https://www.hsaj.ir/ Heritage of Southwest Asia en daily 1 Sun, 21 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0330 Sun, 21 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0330 https://www.hsaj.ir/article_236294.html The Kingdom of Urartu (860–590 BCE), with its mountainous territory in eastern Anatolia, thrived in a dry and semi-arid environment with variable water resources during the Late Iron Age. This paper argues that the hydraulic engineering systems in the Urartian Kingdom serve as the strongest indirect evidence for the existence of climatic fluctuations and significant environmental pressures during the 9th to 7th centuries BCE. To ensure survival and consolidate the state, the Urartians developed complex hydraulic infrastructures, including long canals, dams, and water storage reservoirs, which represented technological adaptations to the mountainous environment. This study evaluates the scholarly debate between two models: the "hydraulic society" (state-driven central control) and "local initiative" (indigenous roots), based on the analysis of archaeological evidence and royal inscriptions. Additionally, the dual economic function of these systems is examined: not only for food production for humans but also as a sophisticated risk management strategy for the production of fodder to feed livestock in an agro-pastoral economy. Ultimately, the paper concludes that the scale of these projects, which acted as multi-generational investments to create resilience against environmental uncertainties, reveals the intensity of the climate-related risks perceived by the rulers and society of Urartu. https://www.hsaj.ir/article_233789.html The frontispieces of Qurans constitute one of the most valuable sources for tracing the evolution of manuscript illumination and book decoration across different historical periods. Through the examination of these frontispieces, it becomes possible to understand the stylistic development and transformation of Islamic book arts in Iran. The study of the ornamentation and gilding techniques used in Quranic frontispieces across successive eras provides a significant contribution to comparative research, particularly in determining the approximate date of undated manuscripts. This is crucial given that few dated Iranian Qurans from the early centuries have survived, and most information about them relies on secondary historical accounts. The primary aim of this research is to identify and compare the formal and decorative characteristics of Quranic frontispieces produced in Iran from the Abbasid to the Qajar period. It specifically addresses the question: How did the artistic and decorative styles of Iranian Quranic frontispieces evolve from the Abbasid to the Qajar era? This qualitative and comparative study analyzes 31 selected Quranic frontispieces preserved in Iranian and international museums and libraries. Documentary and visual analyses reveal that during the Abbasid period, surahs were typically separated by a rectangular band, often terminating with motifs resembling palm leaves along the margins. The earliest Qurans copied in Iran retained similar decorative patterns. The palm-leaf motifs, initially connected to the inscribed frontispieces, continued—with modifications in form and design—up to the 14th century CE (8th century AH). Over time, their prominence diminished, gradually shifting from the margins to the upper sections of the frontispieces. This transition ultimately paved the way for the development of crown-shaped frontispieces (sar-louh-e-tāji) characteristic of the late Safavid and Qajar manuscripts. Given that the tradition of Quran transcription and illumination was initially transferred from the Arab lands to Iran after the advent of Islam, it is reasonable to assume that early Iranian manuscript decoration followed the aesthetic conventions of its original centers. However, over time, these practices underwent notable transformations, eventually assuming distinctly Iranian artistic features in later periods.    https://www.hsaj.ir/article_235543.html The book "Anthropomorphic Clay Statues from Shahdad: Searching for Art, Ritual and Symbolism in Bronze Age Iran" is a 256-page volume comprising thirteen main chapters and an appendix. The content structure is designed to provide, alongside archaeological analyses, a well-documented and scholarly foundation for future research. The book opens with forewords by Adriano Rossi, President of ISMEO, and Jebrael Nokandeh, Research Institute of Cultural Heritage and Tourism (RICHT) and Director General of Iran National. It presents a rich collection of high-quality two-dimensional and three-dimensional images as well as archaeological drawings of the graves from ancient Shahdad. On this basis, the work may be regarded as one of the most systematic studies published to date on the clay anthropomorphic figurines recovered from Cemetery A of Shahdad, artifacts that, since the 1960s, have been recognized as among the most remarkable expressions of artistic production and ritual thought in Bronze Age Iran. Drawing upon re-examined documentation from Ali Hakemi’s excavations, as well as newly produced 3D scans, the authors, Dr. Nasir Eskandari Damaneh, Dr. Massimo Vidale, and Ms. Nina Rezaei have sought to reinterpret these figurines both from artistic and technical perspectives, and to analyze them within the broader contexts of funerary ideology, social representation, and cultural networks in southeastern Iran.       https://www.hsaj.ir/article_234637.html A comprehensive assessment of a historical building requires a holistic approach that fully recognizes its integrity; that is, the entire developmental trajectory of the structure must be thoroughly identified. This includes materials, mortars, construction details, procedural hierarchies, execution techniques, construction tools, the placement of structural elements and their interrelations, as well as the interaction between structural components and decorative features, piers, and all other constituent parts of the building. In constructing a karbandi, once the load-bearing bases are built according to the underlying plan, the primary load-bearing tavizehs are erected, followed by the installation of the intermediate elements (lengehs) upon them. From the initial stage of layout implementation to the construction of the araqchin (dome cap), the design and execution of a karbandi require continuous review and precise control of the construction process. Understanding the methods of assembling karbandi components and the techniques of execution monitoring can provide valuable insights into strategies for maintaining and conserving these traditional structures. The objective of this article is to elucidate the execution and control procedures of karbandi construction—particularly in rectangular layouts—based on the practical knowledge of traditional master builders and an examination of actual case studies. To this end, data were first collected through library research, direct field observations and measurements, and interviews with master craftsmen and conservation specialists. The geometric systems of the case studies were then reconstructed through three-dimensional modeling. The findings indicate that although the overall principles of karbandi construction among traditional Iranian builders are largely consistent, noticeable differences exist in the details. These variations relate to the arrangement of bricks in the lengehs and tavizehs, the filling materials, the araqchin, the formwork techniques, the geometric configuration of the base plan, and other aspects. Such variables are ultimately subject to the decisions of the executing architect, who determines the detailed specifications of these features. Moreover, during construction, the horizontal and vertical alignment of formworks and karbandi components is critically enhanced through the use of control instruments, significantly contributing to accuracy and structural precision.    https://www.hsaj.ir/article_238724.html Chlorite is a metamorphic rock that can be found in ophiolites or areas with a high degree of regional metamorphism. The stone was mostly considered within a wide cultural context and for long-term usage due to its unique, fashioned characters and prestigious green-grey color tone. Due to its low hardness, chlorite is relatively easy to carve, and was a material of choice for small artefacts. Around the Persian Gulf, this stone was excavated in prehistory and antiquity, which was used to make vessels and small objects from the Neolithic to modern days. Between the third and second millennium before the Common Era, in the south and southeast of Iran, chlorite objects were prestige objects associated with funerary practices and were traded over long distances. Since the first discoveries, there have been debates about their provenance, but because the archaeological knowledge about the fashioned raw reservoirs in these regions is deeply complex, the nature, chronology, and modalities of this chlorite production and trade are still largely unknown. Therefore, the goal of this research is to synthetise the differences between the three main styles traded around the Persian Gulf - namely the Intercultural, Umm an-Nar and Wadi Suq styles - and describe their particularities, distribution, and production areas. The basis of this part was the conception of some focal points, listing as exhaustively as possible the occurrences of chlorite artefacts, as well as the mapping of their distributions, and their formation in diverse geological contexts.