An Investigation of Archaeological Excavation (Sondage) Results and Analysis of the Symbolic Motifs of Tombstones in the Sefidchah Historical Cemetery

Sefid Chah Historical Cemetery is one of the largest and oldest cemeteries of the Islamic era, whose oldest tombs date back to the early Islamic centuries. Sefid Chah village is in the Yanehsar section of Behshahr city in Mazandaran province. This study aims to sondage and set the limit of this area, analyze the tombstone motifs, and compare it with other similar cemeteries in other parts of Iran. One of the questions of this research is the main reason for the burial sequence during different periods in this cemetery? Moreover, what was the reason for the importance of this cemetery for the people of this region? The present research hypothesis in answer to this question is that due to its mountainous and impassable Yaneh Sar, this region has been a haven and refuge for the opponents of the Bani Umayyad and Bani Abbas governments since the beginning of Islam. Therefore, this region is the burial place of many shrines. Also, the people from the distant past believe that due to this region’s high lime and soil type, their corpses decompose late and last longer, and for this reason, it sanctified from the distant past. In this research, using sondage, surface survey study, and objective observations, have been determined to set the limit of cemetery and analysis of the tombstones of this historic cemetery. The results show that most of the tombstones in this cemetery include Islamic, geometric, and symbolic motifs. Its monuments are very similar to the tombstones of Darul Salam Cemetery in Shiraz and Nahar Khoran Cemetery in Gorgan. Due to no discovery of cultural materials, this area has been used only as a cemetery since the early Islamic centuries.