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Ultan Qalasi: A Fortified Site in the Sasanian Borderlands (Mughan Steppe, Iranian Azerbaijan)
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OUf knowledge of Sasanian imperial strategy continues to grow as a result of a range of projects investigating the frontiers of the Sasanian Empire. Understanding of the north-western fringe of the Empire in particular is being increased by the Mughan SteppeArchaeologicalProject. Surveys have shown that the fortified settle-ment of Ultan Qalasi is the largest of a series of fortified sites that lie adjacent to irrigation canals that stretch across the steppe, and excavations have provided relative and absolute dating evidence for the establishment of the settlement during the Sasanian period. This paper introduces the Mughan Steppe Archaeological Project and presents the stratigraphy of Ultan Qalasi, It also situates this site within the broader socio-political context of the southern Caucasus in the first millennium AD, and the wider world of the Sasanian Empire.
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... The Mughan Steppe Archaeological Project (MSAP) began in 2004 and was entirely supported by the Iranian Center for Archaeological Research (ICAR). It was a multicomponent project under the direction of Karim Alizadeh that began with soundings at Ultan Qalası, a late Sasanian and early Islamic city located on the south bank of the Aras River (Alizadeh 2011). Three seasons of excavations at Ultan Qalası, an initial survey in the Steppe in 2005, and one season of stratigraphic excavation at Nadir Tepesi have improved our knowledge of the ancient landscape of the area. ...
... Among different type-sites, we could identify and map major elements of the settlement system of the Sasanian period on the steppe. It quickly became clear that Ultan Qalası was only the largest of a series of rectangular fortified complexes on the steppe (Alizadeh 2011;Ur 2006, 2007). ...
... In many cases, however, CORONA images can be employed to approximate the extent of such settlement, which has a mottled or heterogenous appearance compared to adjacent unsettled fields. As with the surfaces of the fortified site components, these areas had very light sherd scatters (Alizadeh 2011(Alizadeh , 2014Ur 2006, 2007;Ur and Alizadeh 2013). ...
Contrary to the earlier notions that attributed the transformation of the Near East in the mid-7th century A.D. to war and the Islamic Arab conquest, recently the role of the climate is also being underscored. Archaeological investigation of the Sasanian landscape in the Mughan Steppe, Iranian Azerbaijan, contributes to a growing body of data documenting the urban collapse affected by environmental factors during Late Antiquity. Using results from surveys and excavations at Ultan Qalası, we focus on the possible correlation between flooding and settlement collapse during the Sasanian era in the Mughan Steppe. In addition, we draw on available CORONA imagery. The results from archaeological investigations indicate that almost all of the Sasanian settlements and irrigation systems were abandoned after a period of intense activity. We argue that the flooding and further riverbed incisions of the Aras River was one of the causes of the abandonment.
https://doi.org/10.1080/00934690.2021.1913314
... Due to its strength and suitable location, it was used until the 20 th century AH. During the excavation of Ultan Qalasi, archaeologists came across a coherent architectural remains dating from the Parthian and the Islamic periods, most of the artifacts found belong to the 3 rd and 4 th centuries AH, the later materials are related with the Sassanid architecture (Alizadeh, 2011). ...
... Barzand city in the Moghan Plain, located near Varsan, is now a small village 75 km south of the Araxes River. Between Barzand and Bileqan, only a large site called «Ultan Qalasi» of the Sassanid and early Islamic periods has been identified (Alizadeh, 2011). This area is exactly attached to the Araxes River and is located on the communication route from Barzand to Bileqan. ...
Раскопки, проведенные в 2020 и 2021 гг. в пещерном могильнике Скоррионе «Запад» (Модика - Скоррионе, Рагуза, Сицилия / Modica - Scorrione W, Ragusa, Sicily), привели к открытию нескольких погребальных сооружений, выдолбленных в естественных скальных стенах каньона, где были изучены ингумации и стратиграфические слои заполнения. Среди предметов погребального инвентаря представлены элементы костюма и украшения V в. Они имеют исключительный характер для данного региона. В статье рассматриваются связи этих находок со Средиземноморьем и Центральной Европой, а также с воинской цивилизацией того времени. Предполагается, что находки в Скоррионе могут быть связаны с военными гарнизонами на периферийной территории Сиракуз в период вхождения Сицилии в состав «варварских» королевств.
The excavation campaigns carried out in 2020 and 2021 at the hypogeal cemetery Scorrione West (Modica, Ragusa, Sicily) have resulted in discovery of several architectural structures cut out in the natural rock walls, as well as of well-preserved inhumation graves with well-preserved funerary goods. Among the latter, a number of clothing accessories and ornaments dating from the 5<sup>th</sup> century show an exceptional character in their regional background. The paper reviews connections between these finds and the Mediterranean and Central European regions, as well as with military sphere of that time. It is argued that the Scorrione finds may be linked to military posts in the peripheral territory of Syracuse, during the period when Sicily was part of «barbarian» kingdoms.
... Due to its strength and suitable location, it was used until the 20 th century AH. During the excavation of Ultan Qalasi, archaeologists came across a coherent architectural remains dating from the Parthian and the Islamic periods, most of the artifacts found belong to the 3 rd and 4 th centuries AH, the later materials are related with the Sassanid architecture (Alizadeh, 2011). ...
... Barzand city in the Moghan Plain, located near Varsan, is now a small village 75 km south of the Araxes River. Between Barzand and Bileqan, only a large site called «Ultan Qalasi» of the Sassanid and early Islamic periods has been identified (Alizadeh, 2011). This area is exactly attached to the Araxes River and is located on the communication route from Barzand to Bileqan. ...
This article analyses the beads discovered in the Sarmatian cemetery from Hunedoara Timisana (Arad County, West Romania). Beads are the most numerous dress items in the graves at Hunedoara Timisana, a total of 1396 beads (beside other fragmentary pieces) being identified in the 14 analysed graves. Beads fulfilled various functionalities within the analysed graves: they were part of necklaces, belts, earrings or buttons, but most often were sewn onto female garments. The custom of embroidery-decorating garment hems with hundreds or even thousands of beads of various colours is recorded in the Sarmatian milieu of the Great Hungarian Plain as early as their settling of the area. The fashion peaks in the period after the Marcomannic wars, very likely influenced by the arrival in this area of new groups of Sarmatians by the end of the 2nd - early 3rd c. AD.
Статья посвящена анализу бусин из сарматского могильника в Хунедоаре Тимишане (Жудец Арад, Западная Румыния). Именно бусы, которыми украшали одежду, наиболее часто встречаются в захоронениях в Хунедоаре Тимишане; в 14 изученных погребениях найдено 1396 бусин (помимо фрагментов). Функции найденных бусин отличаются разнообразием: из них делали ожерелья, ими украшали пояса, они использовались как серьги или пуговицы, однако чаще всего бусины нашивались на женскую одежду. Обычай украшать подол платья вышивкой из разноцветных бусин зафиксирован среди сарматских племен Большой Венгерской равнины уже на раннем этапе освоения данной территории, причем для украшения одного платья могли использоваться сотни и даже тысячи бусин. Мода на бусы достигла своего пика после Маркоманской войны, вероятно, под влиянием новых сарматских групп, прибывших в конце II - начале III.
... According to Gadjiyev "the ‹‹Moon wagon›› monogram may be interpreted as a symbol of dynastic bonds with the Sasanides and of belonging to this powerful royal 72 Ṭabarī, 896. 73 Alizadeh, 2011. 74 Aliev, et al., 2006 Balāḏori, 811. ...
The article considers the Sasanian king Khusro I Anushirwan’s reforms to improve the empire’s military and administrative architecture in the northwestern region of Ērānšahr, by creating the kust ī Ādurbādagān. The authors believes that it was a key element in the Sasanian strategy to enforce both central and military power in the defense sensitive Caucasia. The authors argues that the reform initiated the projecting of Ādurbādagān’s name, military, and administrative functions in Arrānšahr forming a strong interrelationship between the southern and northern sides of the Araxes as the entire Ādurbādagānšahr. Since Late Antiquity, Ādurbādagān and Arrān became interchangeable names and were in use on the northern bank of the Araxes.
The fortress of Göbekly-depe by the North border of the oasis of Merv, 32 km to NW of the site of Old Merv, is especially significant for the history of Iranian fortification, as it was built in the Parthian period, presumably in the 1st century C.E., and then several times reconstructed under the first Sasanians in the 3rd and the 4th centuries. Approximately in the middle of the 4th century the fortress was abandoned, so the remains of the 3rd and the 4th century walls were not covered by later strata. The excavations of the fortress were undertaken in 1988-2000 by the central Asian archaeological team of the Russian Institute of Archaeology (Moscow) directed by G.A. Koshelenko.
The region that is known today as Syunik in the south/southeastern part of Armenia is geographically a close neighbour of the southern part of the Araxes river basin in today Iran. Political upheavals and boundaries hindered fieldwork in these areas for many years. The archaeological project of the Araxes valley (APAV) is one of many other projects that launched in 2013 in this region and focused on the southern basin of the Araxes River. The results of the excavations of two sites, Kohne Pasgah Tepesi and Kohne Tepesi, and the intensive survey carried out in this area, enable us to shed more light on the settlement dynamics, material culture and economic/social networks of this area and its neighbors.
The period from the 6th up to the middle part of the 4th millennium BC represents the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods in this region. The material culture of both periods shares many common characteristics with contemporary traditions at sites of the southern Caucasus. Later, in the last part of the 4th millennium BC, a cultural tradition that originated in the southern Caucasus, known as the Kura-Araxes cultural tradition, expanded over a vast area, including the southern part of the Araxes river basin. Based on the study of the pottery styles and obsidian, the patterns of interconnection between regions, communities, and sources, and commodity flows are examined. The role of the Araxes River and its tributaries in this interplay over the stated time span is the other inquiry of this article. Furthermore, I will investigate whether spatial propinquity had any impact on commodity flows and exchange, and if so, did this impact affected the material culture and technological practices or not.
Geographical landmarks, especially rivers, have always played an important role in forming or hampering interplay between societies. In some cases, they act as a “communication route” and in some others as “obstacles”. In north-western Iran, it is possible that the Araxes River played such a decisive role by sculpting its surroundings. While our studies are not yet sufficiently adequate to understand the exact role of this river in different time spans, we can begin in some way to conceptualise its role in different periods. The Araxes Valley Archaeological Project (AVAP) was developed with the general aim of investigating settlement development from the fifth to the third millennium BC. Furthermore, studying the possible and probable routes of interaction, both inter- and intra-regional, between the Jolfa and Khoda Afarin plains and the southern Caucasus and north-western Iran, networks of contacts and exchange, and gaining a better understanding of the geographical characteristics of this area and its landscape were among our aims. In this article, the general history of occupation along this river is given to provide a preliminary database to understand the geographical and socio-political potential of this part in order to pursue more comprehensive studies in the future.
Richard Tapper's 1997 book, which is based on three decades of ethnographic fieldwork and extensive documentary research, traces the political and social history of the Shahsevan, one of the major nomadic peoples of Iran. The story is a dramatic one, recounting the mythical origins of the tribes, their unification as a confederacy, and their decline under the Pahlavi Shahs. The book is intended as a contribution to three different debates. The first concerns the riddle of Shahsevan origins, while another considers how far changes in tribal social and political formations are a function of relations with states. The third discusses how different constructions of the identity of a particular people determine their view of the past. In this way, the book promises not only to make a major contribution to the history and anthropology of the Middle East and Central Asia, but also to theoretical debates in both disciplines.
