SELOPerse

Settlement and Landscape Organisation of the Persepolis Region

The SELOPerse project aims to study the ancient Achaemenid occupation in the vicinity of the prestigious Unescos classified site of Persepolis (Iran, Fars province), one of the sumptuous royal residences built by King Darius I (520-486 BC). The project based on a new vision of the site organisation scheme as a kind of garden city. It means widespread settlement blocks ensuring the administrative and economic functions of what it was a provincial capital and sheltering the numerous inhabitants.
The buildings blocks were probably located within a landscaped area of gardens, parks, fields and orchards. Farther in the wide and fertile Persepolis plain the exploitation of the natural resources and cultivation were managed by a network of local administrative centre and farms. Due to the present day human pressure and intensive cultivation the remains of the Achaemenid landscape disappear gradually. Traces of ancient settlements or infrastructures are difficult to find. The only way to study the still preserved remains is to carry out large scale studies by combining multiple survey methods (field walking and geophysical surveys) and excavations on selected points. The multidisciplinary and multiscale approaches will allow to rescue the archaeological information and to demonstrate our renewed hypothesis. The SELOPerse project will be host by the Ravenna department of heritage studies of the University of Bologna (Italy), centre of excellence in archaeology. It will be supervised by Prf. P. Callieri, the Italian co-director of the Iranian Italian excavation and restoration project in Persepolis carried out by a collaborative team. Involved in this multidisciplinary team, I will manage and carry the surveys. As underline by this existed project of the University of Bologna, archaeological cooperation between Italy and Iran is very developed and Italy is an internationally recognized main actor of the Iranian studies and a stimulant research environment in archaeology.

Coordinator ALMA MATER STUDIORUM – UNIVERSITÀ DI BOLOGNA
- Dipartimento di Beni Culturali
- Resp. Scientifico: Prof. Pierfrancesco Callieri

 

Start date 02/07/2012

End date 01/07/2014

Duration 24 months

Project Reference 299665

Project cost 193.726,80 EURO

Project Funding 193.726,80 EURO

Area FP7- PEOPLE

Subprogramme Area Marie-Curie Actions-Intra-European Fellowships for career development (IEF)

Contract type Intra-European Fellowships (IEF)