Project Details
Projekt
Parthian Imperial Control and Local Agency in the Central Zagros Highlands
Applicant
Michael Brown, Ph.D.
Subject Area
Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies
Term
since 2019
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 423891597
During the late first millennium BC–early first millennium AD, the foothills and mountains of the central Zagros constituted an internal hinterland of the Parthian Empire, with its own distinct cultural and political configuration. As a natural barrier between the Iranian plateau and the Mesopotamian plain, this region plays an important role structuring overland communication, and by extension highland-lowland interactions, which often took the form of imperial incursion. A characteristic type of highland settlement during the Parthian period are citadels surrounded by large enclosures. These fortifications augment naturally defensible terrain and represent an extension of the surrounding landscape. In addition to controlling strategic intermontane routes, such centres were venues for contact between their vassal rulers and local populations. While manifestations of imperial control were typically short-lived, longer-term resilience is apparent in the subsistence strategies of mountain peoples who habitually practiced pastoralism. Our cross-border (Iran-Iraq) approach enables us to reconstruct a contiguous archaeological dataset from east to west across the Zagros Mountains. Fieldwork results from SPP Phase 1 have expanded our knowledge of settlement and society during the Parthian-era, and highlight several key themes for further investigation. Our planned Phase 2 study will explore in more detail how fortified centres interact with neighbouring populations. Pastoralists are attested in Classical era texts and indirectly through the paleoenvironmental record, but are inherently difficult to detect and date using archaeology. The position of several ancient fortifications in the Hawraman region of Iran relate to paths traditionally used by semi nomadic pastoralists moving between winter pastures in the valley and seasonal mountain villages (Hawar). Practicalities of transhumance and territorial control in highland regions can be partly reconstructed using survey data combined with GIS viewshed analysis. By far the most expansive site in our Zagros survey region during the Parthian period was the fortress of Rabana-Merquly, located on the western flank of Mt. Piramagrun in Iraqi Kurdistan. This consists of two adjoining settlements linked by a series of perimeter defensive walls. Our investigations have shown how this and other major Parthian era fortresses served a variety of societal functions in addition to military control. Continuing excavations at Rabana’s ‘sanctuary’ complex will explore the site’s possible role as a pilgrimage destination.
DFG Programme
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