Survey and Analysis of the Mir Abad-e Emam Qoli: Newly Discovered Fire Temple from Sassanid Era in Rigan-Kerman Province

The eastern civilization that incorporates the regions in the southeast of Iran, as well, is a domain with a lot of historical ambiguities. This shortage of information requires the achievement of more recognition about these regions through more field studies and introducing of the works belonging to these regions. Bam’s cultural landscape area is situated in the eastern end of Kerman land and it encompasses Bam, Narmashir, Fahraj and Rigan that are stretched along Kerman’s border with Sistan and Baluchestan and Southern Khorasan. In line with the archaeological studies of Bam’s cultural landscape in 2013, Mir Abad Emam Gholi Building was discovered for the first time.
Keywords: Sassanid Architecture, Fire Temple, Fireplace, Bam Cultural Landscape, Kerman.
 
Introduction
This building is positioned within a 11-kilometer distance to the north of the city of Mohammad Abad (center of Rigan County) and in the adjacency of the northeast of Mir Abad Emam Gholi Village with its coordinates being 28° 45´ 034´´ of the northern latitude and 58° 59´ 422´´ of the eastern longitude and its elevation being 600 meters above the level of the open waters. The natural bedding is covered by a fire-temple, some sandy lands, vegetative cover in the precinct, shrubby lands and, within a small distance, a semi-dense forest full of tamarisk and algarroba trees. In the village of Mir Abad, there are vast areas covered with a lot of palm trees along with a larger number of citrus plants. The village’s water resource has been a rich aqueduct till no so long ago but it is now dry. Band-e-Nesa river   from the southwest to the northeast of the region. A branch of this river passes from within a 1000-meter distance to the north and another branch thereof passes from within the same distance to the south of the fire temple’s precinct.
Determination of the use case and chronology of Mir Abad Emam Gholi Building is the most important question of the present research and the authors try to find an answer thereto through a descriptive-analytical approach and by the use of the field studies and library research.
 
Description
The main part of the building is currently in a lower level in contrast to the peripheral lands and it is not visible from long distance. The building’s cover has completely fallen down.
The main part of the building is rectangular with 17.40×13 dimensions. The map of this section includes a central square (cross-like) room comprised of four thick piers and four (arched) ports on four sides and peripheral corridors along the whole length. The central room is 4×4 and there is a fireplace in the middle of it. The depth of the ports (the cross’s arm) is 210 cm on three sides and 3.30 on the northern side. The width of the peripheral corridor is 130cm on three sides and 3.25cm on the northern side.
This corridor opens to the external space and the places in the periphery of the building with ports on every edge. The building’s axis is angular towards the west. The building seems to have had attachments on every side. The remnants of a room with a dimension of 5.40×3.10 and another room with a dimension of 3×3.30 are visible respectively on the western and southern edges.
The upper side of the fire temple is cubic with a dimension of 1.60×1.60 and it is consisted of at least four stratified step-like rows. The height of the first row is 30cm. The highest observable height of the building is in the eastern edge thereof and about 1.60m. In the remaining elevated part, the rise (the arch’s impost) of the eastern edge in the central room’s port is seen. This is expressive of the idea that a substantial part of the building to the rise of the ports’ arches is covered by debris and sand.
The building’s constructional materials are generally adobes with a 40×40×10 dimension. The building’s internal wall has been coated by plaster of clay and straw with a thickness of 3cm. The visible part of the fire-temple has been made of adobes with large dimensions and/or stacks and partitions covered in their surfaces subsequently with a thick layer of gypsum coating. Mir Abad Emam Gholi Fire Temple is a part of a vast complex with the most prominent of these buildings being visible within a short distance to the southwestern side of the fire temple. The remnants of this building is presently seen on top of a hill within a five-meter elevation from the level of the peripheral grounds. The map of the building is rectangular and 41×31 in dimension. The map of the building’s interior is not well vivid but the existence of a central yard with its peripheral spaces can be barely reckoned. The foresaid building has probably been a castle or a caravansary and a place for rest. Mir Abad Emam Gholi Building, as well, can also join the collection of the religious buildings recognized from Sassanid Era and be investigated and discussed in the study of this period’s religious architecture.
 
Discussion
Due to the possession of a square central space (Adaryan), peripheral corridor and attachments, the map of this building is comparable with those of buildings like Takht-e-Solayman Fire Temple, Konar Siah Fire Temple in Firouz Abad and within some distance to the city of Ardashir Khorreh, Tal Jangi Fire Temple, Khorma Yek Fire Temple in Farashband and, then, Kerman’s Negar Fire Temple, Julian Fire Temple, Mil Mile Geh Fire Temple, Shian Fire Temple, Palang Gerd Fire Temple, Wigel Fire Temple, the four-arched building of Khaneh Div and Kelk Tomar Khou Fire Temple from Sassanid Era. This fire temple is not of the singular four-arched type and, as shown in the aerial images, this four-arch part is a section of a larger complex and possibly the core of its formation. Based on the preliminary evidence, the fire-temple does not enjoy a complicated structure and it appears that a fire lower in degree of importance from Bahram fire, i.e. Adaran fire, therein. The building’s not being located on the northern-southern axis can be possibly realized as stemming from the idea of Ahriman’s entry from the northern direction and this made the Zoroastrians’ religious buildings to always have a deviation in respect to the northern axis. Besides the map of the building, the existence of a fireplace in the central space confirms the building’s use case more than before. The stratified part of the building’s fireplace is similar to the fireplaces forged on Sassanids’ coins with specimens of it being visible on the backside of the first coins from the Sassanid Era, to wit from the era of Artaxerxes I. Adobes with similar dimensions are seen in some Sassanid buildings, including in the construction of Gorgan’s defensive wall as well as in the construction of the buildings on Khajeh Mountain in Sistan. In the construction of the other newly found Sassanid buildings in the recent studies in Bam’s cultural landscape region, including the adobe-made edifices in the precinct of Chah Reigan, Islam Abad Castles and Deh Shehik Castles, use has been made of adobes with similar dimensions.
The clay utensils scattered in the precinct of Mir Abad Fire Temple are all without enamel and of simple and pottery wheel-made type. The segments are often thick and related to intermediate and large containers made of beige, orange, pale yellow, red and rarely gray clay pastes. These segments have been mixtures of predominantly minerals and occasionally organic materials that have granted an especially high weight to the clay works due to their largeness and coarse sizes and high densities; the decorations include carved wavy, nail-like and horizontal images as well as protruding shapes around the waist thereof. These segments generally possess the properties of Sassanid Era’s potteries works.
 
Conclusion
The studies performed on this building are reflective of the idea that Mir Abad Imam Gholi Building has had a central domed square space (Adaryan), a stratified fireplace in the middle of this space, four gates on the four sides as well as peripheral corridors and a fire-temple made during Sassanid Era in the eastern end of Kerman Land in the southeast of Iran.