Journal of Archaeological Studies

The Sham Valley and the Question of the Ilkhanids’ Religious Leniency in Northwest Iran (Jolfa)

Soraya َAfshari; Liliy Niakan; Behrooz Omrani; Mohammad Mortezayi

Volume 16, Issue 1 , February 2024, , Pages 1-23

https://doi.org/10.22059/jarcs.2021.323475.143018

Abstract

Archaeological inquiries into the Islamic period show both in quantity and quality that targeted and wide-ranging studies aiming to identify the pertinent monuments and sites have obvious ... Read More Archaeological inquiries into the Islamic period show both in quantity and quality that targeted and wide-ranging studies aiming to identify the pertinent monuments and sites have obvious limitations, and for this very reason our understanding of this time period is mainly limited to the information deriving from textual evidence. Accordingly, with the aim of identifying and studying the Ilkhanid sites on the banks of the Aras, a season of reconnaissance survey was carried out in 2019. Focusing on the Sham Valley region of Jolfa County on the border of the two Iranian provinces of East and West Azerbaijans, the fieldwork recorded 53 monuments and sites (Afshari,2019). Given the region’s strategic, geopolitical position in the vicinity of such regions of Caucasia, Turkey and Central Asia as well as its obvious location on major regional lines of communication, several different cultures flourished there spanning in date the second millennium BC to the latest periods. In other words, the foremost factor responsible for the formation of settlements was the region’s location on trade routes and its easy intra- and extra-regional communications, especially during the Ilkhanid period, which played a conspicuous part in the cultural evolution of the Sham Valley. Concurrently, given the region’s religious importance under the Ilkhanid rulers which echoes their religious clemency as part of their foreign policies, revealing data were obtained regarding the local social and religious structures in different periods, especially the era in question. In other words, the correspondence between the field survey’s findings and the historical texts make it clear that the Ilkhanids’s lack of religious prejudice, termed as religious toleration, was an upshot of a series of apparent and latent factors, which in general stemmed from the political orientations they adopted towards religious convictions (Morgan,2004؛ Torkamani Azar,1992 ). Recruitment of Christian females in the court (Bayani, 2011), employing Christian advisors and agents, maintaining contacts with Christian businessmen, missionaries and priests, and the particular attentions paid to the affairs of the Christian populations in Iran were all driven by the prerequisites underpinning their internal and external relations as it is evidenced by the fact that the changes in such relationships in the later Ilkhanid period would be associated with changes in the religious approaches due to political developments

Absolute (14C AMS) and Relative Chronologies of Barveh Tepe in the Upper Lesser Zab Basin and a Study of Painted Bronze Age Ceramics(Based on the Second Season Excavation)

Mahnaz Sharifi; Barbara Helwing

Volume 15, Issue 2 , December 2023, , Pages 133-153

https://doi.org/10.22059/jarcs.2024.360950.143217

Abstract

Excavations in Tepe Barveh were conducted with the aim to shed further light on the period of painted Bronze Age wares and to refine the existing chronology for the Lesser Zab Basin ... Read More

Gird-i Ashoan during the Late Chalcolithic, Based on the Second Season of Excavation in Northwestern Iran

Mahnaz Sharifi

Volume 14, Issue 2 , September 2022, , Pages 87-110

https://doi.org/10.22059/jarcs.2022.322632.143011

Abstract

Excavations at Gird-i Ashoan, an archaeological mound in Piranshahr County in the Lower Zab Basin, have provided remarkable insights into the cultural traditions of the region during ... Read More

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Keywords = Northwestern Iran

The Sham Valley and the Question of the Ilkhanids’ Religious Leniency in Northwest Iran (Jolfa)

Abstract

Absolute (14C AMS) and Relative Chronologies of Barveh Tepe in the Upper Lesser Zab Basin and a Study of Painted Bronze Age Ceramics(Based on the Second Season Excavation)

Abstract

Gird-i Ashoan during the Late Chalcolithic, Based on the Second Season of Excavation in Northwestern Iran

Abstract