NMVARNMEH

PAPERS
IN HONOUR OF
MASSOUD AZARNOUSH
Editors
Hamid Fahimi and Karim Alizadeh
IranNegar Publicaon
Tehren, 2012
NMVARNMEH; PAPERS IN HONOUR OF MASSOUD AZARNOUSH
Edited by: Hamid Fahimi and Karim Alizadeh
Persian eding: Mehran Gholami, Hamid Fahimi and Elahe Salar
English eding: Susan Pollock
Abstracts translated by: Mehrdad Saeedi, Hamid Fahimi and Mozhgan Seyedin
Control and execuve by: Hamid Fahimi and Mehran Gholami
Design and layout by: Vahid Rouzbahani
Technical supervisor: Mohammad Bagheri Borouj and Mehran Gholami
Published by: IranNegar
ISBN: 978-600-92906-1-1
Iranian naonal bibliography number: 2662439
Turn of rst print: Autumn 2012
Price: 50 $/ 38 (Online purchase: www.adinehbook.ir)
In collaboraon with: Ganjine-ye Naghsh-e Jahan
Address: No. 7, Apt. 7, Janna Alley, Azadi St., Enghelab Sq., Tehran, Iran. Tel. +98 21 66907428.
P. O. BOX of Ganjine-ye Naghsh-e Jahan: 13145-431, Tehran, Iran
www.ganj.ir
All rights reserved by Ganjine-ye Naghsh-e Jahan Co. Ltd
5 Foreword; Hamid Fahimi and Karim Alizadeh
9 Remembrances; Farhang Azarnoush
13 A Brief Review of the Life of Massoud Azarnoush; Roya Tajbakhsh and Hamid Fahimi
Papers in English
19 The Arsanjan Prehistoric Project and the Signicance of Southern Iran in Human
History; Akira Tsuneki
31 Commensality and Social Life from the Neolithic to the Bakun Period; Susan
Pollock
43 Disconnuies and Connuies: Construcng a Chronology from the Evidence at
Neolithic Tol-e Bashi, Fars; Reinhard Bernbeck
55 Paerns of Change during the Transional Process from Chalcolithic Cultures to the
Bronze Age in Northeastern Iran, Based on Poery Studies; Emran Garazhian
69 The Dead in 5
th
Millennium BC Darre-ye Bolaghi: First Evidence on Bakun-Period
Burial Rites from Southern Iran; Barbara Helwing, Kirsi O. Lorentz and Mozhgan
Seyedin
79 Glypc Art of Konar Sandal South, Observaons on the Relave and Absolute
Chronology in the Third Millennium BCE; Holly Piman
95 Stone Vessels from Tepe Hesar: Manufacture, Typology, Distribuon, 4
th
-2
nd
Millennia
B.C.; Michle Casanova and Sedigheh Piran
107 Some Metal Belts from Hasanlu; Karen S. Rubinson
113 Reconsidering the Chronology of the Iron Age in Gilan by Using Poery Excavated
from Tappe Jalaliye; Takuro Adachi
119 Tappeh Hegmataneh and Ancient Ecbatana; Rmy Boucharlat
131 Most Ancient Fire Temples: Wishful Thinking Versus Reality; Barbara Kaim
139 Socio-economic Condion during the Sasanian Period on the Mughan Steppe,
Iranian Azerbaijan; Karim Alizadeh
153 Some Remarks on the Use of Dressed Stone Masonry in the Architecture of Sasanian
Iran; Pierfrancesco Callieri
163 A Bulla of the rn-Sphbed of Nmrz; Touraj Daryaee and Keyvan Safdari
167 Micro-archaeology: A Suitable Tool to Invesgate Pracce, Process and the Use of
Space; Sepideh Saeedi
177 Risk Management Strategies among Pastoralists: The Basseri and Lurs of
Southwestern Iran; Masumeh Kimiaie
185 An Unholy Quartet: Museum Trustees, Anquity Dealers, Scienc Experts, and
Government Agents; Oscar White Muscarella
Papers in Persian
198 Bemerkungen zu den Chahar Taqs (Vierborgenbauen) von Qasr-i Shirin und Izadkhast;
Wolfram Kleiss, translated by Mehrdad Saeedi
214 Assyria in 19
th
Century French and Brish Thought; Kamyar Abdi
226 Taq-e Kasra, Espanbar-Ctesiphon: A Report of a Visit; Hamid Fahimi
Contents
NMVARNMEH;
PAPERS IN
HONOUR OF
M. AZARNOUSH 4
246 Revision of the Hegmataneh Relave Chronology Based on Cultural Materials; Ali
Hozhabri
254 Invesgang Bird Design on the Poeries Discovered in Stragraphic Excavaons at
Tepe Hegmataneh; Roya Tajbakhsh
266 The Descripon of Mud-Bricks Used in the Architectural Structures of Tepe
Hegmataneh; Sepideh Maziar
282 Istakhr Fort and a Newly Discovered Sasanian Inscripon; Ahmad Ali Asadi
296 Architecture of the Great Wall of Gorgan; Jebrael Nokandeh, Hamid Omrani Rekavandi
and Ghorban Ali Abbasi
318 Archaeological Invesgaons in the Region of Kriyn-Larestan, the Supposed Seat
of the Adur Farnbagh; Alireza Askari Chaverdi and Barbara Kaim
328 Sasanid Architecture of Kohandezh, Nishapur; Rajab Ali Labaf khaniki and Meysam
Labaf Khaniki
350 Imarat-e Khosrow in View of the First Season of the Archaeological Excavaons;
Yusef Moradi
376 An Underground Elimaean Tomb at Saaleh Davood; Mehdi Rahbar
394 History of the Producon of Incense Materials in Relaon to Perfume, Cosmec,
Medical and Food Spices in Ancient Iran; Arman Shishegar
406 Motalla Kooh; First Known Iron Age Selement in Amlash Area; Vali Jahani
424 Shamshirgah; The First Archaeological Invesgaon; Hamid Fahimi
438 Results from Archaeological Survey in Dam Kharsan II Area; Parsa Ghasemi
458 Zur Bedeutung Irans fr die Erforschung prhistorischer Kupfermetallurgie; Vincent
C. Pigo, translated by Keyvan Shari
476 Archaeological Landscape of Eastern Coast of Gavkhuni Marsh; Mohammad Esmail
Esmaili Jolodar
496 Selement Paern of the Farsan Plain from the Prehistoric to the Islamic Period;
Alireza Khosrowzadeh
508 Report on the Archaeological Survey of Mehran and Anaran District in Dehluran,
Ilam Province; Mohsen Zeidi
514 Applicaon of Geographical Informaon Systems: Analyzing Spaal Data from the
Karaj and Qazvin Plains; Lili Niakian
524 Mortuary Pracces in the Late Bronze Age at Dinkhah Tepe; Mozhgan Seyedin
540 Khanileh: New Evidence of Chalcolithic and Early Historic Occupaons from
Northwest of the Kermanshah Plain, Central Zagros; Yousf Hassanzadeh, M. Karami,
F. Bahrololoomi, K. Taheri, A. Tahmasbi, A. Moradi Bisetouni and F. Biglari
556 Excavaons in Square O at Shahr-e Sokhteh; Hossein Moradi and Seyed Mansour
Seyed Sajjadi
566 Shahdad, Then and Now; Mir Abedin Kaboli
580 Evidence of the Neolithic to Early Bronze Age Selement in the Ferim Plain;
Excavaon at Tepe Sad; Ali Mahfrouzi
586 A Study and Analysis of Late Neolithic Obsidian at Qousha Tepe, Meshkin Shahr;
Hassan Derakhshi and Alireza Hozhabri Nowbari
606 The Upper Paleolithic Period in Iran and its Place in Southwestern Asia; Elham
Ghasidiyan
626 The Corridor of Iran; Early Modern Human Dispersal into the Iranian Plateau: A
Geographical Perspecve; Saman Heydari-Guran
661
In 2009 there were plans to publish a large number of bullae from Iran under the direcon
of Dr. Massoud Azarnoush, Mr. Yousef Moradi and myself.
1
However, due to the unmely
death of Dr. Azarnoush not only was the plan scrapped, but Sasanian archaeology in Iran
lost its most important proponent and scholar. In remembrance of the plans and dreams
that were shared with Dr. Azarnoush we would like to dedicate to him this brief essay on
a bulla belonging to one of the Sasanian generals from the sixth-seventh centuries CE. In
2001, R. Gyselen brought to light bullae impressions that conrmed the literary evidence
that the Sasanian Empire was militarily paroned into four parts in the sixth century CE.
2

Prior to this, literary sources suggested that administravely, four chanceries (dwns) were
created for the empire, a fact later conrmed by the numismac evidence.
3
In an important
arcle, G. Gnoli suggested that there certainly was a military quadriparon as well, where
rnahr was placed under the control of four generals (sphbeds). This was done as a reac-
on to the incursions from the four corners of the Sasanian Empire.
4
However, according to
him, this military reform was short lived because of the polical upheaval of the late Sasa-
nian period, but its traces remained in the Arabic and Persian sources.
5

Inially there had been a single general, the rn-Sphbed who was in charge of the
enre Sasanian military. The h century CE, however, had seen new pressures and inva-
sions of the Sasanians from the east, causing the murder of at least one of their kings,
Prz, by the Hephthalites. This was combined with the Roman froner wars in the west,
and the Arab raids into the empire from the south. All these made it crucial for the empire
to be able to deal with problems on several fronts. Consequently, four generals were placed
in charge of each quarter or kust: 1) kust xwarsn quarter of the northeast; 2) kust
xwarwarn quarter of the southwest; 3) kust nmrz quarter of the southeast; and 4)
kust drbdagn quarter of the northwest. Interesngly, this division into four quarters
resembles the divisions in the later Roman Empire, where there were Praefectura praetorio
1. Touraj Daryaee.
2. Gyselen 2001.
3. Gurnet 1994.
4. Gnoli 1985.
5. Ibid., 270.
A Bulla of the rn-Sphbed of Nmrz
Touraj Daryaee and Keyvan Safdari

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NMVARNMEH;
PAPERS IN
HONOUR OF
M. AZARNOUSH 164
6. Ostrogorsky 1990: 35.
7. Thalib, Tarkh Thalib, Noqreh
Publishers, Tehran, 1368, p. 393:
Masd, Murj al-dhab w-madin
al-jawhr, Tehran, 1384, II.211.2.
8. Christensen 1944: 371; F. Altheim
1954: 138; Frye 1983: 333; Frye 1985:
154; Brunner 1985: 750; Morony
1984: 28.
9. Marquart 1901: 16.
10. Thalib 1989 (1368): 393.
11. Kreyenbroek 1985: 152.
12. Gyselen 2007.
per Orientem prefecture of the East; Praefectura praetorio per Illyricum prefecture of
Greece and the Balkans; Praefectura praetorio Illyrici, Italiae et Africae prefecture of Il-
lyrium, Italy and Lan Africa; and Praefectura praetorio Galliarum prefecture of Roman
Britain and the Iberian Peninsula.
6
The Middle Persian, Islamic and Armenian sources all discussed the quadriparon of
the Sasanian Empire,
7
and this is supported by modern scholars.
8
There is certainly some
inconsistency to be found in this division. For example, Moses Xorenatsi discussed such a
scheme,
9
but its exact division was contradicted by other literary sources. Xorenatsi places
Frs and Sstn in the kus nemrog (Middle Persian kust nmrz), while Thaalib placed
Sstn in the quarter of the East, kust Xorsn (Middle Persian kust xwarsn), and Frs
in the kust nmrz.
10
The reason for the dierences may lie in the nature and me of the
various reforms and divisions, which began at the ming of Kawd and were connued unl
the late sixth century by Khusr I. We can certainly state that there were not only a military,
but also administrave and religious quadriparons as well, where the kust was under the
control of a rad spiritual master.
11
It is because of Gyselens work that the Sphbed bullae, mainly based on the collecon of
A. Saeedi, have come to light in order to conrm our late anque and medieval historians.
12

As most of the evidence unl now has come from the Saeedi collecon, it is worth publish-
Private Collecon.
501
165

A Bulla of the rn-Sphbed of Nmrz

13. C. Cere has informed me that along
with D. Akbarzadeh they are to pub-
lish the bullae collecon from Khoy,
which includes some Sphbed bullae.
14. Gyselen 2001: 30.
15. Gyselen 2001: 36; Gyselen 2007:
252.
16. Gyselen 2001: 43.
ing new bullae evidence from another collecon, that of K. Safdari. The single Sphbed bulla
published here is from an unknown provenance, but it of course originated from Iran.
13

The bulla is not in perfect shape, and some of the leers have weathered. As far as we
could make a reading it is as follows (from the outer to inner circle):
LBA yln kwsty ZY nym..cy whlmzdy
t sphpty
wuzurg rn kust nm..zohrmazd
t sphbed
This bulla matches that of Gyselens seal 2b in her catalogue published in Rome, and if
we are to accept her reading the order should be as such:
whlmzdy LBA yln kwsty ZY nym..cy
t sphpty
ohrmazd wuzurg rn kust nm..z
t sphbed
The word in fragment, nm..z can easily be reconstructed as nmrz, which suggests the
bulla belongs to the Sphbed of Nmrz or the southeastern quarter. The other issue is the
word t which has been suggested by Gyselen to be a personal monogram appearing on the
cap of the Persian nobility.
14
Considering there, the reading is as such:
-Ohrmazd, the grandee, rn-Sphbed of the quarter of the southeast
The word Ohrmazd is part of the slogan well-omened (is) Ohrmazd (hwytkwhlmzdy/
hujadag-hormazd) which appears for only three rn-Sphbeds, one belonging to Xwarsn,
15

another to Xwarbarn
16
and now our seal from Nmrz. While the majority of the Sphbeds
have the tle of hwytkhwslwdy/ hujadag-khusro, these three generals have Ohrmazd in-
stead of Khusro. This fact makes our seal rare and a worthy bulla among the Sphbed bul-
lae that so far have come to light.
Bibliography
Altheim, F.
1954 Finanzgeschichte der Sptanke, Frankfurt.
Brunner, Ch.
1985 Geographical and Administrave Divisions and Economy, In: The Cambridge History of Iran,
vol. III (2), E. Yarshater (ed.), Cambridge, 747-777.
Christensen, A.
1944 LIran sous les Sassanides, Copenhague, Levine & Munksgaard.
Frye, R. N.
1983 The History of Ancient Iran, C. H. Becksche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Mnchen.
1985 The Polical History of Iran under the Sasanians, In: The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. III (2),
E. Yarshater (ed.), Cambridge, 116-180.
Gnoli, G.
1985 The Quadriparon of the Sassanian Empire, In: East and West, vol. 35, 1-15.
F. Gurnet, F.
1994 Deux notes propos du monnayage de Xusr II, In: Revue belge de Numismaque, 140, 25-
41.
Gyselen, R.
2001 The Four Generals of the Sasanian Empire: Some Sigillographic Evidence, Istuto Italiano per
lAfrica e lOriente, Roma.
2007 Sasanian Seals and Sealings in the A. Saeedi Collecon, Acta Iranica 44, Peeters, Louvan.
500
NMVARNMEH;
PAPERS IN
HONOUR OF
M. AZARNOUSH 166
Touraj Daryaee
is Howard C. Baskerville Professor in the
History of Iran and the Persianate World
and the Associate Director, Dr. Samuel
M. Jordan Center for Persian Studies
and Culture at the University of Califor-
nia, Irvine. He is also the editor of the
Name-ye Iran-e Bastan: The Internaon-
al Journal of Ancient Iranian Studies at
Iran University Press. His latest books in-
clude: Sasanian Persia: The Rise and Fall
of an Empire, I.B. Tauris, London, 2009;
Scholars & Humanists: Iranian Studies in
Henning and Taqizadeh Correspondenc-
es 1937-1966, in collaboraon with I.
Afshar and P. Ranjbar, Mazda Publishers,
2009 and the forthcoming The Oxford
History of Iran ed. T. Daryaee, Oxford
University Press, 2010.
tdaryaee@uci.edu
Keyvan Safdari
anesthesiologist- M.D. by profession.
keyvan_usa@yahoo.com
Haldon, J. F.
1990 Byzanum in the Seventh Century, Cambridge, 1990.
Kreyenbroek, Ph.
1985 The Zoroastrian Priesthood, Transion Periods in Iranian History, Actes du symposium de
Fribourg-en-Brisgau (22-24 Mai 1985), Istuto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, 151-
166.
J. Marquart, J.
1901 rnahr nach der Geographie des Ps. Moses Xorenaci, Weidmannsche Buchhandlung,
Berlin.
Masd.
2005 (1384) Murj al-dhab w-madin al-jawhr, Tehran.
Morony, M.
1984 Iraq aer the Muslim Conquest, Princeton.
Ostrogorsky, G.
1969 History of the Byzanne State, Rutgers University Press, Revised Edion, New Brunswick, New
Jersey.
Thalib.
1989 (1368) Tarkh Thalib, Noqreh Publishers, Tehran.
499
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