The obvious comparison, here in Britain, is with Hadrian’s Wall – the great Roman fortification that stretches for 73 miles across the country from coast to coast. Yet the Great Wall of Gorgan – built just a few hundred years…
In the 4th to 6th centuries AD, Persia was under attack from the north by the ‘White Huns’ and other powerful groups of steppe warriors. Persia’s response was to create a massive fortification belt – unsurpassed in scale anywhere in the ancient and medieval world, with only the possible exception of China. Eberhard Sauer, Jebrael Nokandeh, Hamid Omrani Rekavandi, Mohammadreza Nemati, and Mehdi Mousavinia have explored the backbone of the system: the densest concentration of mega-fortresses in the late antique world, in the Gorgan and Tehran Plains of Iran.
Occupation of the fortress appears to have been relatively short-lived, with the main phase of activity probably dating to the 1st century BC.
Based on the architectural association between Rabana-Merquly’s rock reliefs, fortifications, and settlements, and some specific types of pottery, the team have tentatively dated the site’s main building phase to the 1st century BC.
Important as commercial commodities and as symbols of wealth and power, the animals also appear to be associated with the pre-Islamic Arabian goddess, Allat.
Which king, crowned in 550BC, was the founder of the Achaemenid empire, the first Persian empire?
An ongoing study in the Makran Sefidkuh region of Iran is shedding light on the culture and archaeological remains of communities in the area, stretching back to prehistory. The project, led by Hossein Vahedi in collaboration with the Research Institute…