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Showing 2 results for Kangir Dam

Leila Khosravi,
year 5, Issue 17 (12-2021)
Abstract

Abstract
Jahangir site, which located in the western part of Sasanian Empire, had been excavated, since 2016 unitl 2019 during the constructing of Kangir Dam in Ilam province. Three architecture phases and plan of a huge building contained 11 spaces had been revealed during three seasons of excavations, and S.XI also revealed in the fourth season of archaeological excavations. Following the research problems of the previous seasons, the most important aim of this season of excavation, is to obtain the connection between the constructions and spaces with the main hall, and also to distinguish the availability and the entrance of the main hall. Maybe a religious function could be imagined for this structure Or it can be a structure for fermenting materials for beer and wine production and portable finds, led us to the new dimensions of Sasanian art, with the indigenous identity. The first stage of the settlements goes back to the pre-historic in the northern part. This site had been used also in Parthian period. A complex of buildings had been constructed in Sasanian era in the central part of the site. The results of dating experiments approve the date of Sasanian for Jahangir site, while the discovery of a Derakhma from Shapour II, shows that the site had been used continuously from the middle Sasanian period until Early Islamic. Gathering the data of this study is based on field study, library and laboratory studies, and descriptive-analytical method. The results of the excvations in this site, concludes the realization of social process of the high-ranked level of Sasanian society in the region according to the royal-local architecture methods.
Keywords: Jahangir, Architecture, Sasanian, Kangir Dam, Ilam.

Introduction
The Jahangir Building is located 25 km southeast of the Eyvan township in Ilam Province within an inter mountain valley next to Sartang village. In Jahangir 17-hectare site, several large monuments and two cemeteries are visible. After four seasons of excavations in central mound, the plan of some parts of an enormous building including 11 spaces, an area in 832 m2 have been revealed. Jahangir building include hall, Eyvan, rooms and courtyard. The walls, arcades, arcs and stuccos exist in this building, and the mortars are rubbles and semi-baked and semi-impressed plaster. These materials are quick and pressure and stretching persistent. The height of the walls are different, those made by floating the slabs in mortars and covered them with a plaster/gypsum layer.
The S.II, S.III, S.V, S.VII, S.IX, S.XI were one of the most important architectural spaces revealed in S.XI. This space in the size of 15.5×12.5 meters, in fact is the continue of the S.I, in order to revealing the connection between central mound and rectangular halls. The Western gate of rectangular and a round-shaped construction made by slabs and plaster in 2.45 meters distant from the West of the entrance have been found. In order to forming the round-shaped space, especially in outer part, the molded stuccos with a curve into the inside. The diameter of this construction is between 2.30 to 2.45 meters and depth of 64 cm(s). 
In the Northeast of the floor, there is a round curved part, which is a closed space and have not any pores, and covered by plaster/gypsum. In the absence of any cultural materials related to this structure, it is hard to recognize the function. There were even no traces of debris inside inner part and intentionally filled with a soft brown clay, and there were no trashes or ruin. This structure related to the second settlement plaster floor. In other words, the round-shaped structure with 45 cm(s) height from the first settlement floor, had been built in later periods. Maybe a religious function could be imagined for this structure or it can be a structure for fermenting materials for beer and wine production. The only similar and comparable specie is in Kish palace, which are round-shaped lavers with covered floor besides the vaulted room jahangir, which will describe in detail.
The fourth season of excavations at the site was carried out to explore the relation between different structures and spaces discovered in previous seasons. Excavations began in the main hall of the building, clearing the path between the two parts, and opening the entrance to the main hall. In addition to exposing the main entrance in the middle of the west wall of the building, we also found the remains of a stair way, a round gypsum construct and a feature attached to the southeastern corner of the main hall, as well as valuable portable finds. 
In this Season, a cut was made at the layers exposed in the north side of space XI in order to study the stratigraphy of the building, finding two clay and gypsum floors some 4-7 and 3-5 cm thick. This observation supports other finds from the building that there are two construction phases. The lower floor is an stamped layer of brownish soil-252 cm deep dating to Parthian period on which the Jahangir Building was constructed in the Sasanian period. 
In this season of excavations we came across a number of noteworthy facts. First, the site came into attention in Parthian period, but it was in the Sasanian period that a set of building were constructed here, especially in its central part. Dating of finds from previous seasons all point to a date in late Sasanian period, but the discovery of a silver coin of Shapour II in this season, suggests that this building may have been built in middle Sasanian period and continued to be used through early centuries AH It was then used by nomadic people. Three construction phases casn be discerned in the building phase 1 using cobbles and gypsum mortar a building was erected on the earher Parthian remains; phase 2 additional stone structures have been added to the building and repairs have been made, and phase 3 when the building was abandoned and used by nomads.

Conclusion
The pottery found in this season is similar to what we have found in previous seasons. The only difference is that we found some typical clinky ware on Feature no. 87, i.e , the last feature excavated in this season, supporting our hypothesis that the Sasanian building was erected on top of a Parthian settlement. We also found some gypsum stuccos with floral and geometric decoration, as well as examples with reverse motifs within different geometric frames reminiscent of the previous season’s finds. Finds include the aforementioned silver coin, in addition to glass, bone implements, and floral remains.

Arash Lashkari,
year 10, Issue 35 (6-2026)
Abstract

The archaeological excavation of the Zich site formed part of the salvage archaeology program conducted in the reservoir area of the Kangir Dam, located in the Zarneh district of Iwan County, in the northwestern part of Ilam Province. The results of this investigation, based on the systematic survey of nine 100×100 m grid units, the excavation of eight test trenches measuring between 2×2 m and 3×3 m, and the excavation of four trenches ranging in size from 5×5 m to 10×10 m, ultimately led to the identification of a temporary settlement, or nomadic campsite. The study of the architectural remains and surviving architectural features exposed in the excavation trenches, together with their comparative analysis against contemporary regional examples, indicates that Zich was a single-phase, short-term temporary settlement used by mobile pastoralist groups. The settlement pattern at the site appears to have consisted of tents, each enclosed by one- or two-course dry-stone walls and separated from one another by the same one- or two-row stone alignments. Comparative analysis of the ceramics and other materials recovered from all four excavation trenches dates the occupation of the site to the early Islamic centuries, specifically the 2nd to 3rd centuries AH. Zich appears to have developed because of several favorable locational factors; its suitable topographic setting, proximity to a perennial spring and the Kangir River, nearness to the Guriyeh structure, the presence of dense pastureland, and its position along one of the old tribal routes running parallel to the Kangir River, which connected the Kermanshah region to the warmer areas south of Iwan County. The study of the structures and built remains of present-day nomadic communities constitutes one of the most effective and precise scientific approaches for achieving a better understanding of the architectural organization of ancient mobile pastoralist societies, and it falls within the scope of ethnoarchaeological research. On the basis of the settlement practices of a contemporary tribal community, the present study examines the settlement pattern of a nomadic campsite within its local landscape. The data were collected through field survey and excavation, following the conventional methods of archaeological and ethnoarchaeological research carried out in the region.


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