THE PARTHO-SASSANIAN NORTHEAST FRONTIER: SETTLEMENT IN THE DAMGHAN PLAIN, IRAN

This study documents human settlement and landscape modifying activities in the Damghan valley in northeastern Iran during the Parthian and Sassanian periods (250 BC - AD 642). A survey of the Damghan valley and plain recorded the location, size, surface features and surface artifacts of each visible trace of human activity. Seriation and cluster analysis of ceramic attribute frequencies provided chronological brackets for these traces. Settlement distribution maps record a changing pattern of settlement and landscape modification with which to consider the role of Damghan in northeastern Iran and its implication for larger sociopolitical units, the Parthian and Sassanian empires, impinging on this area.; The results indicate stable orientation of settlement toward the Damghan river and alluvial fan, a lack of development of the maximal extent of land and water resources and a lack of evidence for intensification or extensive investment in productive facilities. Settlement is primate, oriented toward the junction of major routes. Expansion of settlement from the early Parthian to early Sassanian periods mirrors the early Parthian florescence and subsequent decline of Shahr-e Qumis (Hecatompylos). Written documentation suggests a shifting center of Komish province at this time. Small-scale settlement and fortification near easily exploited land and water resources is seen in the Parthian and Sassanian periods in Damghan, as well as in Gurgan and the Kopet Dagh foothills. Written documentation suggests that northeast Iran was a mosaic of local interests within larger political units at this time. Settlement location at junctions of routes (Damghan, Shahr-e Qumis) is also consistent with written documentation suggesting a small-scale service economy at suitable staging posts. Contraction of settlement and movement away from major routes and major land and water resources is present in Damghan and elsewhere in northeast Iran in the 6th - 7th centuries AD, a pattern seen in central Asia during the fourth and fifth centuries AD.; These trends suggest that Damghan and northeast Iran played a changing role in a transitional zone between Near Eastern and central Asian polities between 250 BC and AD 642, reflecting the transformation of early empires of the ancient world into developed empires of the middle ages.