ebrahim ghezelbash

Arrajan (also spelled Argan and Arjan), the metropolis of the Arrajan Khureh, retained a chief political position in southwest Iran during the Sassanian and Islamic periods on the authority of the earliest Islamic historical sources. The merit of exploring the fortifications of this ancient city lies in the fact that, notwithstanding its eminence, the historical evidence lacks not only references to Arrajan’s fortifications but also any hints on the local fort dwellers’ resistances in recurrent occasions of invasion during the five centuries spanning Islam’s arrival in Iran to the Seljuk’s demise, which amounted to the city’s demolition. Archaeologically examining the construction date and the placement of the fortifications forming Arrajan’s defensive system, the role the elements of natural landscape played in the location of the forts, and whether or not the passive defense principles were abided by were the major objectives the present study pursued. Thus, here we attempted to provide answers to the following questions: 1) How did the natural landscape inform Arrajan’s defensive system? 2) To which periods do its forts and defensive and observing fortifications date back? 3) What was the place of its fortifications in the defensive system of the city? Drawing on the sources of Muslim historians and geographers as well as evidences from field surveys, we addressed these topics through a descriptive-historical approach. The results showed that Arrajan’s defensive system at the dawn of the city’s lifespan, i.e. the Sassanian period, was focused principally on controlling the northern and eastern gorges that gave access to the city, to the extent that three forts sat above Tang-e Takab.

Arrajan (also spelled Argan and Arjan), the metropolis of the Arrajan Khureh, retained a chief political position in southwest Iran during the Sassanian and Islamic periods on the authority of the earliest Islamic historical sources. The merit of exploring the fortifications of this ancient city lies in the fact that, notwithstanding its eminence, the historical evidence lacks not only references to Arrajan’s fortifications but also any hints on the local fort dwellers’ resistances in recurrent occasions of invasion during the five centuries spanning Islam’s arrival in Iran to the Seljuk’s demise, which amounted to the city’s demolition. Archaeologically examining the construction date and the placement of the fortifications forming Arrajan’s defensive system, the role the elements of natural landscape played in the location of the forts, and whether or not the passive defense principles were abided by were the major objectives the present study pursued. Thus, here we attempted to provide answers to the following questions: 1) How did the natural landscape inform Arrajan’s defensive system? 2) To which periods do its forts and defensive and observing fortifications date back? 3) What was the place of its fortifications in the defensive system of the city? Drawing on the sources of Muslim historians and geographers as well as evidences from field surveys, we addressed these topics through a descriptive-historical approach. The results showed that Arrajan’s defensive system at the dawn of the city’s lifespan, i.e. the Sassanian period, was focused principally on controlling the northern and eastern gorges that gave access to the city, to the extent that three forts sat above Tang-e Takab.

Climate change trend is at the forefront of global research priorities, so that in the case of rising temperatures in most countries, in particular, the warm and dry climate will be reduced by the presence of people in open spaces and refuge in open spaces. This reduces the health of people and diseases caused by the increase in temperature, in addition, energy consumption in buildings due to long-term use of closed space. Therefore, due to the need to provide climate solutions to improve the air quality of open spaces, this research seeks to measure the level of compatibility of the traditional courtyard with the climatic conditions in the city of Shiraz. In an attempt to answer this question, the use of a set of conditions such as percentage of open space, orientation, sky viewing angles, vegetation, water and specific materials can influence the comfort of heat and the amount of people using space. Therefore, with the aim of determining the priority of the effect of the above components, seven houses of the Qajar period in Shiraz were selected and using the ENVI-met 4 basic software, the thermal comfort level was calculated based on the PMV index. The results of the research indicate that the courtyards of the houses with the lowest visibility of the sky and the area have more shading, resulting in a better external thermal comfort for the inhabitants. However, factors such as shadowing of trees and the effect of moisture in water basins should not be ignored in stretching the rugged air of the central courtyards. The coefficients obtained from the analysis showed a significant correlation between the "average radiant temperature" and "PMV thermal comfort index" in the warm and dry climate of Shiraz. Kay words: Shiraz’s Houses, Climate wisdom, External thermal comfort, Central courtyard, ENVI-met,ghajar era.

Behbahan plain in Southwest of Iran, is a region where high peaks of the Zagros Mountain meet the lowland plains of Khuzistan. The plain, due to several rivers including the Maroun River which originates from the high peaks deep into the Zagros, and fertile lands has been a locus for nucleation and subsequent development of human settlements since prehistoric periods to the modern times. In August and October of 2007, the authors of this article were conducted a settlement survey in Mansour Abad area, North and Northeast of the Behbahan plain, covering 150 km. The principal aim of the survey was identification of ancient sites in an area which was subjected to seismic prospection for the Iranian Oil Company. In fact, it was a rescue operation to minimize the possible risks to the ancient sites of the area. The survey method was extensive using GPS to locate the surveyed sites on topographic maps with scale 1/25000. The surface materials were gathered using random survey. The surveyed region can be divided into several landscapes, including: Mansour Abad Plain, the hilltop rolling hills in North, East, Northeast and Northwest of the Behbehan Plain and the mountainous region including Khaeiz and Badil Mountains. The most important feature of the mountainous region is the existence of several valleies. At the end of the archaeological surveys of the Mansourabad region, in addition to known sites which have been identified previously during the Behbahan survey project, we could identify 55 sites ranging in date from the prehistory to the Late Islamic Period, with highest number at Middle Islamic Period. The surveyed sites could be divided into several types including mound, sherd/flint scatter, hill-top site, cave and various standing architectures including Imamzadeh (shrines), water-mills, fortresses, and settlement structures of the Islamic Period. These sites usually have low frequency of surface sherds, some none.

Qajar era houses of Shiraz in plan, spatial layout and architectural features are common with the principles and numerical proportions which some of the principles have associated relation with climatic conditions of the region. The present study sought to know the Compatible Archi-tectural characteristics with Climate in Qajar era houses of Shiraz/Iran, to achieve this purpose the structural patterns, Proportions and the manner of spatial relationships with each other and how their relation to the climate issues of paid. So, with the fieldwork and document review we analyzed Houses plans and architectural components such as: rooms, courtyards, pool and gar-den in particular from 13 houses of the Shiraz historical context and 30 houses samples from the historic Sar-bagh district. The results of this study show that: 1) Qajar era houses of Shiraz have different spatial proportions with the past era, we also face in conversion of cruciform hall to rectangular form and placement of hypostyle Ivan in front of hall rather than sash window.2) The proportions of length to width of the yard and halls around 1.4-1.2 which Iranian golden ratio is 1.73 that is why the account of the functional role of climate versus geometric design plans, the skylight of the length of the room.3) select location of the main areas according to the visual and motion axes were on the central part of the houses.4) The effect of climate on location, functional spaces than it has been in the priority.5) Coordination spaces and architec-tural elements such as: courtyards, halls, rooms, trees and materials with climatic conditions of the region conducive to suitable building orientation, mass planting of trees, the pond in the yard, large windows and layout of spaces is Tabeshband (vertical and horizontal curtains be-tween the door). The Halls has a breadth of vision first, and then right-most exposure, which shows the importance of visual and motor axis is not perpendicular to the longitudinal axis de-sign that houses the hall in the summer on the homestead, despite Share in cities with climates similar such as Yazd, Kashan, Isfahan and Dezful and gets, the story of this principle.The course was created to form introverted architecture and most of the houses in the central court-yard on three sides, and sometimes to the southwest - northeast to have been enjoying the fa-vorable winds of. There are multiple large windows adjacent to Tabeshband to accelerate the air conditioning, the placement of the main areas to the north and south, compact texture for shading, use of adobe and brick in walls hay thick thatch, wood and straw in the guise of two hollow shell beds, planting broadleaf trees ghosting, fruit and orange pile in the yard and a pond in front of the main hall, one of the most important factors in harmony with the principles of the climatic conditions of the region in the design of residential architecture of this period. Making porch columns with a ratio of 10% of the house with a yard in front of the Hall strain in the body instead of the sash, which generally have a communicative function and natural venti-lation, designers and residents shows more interest in space closed with 56% to 36% of total space allocated along the corridors and courtyard house with aspect ratio of nearly 1.2 square form, showing the importance of climate and its functional role in the home. Width ratio of 1.4 are in average in the halls, the importance of arithmetic to geometric proportions to retain heat in the winter and provide shade more settled and Tabstan Neshyn and exposure of the room, fit 2-2.2 in the East Chand dary Another noteworthy West. Undoubtedly, access to all aspects and details of architecture, construction and decoration of the houses require additional studies and research, by the same token, it is recommended that future research on this topic on issues such as the application of natural light house, concepts and reasons for ordering the colors associated with human issues, aesthetic, health and decorating the space in the shade and coolness, close examination rooms and the proportions of length and width of the yard and compared it with Iranian golden ratio is considered a master Pirnia focus.

Taj Amir Cemetery is located in southern side of Dena Mountain and east of Yasouj city in Kohgiluyeh and Boyerahmad Province. The cemetery was discovered in 2009 during the construction of Yasuj medical university. About 7 hectares of cemetery were destroyed and only 3 hectares remained intact. During an excavation project 16 graves were explored in the north of cemetery and geophysical survey to distinguish the extent of graveyards carried out in an about 2 ha. The most important structural features of the graves include, using rabble stone inside the chamber, placing a large stone in the southern parts of the graves as a symbol as well as constructing an entrance to the burial chamber. Pottery, bronze and stone objects were placed near the body might be functioned as burial gifts. According to archaeological evidence it seems probable that Taj Amir Cemetery may be related to the nomadic populations of about 2000 B.C. The present report summarizes the findings during the 1st season of excavation carried out in this cemetery.

Kohgilouyeh and Boyrahmad mountainous region has been played an important role in Iranian archaeology especially where the formation of nomadic communities is discussed. Through history different nomads have settled the region due to its moderate climate and fertile pasturelands. Archaeological studies having recently been conducted in this region have shown variant settlement sites which have temporally been used by these nomadic communities. One of these sites is Kombus Bonari which has been located in Choram county of Kohgilouyeh and Boyrahmad. In 2009, this site was precisely investigated by the authors to specify its real extent as well as its chronological orders. In this research our findings based on an archaeological and ethno-archaeological approaches is presented. It is important to say that Kombus Bonari provided us a diagnostic type of Islamic pottery known as Islamic Painted Potteries which have not been reported from the region before.