Which ancient army boasted the largest fortifications, and how did the competitive build-up of military capabilities shape world history? Few realise that imperial Rome had a serious competitor in ...Late Antiquity. Late Roman legionary bases, normally no larger than 5ha, were dwarfed by Sasanian fortresses, often covering 40ha, sometimes even 125-175ha. The latter did not necessarily house permanent garrisons but sheltered large armies temporarily - perhaps numbering 10-50,000 men each. Even Roman camps and fortresses of the Early and High Empire did not reach the dimensions of their later Persian counterparts. The longest fort-lined wall of the late antique world was also Persian. Persia built up, between the fourth and sixth centuries AD, the most massive military infrastructure of any ancient or medieval Near Eastern empire - if not the ancient and medieval world. Much of the known defensive network was directed against Persia's powerful neighbours in the north rather than the west. This may reflect differences in archaeological visibility more than troop numbers. Urban garrisons in the Romano-Persian frontier zone are much harder to identify than vast geometric compounds in marginal northern lands. Recent excavations in Iran have enabled us to precision-date two of the largest fortresses of Southwest Asia, both larger than any in the Roman world. Excavations in a Gorgan Wall fort have shed much new light on frontier life, and we have unearthed a massive bridge nearby. A sonar survey has traced the terminal of the Tammisheh Wall, now submerged under the waters of the Caspian Sea. Further work has focused on a vast city and settlements in the hinterland. Persia's Imperial Power, our previous project, had already shed much light on the Great Wall of Gorgan, but it was our recent fieldwork that has thrown the sheer magnitude of Sasanian military infrastructure into sharp relief.
Which ancient army boasted the largest fortifications, and how did the competitive build-up of military capabilities shape world history? Few realise that imperial Rome had a serious competitor in ...Late Antiquity. Late Roman legionary bases, normally no larger than 5 ha, were dwarfed by Sasanian fortresses, often covering 40 ha, sometimes even 125-175 ha. The latter did not necessarily house permanent garrisons but sheltered large armies temporarily - perhaps numbering 10,000-50,000 men each. Even Roman camps and fortresses of the Early and High Empire did not reach the dimensions of their later Persian counterparts. The longest fort-lined wall of the late antique world was also Persian. Persia built up, between the fourth and sixth centuries AD, the most massive military infrastructure of any ancient or medieval Near Eastern empire - if not the ancient and medieval world. Much of the known defensive network was directed against Persia's powerful neighbours in the north rather than the west. This may reflect differences in archaeological visibility more than troop numbers. Urban garrisons in the Romano-Persian frontier zone are much harder to identify than vast geometric compounds in marginal northern lands. Recent excavations in Iran have enabled us to precision-date two of the largest fortresses of Southwest Asia, both larger than any in the Roman world. Excavations in a Gorgan Wall fort have shed much new light on frontier life, and we have unearthed a massive bridge nearby. A sonar survey has traced the terminal of the Tammisheh Wall, now submerged under the waters of the Caspian Sea. Further work has focused on a vast city and settlements in the hinterland. Persia's Imperial Power, our previous project, had already shed much light on the Great Wall of Gorgan, but it was our recent fieldwork that has thrown the sheer magnitude of Sasanian military infrastructure into sharp relief.
Significance
Goats were among the first domestic animals and today are an important livestock species; archaeozoological evidence from the Zagros Mountains of western Iran indicates that goats were ...managed by the late ninth/early eighth millennium. We assess goat assemblages from Ganj Dareh and Tepe Abdul Hosein, two Aceramic Neolithic Zagros sites, using complementary archaeozoological and archaeogenomic approaches. Nuclear and mitochondrial genomes indicate that these goats were genetically diverse and ancestral to later domestic goats and already distinct from wild goats. Demographic profiles from bone remains, differential diversity patterns of uniparental markers, and presence of long runs of homozygosity reveal the practicing and consequences of management, thus expanding our understanding of the beginnings of animal husbandry.
The Aceramic Neolithic (∼9600 to 7000 cal BC) period in the Zagros Mountains, western Iran, provides some of the earliest archaeological evidence of goat (
Capra hircus
) management and husbandry by circa 8200 cal BC, with detectable morphological change appearing ∼1,000 y later. To examine the genomic imprint of initial management and its implications for the goat domestication process, we analyzed 14 novel nuclear genomes (mean coverage 1.13X) and 32 mitochondrial (mtDNA) genomes (mean coverage 143X) from two such sites, Ganj Dareh and Tepe Abdul Hosein. These genomes show two distinct clusters: those with domestic affinity and a minority group with stronger wild affinity, indicating that managed goats were genetically distinct from wild goats at this early horizon. This genetic duality, the presence of long runs of homozygosity, shared ancestry with later Neolithic populations, a sex bias in archaeozoological remains, and demographic profiles from across all layers of Ganj Dareh support management of genetically domestic goat by circa 8200 cal BC, and represent the oldest to-this-date reported livestock genomes. In these sites a combination of high autosomal and mtDNA diversity, contrasting limited Y chromosomal lineage diversity, an absence of reported selection signatures for pigmentation, and the wild morphology of bone remains illustrates domestication as an extended process lacking a strong initial bottleneck, beginning with spatial control, demographic manipulation via biased male culling, captive breeding, and subsequently phenotypic and genomic selection.
The Gorgan Plain (NE Iran) is largely treeless today but it possibly was not in the past. We use palaeobotanical data from radiocarbon-dated sediments and archaeological excavations to investigate ...the extent and use of woodland under the Sasanian Empire (224–651 CE). Palynology, anatomical studies of charred and uncharred wood, insects and botanical macroremains have shed new light on this question. Palynological research points to natural origins of the open steppe vegetation in the Gorgan Plain contrasting to carpological and wood anatomy studies indicating wide use of trees and shrubs during the Sasanian period. As it shown by charcoal data, local sources provided enough firewood for kilns in short-term use, but were insufficient for supplying fortification garrisons which required additional supplies from the Hyrcanian forests. These forests provided the main source of firewood for sites located close to the Alborz Mountains. Cultivation of trees was widespread during the Sasanian era for fruits, shadow and possibly moriculture for silk production. Palaeobotanical records are still very rare in the Gorgan Plain. New data are a desideratum to gain further insights into woodland use before, during and after the Sasanian Empire.
Hellenistic ceramics and a clay sample from the archaeological site of Qizlar Qal'eh in Gorgan plain, northeastern Iran were examined through microchemical, mineralogical and ...thermogravimetric–differential thermal analyses to characterize the provenance and thermal behavior of the ceramics from Seleucid and early Parthian periods (2268±111BP, thermo-luminance date). Microstructural and mineralogical characteristics of the ceramics were also compared to the raw clay sample heated at two different heating rates. Thermal transformation of minerals and weight loss during firing indicate that the ceramic samples were locally produced and fired at different thermal stages at 718.1°C and 1023.8°C, 1047.7°C which can be related to mineral decomposition, new-crystallization, partial sintering and sintering.
•Thermal analyses of the ceramics and clay sample show the same chemical reaction.•Decomposition of calcite occurs between 635°C and 750°C.•Crystallization of new high-T mineral phases started at 850°C.•Thermal analyses indicate a local source and different firing temperatures.
Thermal degradation of planktonic and benthic foraminifera within the coarse wares of Qizlar Qaleh and clay from Khangiran Formation in Kopet Dagh basin, Iran, were examined at different temperature ...rates. Hyaline and agglutinated tests of foraminifera were investigated through Thermogravimetry (TG), Derivative thermogravimetry (DTG), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and Scanning Electron Microscope coupled with Energy Dispersive Spectrometry (SEM-EDS) to identify their thermal stability and chemical transformation from 500°C to 1000°C. TG/DTG and FTIR analyses show significant weight loss in the range of 750–800°C and a progressive decrease in the intensity of carbonate bands at 1424, 2514 and 875cm−1 (from 700°C, to 800°C) which indicates the release of CO2. In addition, the chemical characteristics of the agglutinated tests indicate high thermal stability due to their high silicate component. The complete decarbonization of hyaline tests occurred at around 800°C, whereas the agglutinated tests are still preserved at 1000°C. Finally, microstructural and microchemical analysis of foraminifera from the ancient ceramics and Khangiran clay indicated firing temperature of the ceramics at around 700–750°C. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) and a comparative TGA and FTIR analysis of the ceramics and the fired clay samples from Khangiran Formation also show a high intensity of calcite bands, indicating a firing temperature<750°C. This approach provides a new tool for estimating the firing temperatures of ancient ceramics.
•Thermal degradation of foraminifera was examined at different temperature rates.•TG-FTIR-EDS analyses show significant mass loss at 800°C.•Chemical characteristic of the agglutinated test indicates high thermal stability.•A comparative TGA, FTIR and EDS analysis indicates a firing temperature<750°C.
Aucune région du monde antique ne possède une concentration de fortifications militaires semblable à celle de la plaine de Gorgan. C’est aussi ici que nous trouvons la plus longue barrière linéaire ...renforcée de forts du monde de l’Antiquité tardive. Exception faite des forteresses urbaines, l’infrastructure militaire sassanide éclipse celle de l’État romain tardif. Cet article retrace l’évolution de la construction des infrastructures militaires depuis l’émergence soudaine des fortifications géométriques à la fin du ive ou au début du ve siècle jusqu’à leur abandon dans la première moitié du viie siècle. L’essor initial peut avoir été le résultat d’une pression hostile croissante, dans le nord et le nord-est de l’empire, à partir de la fin du ive siècle. La construction de fortifications a atteint son apogée au ve siècle, mais c’est au vie siècle que les forts du mur de Gorgan construits au ve siècle ont peut-être été occupés le plus densément. Le système a été maintenu jusqu’au viie siècle, bien qu’un certain nombre de fortifications dans l’arrière-pays ont vraisemblablement été abandonnées avant, et il n’y a pas encore de preuves de la construction de nouvelles installations dans les dernières décennies de la domination sassanide. Cet investissement massif a non seulement protégé la plaine de Gorgan mais aussi formé l’épine dorsale des défenses sassanides, vitales pour protéger le coeur de l’empire. Il a par ailleurs permis à l’empire de lancer des opérations militaires sur d’autres frontières.
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