Volume 4, Issue 4 (English Issue 2025)
Archaelogy 2025, 4(4): 0-0 |
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Voisin J, Farnoud R. Protection of Access to Water Outside Fortified Sites in Ancient Iran: Protected Surface or Underground Access. Archaelogy 2025; 4 (4) : 5
URL: http://archj.richt.ir/article-10-2072-en.html
URL: http://archj.richt.ir/article-10-2072-en.html
1- Researcher & member of the Société Asiatique and of the Académie de l’eau (Paris)
2- Research Engineer
2- Research Engineer
Abstract: (244 Views)
Since the earliest antiquity, access to water and its securing around the fortified sites in Iran have led to both underground and surface water infrastructures. Depending on the era and the dominant civilizations—from the Medo-Urartian periods to the Sassanids—the methods evolved. However, the concern with securing access to water supply points, both for people and for livestock sheltered within fortified spaces, remained a constant response to times of uncertainty. Thus, in western Iran, efforts to obtain water mainly involved accessing springs and watercourses, often by building access tunnels for protection. In the east and center of the country, in semi-arid and arid zones, wells were dug. However, settlements located on elevated terrain were far from groundwater sources, and to avoid the difficulties of digging extremely deep wells, these were instead constructed outside the sites, lower on the slopes, with fortified access corridors leading to these water points. Observation and analysis of the location of these infrastructures reveal two main periods, each with distinct characteristics: the Medo-Urartian period on one hand, and the Sassanid period on the other.
Article number: 5
Keywords: Iran, Fārs, fortified sites, water infrastructures, Medo-Urartian period, Sassanid period.
Type of Study: Original Research Article |
Subject:
Historical period
Received: 2024/11/25 | Accepted: 2025/02/5 | Published: 2026/02/22
Received: 2024/11/25 | Accepted: 2025/02/5 | Published: 2026/02/22
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