Michelle De Gruchy, Jaafar Jotheri, Hayder Alqaragholi, Jassim Al-Janabi, Raheem Alabdan, Haneen Al-Talaqani, Ghadeer Almamouri, Hajir Al-Rubaye. “Khandaq Shapur: Defense, Irrigation, Boundary, Frontier”
Michelle De Gruchy, Jaafar Jotheri, Hayder Alqaragholi, Jassim Al-Janabi, Raheem Alabdan, Haneen Al-Talaqani, Ghadeer Almamouri, Hajir Al-Rubaye. “Khandaq Shapur: Defense, Irrigation, Boundary, Frontier”, Land 10(10) no. 1017, 2021, 17 p. (on-line at https://doi.org/10.3390/land10101017)
Texte intégral
1The paper summarises the results of a multidisciplinary research on the Khandaq Shapur, a monumental-scale linear feature between Hit and Basra in Iraq, reportedly built by Shapur II in 324 CE and reused (maybe extended) under Khosrow I in the mid-6th century CE.
2Relying on recent surveys carried out between Karbala and Basra, along the southern segment of the moat/ditch, the Authors more precisely delineate its course in the area. Moreover, they contextualise the Khandaq Shapur in the wider Sasanian defensive, commercial and economic landscape, demonstrating that it was a crucial liminal feature (between the desert, the irrigated plains and the southern marshes) that served both military and agricultural purposes.
3Archaeological research and a closer scrutiny of ancient written sources do not support, instead, the alleged association of the course of the Khandaq Shapur with that of an older Neo-Babylonian irrigation canal (mentioned as Pallukat in cuneiform texts) dating to the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II (c. 604–562 BCE). However, radiocarbon dates in the second millennium BCE from samples collected excavating two deep trenches in the fill inside the cut of the moat/ditch between Karbala and Najaf may indicate that the Khandaq Shapur was partly built making use of pre-existing channels.
4At the end of the paper, the Authors report a link to a very useful and updated Google Earth file (.kmz) tracing the course of the archaeological feature.
Pour citer cet article
Référence électronique
Giulio Maresca, « Michelle De Gruchy, Jaafar Jotheri, Hayder Alqaragholi, Jassim Al-Janabi, Raheem Alabdan, Haneen Al-Talaqani, Ghadeer Almamouri, Hajir Al-Rubaye. “Khandaq Shapur: Defense, Irrigation, Boundary, Frontier” », Abstracta Iranica [En ligne], Volume 44 | 2022, document 20, mis en ligne le 30 décembre 2022, consulté le 08 septembre 2024. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/abstractairanica/55729 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/abstractairanica.55729
Haut de pageDroits d’auteur
Le texte seul est utilisable sous licence CC BY-SA 4.0. Les autres éléments (illustrations, fichiers annexes importés) sont « Tous droits réservés », sauf mention contraire.
Haut de page
Flux RSS
