Formation of Urban Architectural Features of the Achaemenid Period at the Dahan-e Gholaman

The Achaemenid site of Dahan-i Gholaman is located in Sistan province (Ancient Zaranka). This city formed at the beginning of the Achaemenid period without any background of establishment and abandoned after 150 years. The water of site is supplied through transferring water from one of Hirmandchr('39')s branches and supported by favorable agricultural land and the canebrake around Hamoon. Architectural structures of this site concerning the local conditions are built by using indigenous materials like mud-brick. As well as the scattering of structures of this city adapted with natural capabilities, followed the Persian style based on social texture and Indo-European caste and creates several different city blocks (parish), the pattern that continues by the welcoming of urban communities in the Near East during the Parthian and Sasanian historical periods. Also, a model which has been the factor of forming urban texture in the royal cities of the Achaemenid period can be seen in a different style in this site. Although the formation of this city was influenced by the Achaemenid elite in the Sistan region, its abandonment happened to its inhabitants due to the lack of urbanization or urban identity. However, based on the accumulation of native architectural memory in this area, it assumes that from the late Bronze Age and the end of the Shahr-e Soukhte to the Achaemenid period, there were settlements in this area, in spite of the lack of archaeological evidence.