An Imperial Frontier and its Landscape: the Gorgan and Tammisha Walls in North-East Iran

Project information

Project

Academic field:

Affiliation:

A primary aim of the project is to employ modern archaeological techniques to date this 195 km long baked brick wall and place it within its landscape context. Although ostensibly to protect the inhabited lands of NE Iran from the incursion of nomadic groups from the central Asian steppe, there is clearly more to this wall than meets the eye. Discoveries by our Iranian colleagues, now confirmed by fieldwork in 2005, demonstrate that the wall is associated with a massive system of water supply consisting of earthen dams and canals. These associated landscape features must be recorded and analyzed before the entire feature can be understood.

Funders:

Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)

arts-humanities.net

Principal investigator:

Dr Eberhard Sauer

Principal project staff:

Eberhard Sauer, T.J. Wilkinson

Start date:

Friday, September 1, 2006

Completion date:

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Era:

The Ancient World

Place:

Middle East

Source material:

Bartington Grad 601/2 magnetometer and TR Systems earth resistance meter. Downloaded and procesed using ArcheoSurveyor. Held by by the Archaeology Data Service, York with copies held by Dr Eberhard sauer of Edinburgh University.

Data formats:

Publications:

Publications on the project with generous support by the AHRC (from 2006) including some on the pilot study in 2005

1. Nokandeh, J., Sauer, E., Omrani Rekavandi, H., Wilkinson, T., Abbasi, G.A., Schwenninger, J.-L., Mahmoudi, M., Parker, D., Fattahi, M., Usher-Wilson, L.S., Ershadi, M., Ratcliffe, J. and Gale, R., 2006 ‘Linear Barriers of Northern Iran: The Great Wall of Gorgan and the Wall of Tammishe.’ Iran 44: 121-73.
2. Omrani Rekavandi, H., Sauer, E., Wilkinson, T. and Safari Tamak, E., 2006 ‘Linear Barriers of Northern Iran: The Great Wall of Gorgan.’ The British Institute of Persian Studies Newsletter 29 (November 2006): 4.
3. Omrani Rekavandi, H., Sauer, E., Nokandeh, J. and Nazifi, A., with Ershadi, M. (design), 2007 ‘A Linear Barrier of Northern Iran: The Great Wall of Gorgan.’ [English version]/ ‘????? ???? ????? :????? ???? ??? ????’ [Persian version], Gorgan, pp. 2 [an illustrated brochure].
4. Omrani Rekavandi, H., Sauer, E., Wilkinson, T., Safari Tamak, E., Ainslie, R., Mahmoudi, M., Griffiths, S., Ershadi, M., Jansen Van Rensburg, J., Fattahi, M., Ratcliffe, J., Nokandeh, J., Nazifi, A., Thomas, R., Gale, R. and Hoffmann, B., 2007 ‘An Imperial Frontier of the Sasanian Empire: further fieldwork at the Great Wall of Gorgan.’ Iran 45: 95-136.
5. Omrani Rekavandi, H., Sauer, E., Wilkinson, T. and Nokandeh, J., 2008 ‘The enigma of the ‘Red Snake’: Revealing one of the World’s Greatest Frontier Walls.’ Current World Archaeology 27: 12-22 & cover page, cf. 5 (see http://www.shca.ed.ac.uk/staff/academic/esauer/pubs/iranian_walls.pdf).

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