Investigation Architectural Homogeneity and Heterogeneity of Firuz Abad to Parthian Architecture

Our knowledge about construction at the Sassanid period has had many shortcomings except few cases. Records of architectural achievements of one of the vast and powerful empires of near east are only ruins of few palaces and dozens of fire temples that combine to few small structures such as bridges, and dams. There are many structures assigning to Sassanids, however, only a few ones exactly date to the Sassanid period, whereas the rest ambiguously dates to the Sassanid period. New architectural school emerged at Sassanid period, not only consisted Sassanid architectural style, but also it was foundation for later Islamic architecture of Iran and other countries; domical roofs of bricks, stone piers, pillars of stone and chalk that buttressed walls, brick domical roofs on cubes, and great halls with vaulted porticos [ivan] if only one introduce few innovations. Undoubtedly, roman and middle east artistic features influenced Sassanid architecture, however, considering comprehensive archaeological investigations, the contemporary architecture influenced by neighboring cultures, but also one can suggest it as the trajectory of Parthian architecture, reviving Iranian architectural tradition that shows little difference between Parthian and Sassanid buildings, regardless Sassanid domes. Furthermore, initiation of domes rooted in Parthian periods, regarding ruins of Kuh-i-Khaje, Sistan. Parthian legacy penetrated to Sassanid arts. As renaissance with national characteristics, it transformed exquisite foreign features to Iranian characters that influence eastern and western civilizations. The present paper attempts to introduce and analyze the palace of Firuz Abad as the first vaulted and domical Sassanid structure, then compare homogeneity and heterogeneity of the structure to Parthian ones to achieve a reasonable conclusion.