A Reflection on the Function of some of the interior elements of Sassanid fire temples: Matching the eastern Fars and western Kerman regions’ discoveries with western Iran’s findings

The proposed functions for some of the interior elements in the Sassanid fire temples have been always based on the finds in the western regions of Iran, while the same materials from the southern Iran have been neglected. The discovered stone and plaster bases which are usually interpreted as fireplaces’ bases have been observed in some sites on southern Iran, as well as several stone-plaster platforms which can give us some insightful information about the religious culture of Sassanid empire in the southern Iran. The present study tries to uncover the function of these architectural elements based on the archeological evidences from southern Iran especially eastern Fars and western Kerman and comparing them with the results obtained in other regions, written resources and also Zoroastrian traditions. The nature of the present study is historical and analytical – descriptive and the data collection method followed the field studies and library researches methods. All of the obtained and related evidences were collected and compared with the same monuments and finally the results were matched with the written sources and Zoroastrian traditions.The common points between the discoveries in eastern Fars and western Kerman and the evidences obtained from Takht-e Soleiman and Eslamabad-e Gharb is that in all them the platform have been extended until the center of the cruciform space. The results of the present research revealed that probably the stone – plaster platforms in the religious Sassanid sites in southern Iran are the equivalent of the plaster bases or platforms discovered in Sassanid fire temples in western Iran, known as the T-form platforms. Their function can be related to Yazišn and their surrounding space can be interpreted as the yazišngāh or urwīsgāh. The present study attempts to make a logical connection between the archeological evidences and written resources in order to identify the function of the interior architectural elements inside Sassanid fire temples.