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Formation and Destruction of Pastoral and Irrigation Landscapes on the Mughan Steppe, North-Western Iran

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2007

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10.1017/S0003598X00094904

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Antiquity Publications
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Alizadeh, Karim and Jason A. Ur. 2007. Formation and destruction of pastoral irrigation landscapes on the Mughan Steppe, north-western Iran. Antiquity 81(311): 148–160.

Abstract

CORONA satellite photography taken in the 1960s continues to reveal buried ancient landscapes and sequences of landscapes – some of them no longer visible. In this new survey of the Mughan Steppe in north-western Iran, the authors map a ‘signature landscape’ belonging to Sasanian irrigators, and discover that the traces of the nomadic peoples that succeeded them also show up on CORONA – in the form of scoops for animal shelters. The remains of these highly significant pastoralists have been virtually obliterated since the CORONA surveys by a new wave of irrigation farming. Such archaeological evaluation of a landscape has grave implications for the heritage of grassland nomads and the appreciation of their impact on history.

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Sasanian, Iran, aerial survey, archaeological formation process, CORONA satellite survey, landscape evaluation

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http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:4269028

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