Eḥsān Yaġmā’ī. « Čand manzelgāh-e rāh-e šāhī-ye haḫāmanešī : az Nūrābād-e Mamasanī tā Arjān-e Behbahān / Some Royal Road Stations of the Achaemenid period: from Nurabad, Mamassani, to Arrajan, Behbahan ». Bāstānpazhuhi, vol. 2, zemestān 1385 (2006), pp. 32-49, color and b&w illustrations.
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1The border region between Fars and Khuzestan is one of the richest archaeological areas in Iran, where traces of both the Elamite and Achaemenid periods can be explored. The region is also known for having revealed exceptional remains of the so-called Persian Royal Road connecting the heartland of the Achaemenians to their capital Susa. Despite previous explorations in the region, this article is the fruit of the first archaeological fieldwork on the Royal Road between Nurabad and Behbahan, and includes some chance discoveries. Some thirteen road stations have been recognized during three seasons of surveys and excavations at Borazjan, starting at Tol-e Kakh Khodadad, south of Nurabad, to Arrajan in Khuzestan. For the author, remains of these stations consist mostly of decorated and undecorated column bases and fragmentary slabs, of which a few have been found at the village of Deh-Now to the north of Nurabad. These finds show that with further work in the region, coupled with the evidence provided by Achaemenid texts and medieval geographers such as Ibn Balkhi, one should expect to have a better understanding of the connecting network of roads that once connected Achaemenid centers in Iran. The presence of these column bases speaks more for Royal or élite buildings than for stations. Moreover it is not certain that all of them belong to Achaemenid constructions and.
References
Electronic reference
Ali Mousavi, “Eḥsān Yaġmā’ī. « Čand manzelgāh-e rāh-e šāhī-ye haḫāmanešī : az Nūrābād-e Mamasanī tā Arjān-e Behbahān / Some Royal Road Stations of the Achaemenid period: from Nurabad, Mamassani, to Arrajan, Behbahan ». Bāstānpazhuhi, vol. 2, zemestān 1385 (2006), pp. 32-49, color and b&w illustrations.”, Abstracta Iranica [Online], Volume 30 | 2010, document 98, Online since 08 April 2010, connection on 14 December 2025. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/abstractairanica/37960; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/abstractairanica.37960
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