1The paper deals with a likely early-Sasanian spring-fed circular pond in stone masonry recently discovered at Dehbarm, a village at the western margin of the Firuzabad Plain, in Fars.

2The pond was accidentally discovered by local farmers in the summer of 2021 and features a diameter of 27 metres and a depth of 2 metres. Built with mortared squared sandstone blocks of different dimensions (0.40×0.32×0.20 metres; 0.48×0.32×0.22 metres; 0.60×0.35×0.26 metres), the pond (likely surrounded by a rectangular structure) was equipped with an outlet canal (2.5 metres wide) at its western margin and was flanked by a possibly monumental building (remains of which have partly been brought to light).

3On the basis of this newly discovered evidence, the Authors consider the area of the present-day village of Dehbarm as a satellite garden settlement of the Sasanian city of Ardashir Xwarrah. Moreover, relying on the affinities between the circular pond at Dehbarm and similar Sasanian hydraulic infrastructures (i.e. the pond facing the Palace of Ardashir at Firuzabad; the Chehel Dokhtaran circular pond at Bishapur; the Gerdab-e Sangi pond at Khorramabad), they hypothesise that spring-fed circular ponds were crucial elements of the cultural landscape of the Zagros foothills in the Sasanian period, primarily built for water management purposes but also playing some symbolic and ceremonial role.