formation of the monochrome painted pottery tradition of Susa IVA/Godin III. Besides, the discovered potteries from these graveyards shows very close connections with monochrome painted pottery tradition of Susa IVA/Godin III. Collected documents indicates that Proto–Elamite influenced the southern valleys of Central Zagros and this had important role on the formation of the monochrome painted pottery tradition of Susa IVA/Godin III. It seems that this monochrome painted pottery tradition had been spread firstly, in some southern districts of Central Zagros before being expanded throughout the Central Zagros, at Susa IVA/Godin III period. The results of Belgium archaeological mission (BAMI) excavations in Pusht-i Kuh confirm this condition too. Discovered material from levels 13-15, in Ville Royale I (Susa IIIC) indicates that Susa was one of the centers with crucial role in formation of monochrome painted pottery tradition at the end of Susa III period; but we cannot confirm due to unsecure chronology. Population reduction of Susiana plain at Susa III period, is simultaneous with the appearance of numerous graveyards which are attributed to nomadic peaople at first half of 3rd millennium B.C.; existence of close connections between discovered potteries from graveyards such as Tappeh Ghabrestan, Mir Vally and Dowl Pahn on one part with Susa IIIb-c potteries and on the other part with Susa IVA/Godin III potteries and suddenly development of the monochrome painted pottery tradition at throughout of the central Zagros indicates the movement of immigrant people from Susiana to Zagros.

Although numerous archaeological activities carried out in Khuzestan over last century, but less attention has been paid to the eastern parts, including the Behbahan. doing a systematic study on one of the major sites of the region is essential due to the geographical location and suitable environmental conditions such as: permanent rivers, fertile plains and communications and commercial position of the city and existence of many monuments and archaeological sites of different cultural periods in contrast to the lack of a comprehensive archaeological information from different cultural periods. Kon-e Binoo (Tel-e Guvineh), is the largest site which has been identified in Zeidoon plain on the Zohreh River bank contains several cultural period. A systematic survey of the area was conducted in 2012 using systematic classified sampling. The importance of the site during various cultural periods is visible by a large amount and variety of surface finds and cultural material. Here, more than 250,000 culture finds have been studied such as: pottery, stone tools and equipment, stone vessels, pendants and metal and rocky decorative beads, coins, metal and glass objects and ornaments, figurines, seals, arrowheads made of stone and metal, pieces of glass wares, metal slag and weld furnace, architectural remains, pottery kilns, workshop of stone tools and etc. Comparing the finds, especially pottery and chronology of the site is very important in recognition of the cultural sequence of the region. This could pave the way for future studies, including recognition of inter-regional cultural interactions. In this paper, the main question is: Kon-e Binoo by which episode of time has been settled? So, in this regard, it has been tried to consider the chronology and recognize its settlement period based on the results of typological and comparison of ceramic samples obtained from a systematic survey. Pottery studying shows that this site has occupied as early as the 6th millennium B.C. and continued in some parts of the site as early as 4th millennium B.C. This indicates that in this period large number of population were living in the region. Possibly afterward, an interruption on the settlement by the early 2nd millennium B.C. has occurred. According to pottery evidences, due to the rarity of data, almost nothing attributed to the first half the 4th and 3rd millennium B.C. It will be clear by digging in the site. Once again, part of the site has been populated in the Old Elamite period. It might be said that it has been converted to a city by Elamite from the old Elamite period and reaches its climax in the middle and New Elamite period. It has been also populated during Achaemenid, Seleucid, Eliemaied and Sassanid. Almost all of the area have been inhabited in the Islamic era. Doubtless, it could be one of the most important cities of Behbahan region in the Sassanid – Islamic period due to the large amount of findings. But the population was decreased the extent of settlements in the Middle Islamic Ages and then, reoccupied by Late Islamic centuries, Safavid. After this period, the site of Tel-e Guvineh is abandoned forever.

The emergence of copper production on Iranian Plateau goes back to about 7th Millennium B.C. This technology was continued till late 4th/early 3rd millennium B.C. when the bronze (copper-tin alloy) was raised as a new product to make different objects and was developed during the Bronze Age. The bronze production was the main archaeo-metallurgical activity even in the Iron Age of Iranian Plateau. Many bronze objects were discovered during different archaeological excavations from various Iron Age sites of Iran. Archaeological excavations at Marlik graveyard, Northern Iran was carried out by late E.O. Negahban in 1961-62 lead to reveal some important archaeological remains from Iron Age I and II. The metal collection of Marlik including various gold, silver and bronze artefacts is consisting of one of the significant metal finds from prehistoric Iran. Many of these objects are produced by tin bronze alloy and study on bronze technology of Marlik metal collection may lead to identify bronze technology during the Iron Age. This paper constitutes an analytical investigation on some bronze alloy from Marlik which are preserved in the National Museum of Iran now. Chemical composition of 25 artefacts is determined to reveal the metallurgical processes in Northern Iran by the 2nd/1st millennium BC. Analytical studies were carried out using ICP-MS quantitative method; The results proved that the samples have been manufactured with a binary copper-tin alloy with a variable tin content from 4 to 11 percents in weight. Other elements such as, As, Ni, Pb, Zn and Sb are detected as minor/trace amounts. Variable tin content which may relate to application of an uncontrolled procedure of bronze alloy production (i.e. co-smelting or cementation). On the other hand, the results were compared with the results of previously performed analytical studies on other bronze objects from Marlik. Based on the comparative studies, the variable tin amount was observed in all analysed samples; further, Arsenic has detected as a major element in some previously analysed samples while the recent results showed that Arsenic is a minor/trace element in the composition of bronze objects. Also, the composition on the previous and new analysed objects was compared on the basis of some trace element contents and some differences which were observed in the composition of objects especially because of their arsenic content. These differences may be due to using different metal resources to produce some objects of Marlik or these objects may be manufactured in another place with a partially different technology and imported to Marlik as votive objects.

Iranian Culture scope is far wider than the range of the current political boundaries; one of the areas located in the territory of Iran is Iraqi Kurdistan. The main questions of this paper is that are Iran and Iraqi Kurds are important elements of the relationships and continuity? And the second, emphasizing on what elements would made to strengthen their relationship? The answer of this questions can be stated as follows, coherence, and particularly Iraqi Kurdistan, Kurdish culture is an important issue on the basis of several basic elements, such as race, language, religion, social customs, artefacts and political evolution study and review. One of the fundamental pillars of cultural ties with Iranian and the Iraqi Kurds is the racial integration issue. Although there are different views on the origins of Kurds ethnicity, but some aspects of myth and legend, and some historical approach is based on scientific findings and evidence from archeological excavations. One of the fundamental pillars of cultural ties with Iran, the Kurds and the Iraqi Kurds is the issue of racial integration. There are different views about the origins of ethnic Kurds, some aspects of myth and legend, and some historical approach based on evidence-based and scientific archaeological excavations and findings are: A) David McDowell writes: “There are many legends about the origin and Kurds ethnic group, legend says that children born Kurds who fled from oppression Zkhak cannibals in the mountains have been hidden. The myth that binds people to the mountain. “. Masoudi Gold writes on promoting the grandson of the Iranians who fled the bloody Zkhak, this narrative has better pictured by Ferdowsi in Shahnameh order. Zhak was an unjust and oppressive king, who was the dominant force in Iran; on his shoulders there were two snakes by which were eat two young men’s brain daily. After some food for snakes, one of the young people secretly was sent to the mountains and the young’s brain were mixed with sheep brain to feed the snakes. So young people who survived and fled to the mountains are the ancestors of the Kurds. Finally, with the uprising of Kaveh and Fereydoun King, Zhak was killed. Some other Kurdish legends originates from the time of Noah and Solomon. Few people know the root of Kurds, Arabs and Turks. Fans of Arabic origin and Turkish Kurds are very rare among the Kurds. If that Zhak not one, but a family of rulers who seized Svryh and a thousand years they have ruled against the government (Lvrdhv) is located in the north of the country and were regularly attacked Zhakyan, some Iranian nomads transferred to Kurdistan, where they are located, the Iranian tribes gradually rule (Lvrdhv) dominate, and they were erased and the ancestors make up. Sharaf Khan Bdlysy the famous historian of the Ottoman Kurdish region of “Shrfnamh”, he was the first and oldest source about the history of the Persian language, is also quoted Zkhak story and it is considered as a valid reference. Remind about Zhak and quoted James Morier [morier] (second trip in 1812), it is noteworthy that at the time, on 31 August every year in Damavand, a celebration in honor of the release of the oppression of the tyrant king were held the “Kurdish party” was known.

Documenting seal impressions has a great importance in archaeological researches. The analysis of Seleucid seal impressions provide a wealthy information which is really needed due to the lack of archaeological recognition of this era. This article presents the study of more than 44 seal impressions from different areas of Seleucid territory. There have been a number of scholars such as College, Osten, Collon, Bivar, Messina and Invernizzi interested in to study the Seleucid seals collected mainly from the western parts of the Seleucid territories, but in Iran an extensive analysis could not be comparatively possible because, here there are an small number of seals and seal impressions have been explored. There is a variety of motifs on these seals including: human motifs, Greek goddesses, different animals, mythical and geometric motifs, of which the human motifs are seen to be dominantly used on about half of the seal collections. Mythical motifs have also found in abundance. These mentioned designs are mostly identified from the archives of Uruk in Mesopotamia generally representing the mythical motifs. Seal impressions found from Susa in southwestern Iran are circular with animal/human designs in profile and unidentified figures which were studied by Unvala. These seals were all influenced by Achaemenid, Assyrian, Babylonian and Greek arts. During Seleucid period unlike the Achaemenid, the cylindrical seals vanished and they were replaced by signet sing stamp seals. They have been mostly in elliptical shape and rarely in circular forms. Most of these seal impressions were uncovered from scientific excavations such as in Seleucia, Uruk, and Kedesh. The seals of these 3 sites were all found with written documents which reveal a wealth of information on art and economy of Seleucid era. The transactions written on these bullae including marriage contracts and some information of selling and buying lands and releasing slaves. The other collection of Seleucid seals was uncovered from the excavation of Seleucia under the supervision of Invernizzi. These bullae belong to some private contracts concluded under the presence of a tax observer or a government employee. All Seleucid seals impressions except for the ones found from Qumis, were uncovered from western territory of Seleucids. More than 98 percents of them are from Susa, Uruk, Sippar, Kedesh and Seleucia which can lead us to this idea that the use of seals was more frequent in the western parts of Seleucid territory or maybe the administrative centers were all concentrated in western areas. The only eastern site containing seals and seal impressions is Qumis in interior Iran.
The present paper tends to study the function of seal impressions in political-administrative context of Seleucids and also to analyze some of motifs which can be helpful for comparative researches on the Seleucid seal impressions. Moreover, the comparative study on the similarities exist between form, inscription and the iconography together among the seals enabled us to locate some undetermined seal impressions in the same chronological horizon since some seal impressions from some sites have been found in their archaeological contexts and dated to the Seleucid period. From iconographical view as mentioned before Seleucids iconography repertoire have been in use in various artistic media of that period. In some cases, comparison with coins or other material culture made possible to put the impressions in their true chronological orders.

The study of ancient materials with help of non-destructive techniques is a routine work in international museums. Techniques such as Proton Induced X-Ray Emission (PIXE), X-Ray fluorescence (XRF), and X-Ray Diffraction are being used. Coins show an important role in our cultural heritage and they also have usually high artistic and cultural value. The Sassanid Empire is the name used for the 3rd Iranian dynasty and the second Empire after Median Kingdom. The Sassanid Empire was founded by Ardeshir I in 224 A.D. after the fall of the Arsacid Empire. The Sasanian Empire was one of the most remarkable empire and civilizations of the 1st Millennium A.D. As one of the two great powers of late antiquity, the Sasanian domain eventually encompassed not only the modern day of Iran and Iraq, but also controlled or influenced the greater part of Central Asia, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Caucasus, Armenia, Georgia and the Near East. Throughout its existence, the Sassanid Empire had been an absolute monarchy. It ended when the last Sassanid king, Yazdegerd III (632-652 A.D.), lost a 14-year struggle to drive out the expanding Islam. Studying the Sasanian coins, we come to know that they brought about a standardization of weights and the minting of coinage which was directed from above and under the control of the imperial administration. One of these standard coins is silver coin (drachma) which in weight was about 4.25 grams. Techniques of investigation such as wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence (WDXRF) analysis can be applied non-destructively without sample preparation. A typical WDXRF system consists of an X-ray tube, a specimen support holder, a primary collimator, an analyzing crystal and a tandem detector. The instrument applied for this study is PW 2404 which made by Philips Company. The resulting fluorescence is resolved by a lithium fluoride (LiF) 220 crystal, and detected by a flow counter. The chemical composition of 16 Sasanian silver coins, collected in National Museum of Iran, was studied by using wavelength dispersive X- ray fluorescence. These coins are belonging to different kings such as Pirouz, Belash, Kavad I, Khosrow I, Hormuz IV, Khosrow II, and Ardeshir III. The metals such as Fe, Cu, Au, and Pb in addition to Ag were observed. The elemental analysis provides information about the economic and political conditions of interested kings. Two type of silver mines were used, galena and cerussite. The cupellation, which is applying for exploration of Galena after oxidation of Pb and Zn, may lead to obtain Ag. Since Au has not been separated from mines, its amount remains the same with coins. In two coins the amount of silver goes down. One of the studied coins belongs to Kavad I and another one belongs to Khosrow II. It may be related to weakness of these kings in short period and they had to increase the amount of Cu for a period of time. If we look at Istakhr and Ardeshir khoreh mint houses, we will find even more. Pirouz, Kavad I, Khosrow II, and Ardeshir III were using Istakhr mint house. The content of silver was remain constant about 96 percent, except in the case of Khosrow II, which became 92 % and still it was good amount among Khosrau II coins. The same thing can be seen for Ardeshir khoreh mint house i.e. Pirouz and Kavad I struck coins with 95 percent silver, but Belash struck coins with 90 percent silver. Since Belash was not a powerful king, and he ruled only four years and therefore the observations confirm the historical evidences. It seems that the silver used in all the Sasanian silver coins, which had been minted in different mint houses, have been extracted from cerussite (PbCO3) mines. In the same mint house, different percentage of silver was observed which might reflect the debasement of coins due to instability and weakness of related kings.

A part from Prehistoric and historic sites, some Islamic mounds have also been recognized during Archaeological surveys in Kur river basin of which the site of Mādābād A is one of the largest sites of the Islamic period in the Kur River Basin and Marvdasht. This site has been damaged extensively as a result of agricultural and development activities as just small part of it still remains currently. Archaeological finds of the site are abundant, but more than other material a large number of “Psuedo-Prehistoric” potsherds are particularly important and this is against the fact that the painted pottery in Iran after a long history finally became extinct in around the middle of the Parthian period. Unlike the ceramic traditions of the Iranian Plateau and Western Asia which are remarkably painted and glazed, this type of pottery bears a strong resemblance in designs and motifs to the 5th and 4th millennium B.C. Due to stratigraphic ambiguities of this type of pottery-that was only discovered in Iran previously during surface archaeological surveys-we tried to retrieve samples of this pottery from secure context with dateable strata at Madabad and to reconstruct a firm basis for exact chronology and dating. This is also a fact that this type of pottery is discovered in a vast area in western Asia, from north and south Syria, north Jordan, southern Iraq and northern shores of the Persian Gulf. In a paper published in 1987, Donald Whitcomb tried to describe the tradition of making this pottery to the complex social transformations of the mid-Islamic centuries. Outside Iran, this type of pottery was discovered in secure context, but in Iran they only come from haphazard and random surveys. Excavations at the site of Mādābād showed us that there is good possibility that this pottery belongs actually to the late episode of early Islamic centuries. The most important reason for such conclusion is the appearance of Pseudo-Prehistoric pottery accompanying with the characteristic stamped and Moulded and also splashed glazed and incised decoration pottery of Istakhr samples of early Islamic period. In the first season of excavation a satisfying mass of these samples was excavated from Architectural contexts. In the second season, as excavation expanded, architectural remains began to take shape and more archaeological material was recovered from many contexts, including glass, stone, and bone bead, glass armlet, bronze ring and bone objects. Finally it can be concluded that the ceramic finds from the site can be divided into six types: painted, stamped, incised, affixed and relief decorated, glazed and plain, especially molded pottery reminiscent of the city of Istakhr (dating to late Sasanian-Early Islamic Period). It is conceivable that the poverty of architectural material (except for some chineh or mud brick structures) can be attributed to the economic and social hardship of the early Islamic centuries, an important point that can only be explored in light of future excavations. This site has 4 occupation levels, since early Islamic to mid-Islamic period, with no gap in settlement but of which the latter is the best preserved phase.

In the historical district of Yazd, there are monuments on which little knowledge. Although some are registered as national heritage, but there no valuable study on them; among them is a mosque previously known as “Sheikhiha” and “Aghaieha” while presently is called “Sheikhiha”. This is located at “Vaght-o-Saat” district. Although important researchers and architects visited the city, Sheikhiha mosque is not known yet. Interiorized structure of the monument which is related to religious cult of Sheikhiha has no view from peripheral paths which seems it can be the main reason that the building remained unknown in architectural studies, therefore studies on the mosque can be undoubtedly useful in understanding original Iranian architecture. Present study concerns to achieve the history of the mosque construction. As a fundamental research, present study naturally and methodically is historic-descriptive. Required information collected bibliographically and from field surveys which analyzed and interpreted combining using “historic approach” comparatively. the results indicate that the earliest core of the mosque is a sanctuary dates to 3rd and 4th A.H. centuries. Present heterogeneity of roofing of the sanctuary to earliest structure, next to an inscription dated to 10th AH century, indicates that it expanded at later periods especially in Safavid era, and gradually “lancet archs” replaced “round archs” with pillars. Its’ general plan can be compared to Fahraj-e Jami and ancient part of Meybod-e Jami from early Islamic centuries. A sanctuary with length of two to five openings and similar width to latter mosques imply their construction in the same historic horizon; finally it expanded with an internalized nine fold dome as winter sanctuary, probably in Zand and Qajar periods. The latter sanctuary is remarkably equal to nine fold dome mosques in plan and details. Here, the prayer niche considerably indicates early sanctuary front which is a traditional nine fold dome pattern in similar mosques since earliest Islamic periods. Concave structure of the prayer niche caused constructors needless to protect prayer niche (Maqsüreh). However, there is not good quality and durability in the material used in the structure; it never caused reduction in historic significance of the winter sanctuary. The mosque is one of the earliest mosques of the city which lived later as a small mosque by developing and flourishing the city that is used until modern times.

The historical context of Birjand city includes valuable architectural works and historical buildings which have not been sufficiently considered by researchers in terms of traditional architecture. One of the distinguished buildings in this city- enjoying its trans-regional and trans-national status, is Showkateyeh School. Showkateyeh School in Birjand was constructed by Mohammad Ebrahim Khan Alam Showkat Al-Molk in 1890 as Showkateyeh Hossainiya and in 1903, it was converted into a school. In the present research, the authors are looking to introduce the building by adapting the approach of reviewing geometric proportions, analyze and evaluate the hypothesis of architect and designer’s utilization of geometrical principles and golden ratio in the spatial-contextual elements of the school, on the basis of such question: What function the geometry and golden ratio have played in the construction and formation of spatial elements of Showkateyeh School?” and present the obtained geometrical values through accurate geometric drawings of the plan, façade and cross-sections. Despite history of Persian civilization and the large volume of discovered artistic and architectural works from various periods, few studies have been conducted on the geometry and proportions of these works and all these studies have primarily tried to prove the existence of geometrical patterns and relationships in between geometric shapes and architectural elements of historical monuments and little attention has been paid to the function of the architect as well as geometrical drawings of the plan, façade and cross-sections. Based on its main subject, that is, understanding the basic geometry and golden ratio and Iranian proportions in Showkateyeh School, this research trying to investigate the function of the architect using geometrical principles to create the spaces needed for the building, the relationship of the spaces with one another, the location of each of the architectural elements, calculating the height of the building and ensuring the beauty and strength of the building. Understanding this function can play a significant role in restoration and reinterpretation of historical buildings, which is not possible without reviewing the geometry and geometric proportions in a historical building. In the present research, the authors have used the analytical method as well as data collection tools including field observation and library research. Drawings in this research have been produced manually using the most rudimentary architectural tools such as simple ruler, set square and compass. Then, given the introvert structure of Showkateyeh School and the importance of the porch and the central yard in introvert buildings, these two architectural elements have been presented as the focal points of the building and by considering these points for producing the geometric drawings, in order to figure out the geometric shape of the building (regular hexagon), the authors reviewed the geometry of the building to identify the geometric structure and proportions in Showkateyeh School. After studying the research variables such as the extent to which golden ratios and Iranian proportions have affected the design and construction of the building as well as locating the architectural elements and creating beauty and visual balance in the building, the results of the analysis indicated that the architect of the building has had sufficient knowledge of proportional systems and drawing of geometrical shapes and has used his knowledge in selecting the scales of the building and locating the main spaces such as the yard, porch, kitchen and entrance. The golden ratio and Iranian proportions of √2 and √3 have been fully integrated into the development of the building, yet the architect has used the golden ratio primarily to locate the architectural points and spaces.