Effective Factors behind Formation and Collapse of Civilizations in Sistan, Iran

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Professor of Archaeology, University of Mazandaran, Mazandaran, Iran. Tissaphernes Archaeological Research Group

Abstract

The Sistan region has played a prominent role in establishing and expanding civilization in the eastern region of Iran in different historical periods. The region’s favorable environmental conditions, including abundant water, fertile soil, and diverse flora and fauna, attracted various ethnic groups to settle and achieve significant advancements by constructing numerous cities and settlements. Over its documented existence, Sistan with a rich collection of historic buildings and archeological sites has experienced three periods of extensive settlement and three periods of non-settlement, commonly referred to as gap periods. Multiple factors have contributed to the development of Sistan socially and settlement wise. This article aims to identify the influential factors in the cycle of formation and collapse of civilizations in Sistan by examining geographical, historical, and archaeological factors. Among these, water availability, political considerations, and other natural and human-related aspects stand out as the main contributors to this cyclic pattern.

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🔓 © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Tissaphernes Archaeological Research Group, Tehran, Iran. Open Access. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The ethical policy of Ancient Iranian Studies is based on the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines and complies with International Committee of Ancient Iranian Studies Editorial Board codes of conduct. Readers, authors, reviewers and editors should follow these ethical policies once working with Ancient Iranian Studies. The ethical policy of Ancient Iranian Studies is liable to determine which of the typical research papers or articles submitted to the journal should be published in the concerned issue. For information on this matter in publishing and ethical guidelines please visit www.publicationethics.org.

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Ancient Iranian studies
Volume 3, Issue 8 - Serial Number 8
January 2024
Pages 15-27

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History

  • Receive Date: 05 April 2023
  • Revise Date: 30 May 2023
  • Accept Date: 10 July 2023

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