1The monumental building no. 3 (also labelled as Building QN3 in literature) is among the most remarkable architectural remains excavated at the site of Dahane-ye Gholaman, in Iranian Sistan, retained as the main political and administrative centre of Achaemenid Drangiana. Very peculiar structures (of different types) characterise the building and were interpreted as ritual installations related to the cult of fire since the first Italian excavations at the site, in the 1960s. However, the attested ritual practices have been frequently considered as mirroring a system of beliefs with local and popular tinges, not entirely comparable with later Zoroastrian religious codifications nor with the “institutional” worship in use at the Achaemenid court; see lastly the view expressed by Bruno Genito (“Building no. 3 in Dahāne-ye Gholāmān, Eastern Iran (Sistan): An Achaemenid Religious Puzzle?” in Pavel B. Lurije (ed.). Proceedings of the Eight European Conference of Iranian Studies. Held on 14–19 September 2015 at the Hermitage State Museum and the Institute of Oriental Manuscript, Russian Academy of Sciences, in St Petersburg, 2019, p. 154-180), not mentioned by the Author.

2Conversely, relying on the Avesta and other Zoroastrian religious texts, the paper (unfortunately fraught with typos) tries to link those peculiar architectural features attested at Building QN3 to specific Zoroastrian beliefs and ceremonies. It also hypothesises the alleged “orthodoxy” of the Zoroastrian community living in Achaemenid Drangiana, at the eastern periphery of the empire, away from influences possibly exerted by different religious beliefs attested in the western areas of the Achaemenid empire.