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The Location of the Parthian City of Bagistana in Bisotun, Kermanshah: a Proposal

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The Location of the Parthian City of Bagistana in Bisotun, Kermanshah: a Proposal Iranica Antiqua, vol. XLVII, 2012 doi: 10.2143/IA.47.0.2141963 THE LOCATION OF THE PARTHIAN CITY OF BAGISTANA IN BISOTUN, KERMANSHAH: A PROPOSAL BY Sajjad ALIBAIGI1, Kamal-Aldin NIKNAMI2 & Shokouh KHOSRAVI3 (1 Islamic Azad University, Hamadan Branch, Hamadan; 2 University of Tehran, Tehran & 3 University of Tarbiat Modares,Tehran) Presented to Mehdi Rahbar Abstract: Iranian, Chinese, Arabic and western literature provides valuable source material about the prevalent situation of Iran in the Parthian era. Many accounts of political and historical events are written with partiality, but compared with these texts, geographical literature is more reliable. One significant and val- uable source for this period is “Parthian Stations” by Isidore of Charax, written early in the first century AD. In this book, Isidore mentions numerous cities, vil- lages, and habitations that he saw during a long journey to the eastern parts of the Parthian territory, and has contributed much to our limited knowledge of Parthian geography. While describing Parthian habitations in the land of Medes, he men- tions the city of Bagistana and reports its topographical location. Considering the archaeological and historical evidence, a recently investigated Parthian site in Bisotun appears to be the most appropriate site to identify with this city. In this paper we review the historical evidence and evaluate the archaeological findings. Keywords: Historical geography, Parthian era, Isidore of Charax, Bagistana city, Parthian site of Bisotun. Introduction Although vast quantities of written sources have remained from the Par- thian period, geographical works are the least frequent among them. The latter are mostly works of classical historians and geographers written in Greek, Roman, Syriac, Armenian, Chinese and Arabic. The records of geog- raphers and some historians of this era provide significant information on the geographical status of places, roads, cities, villages and habitations on roads. The “Parthian Stations” by Isidore of Charax is an important and valuable work of the Parthian era. Isidore travelled early in the first century AD to the eastern parts of the Parthian territory and wrote a detailed report of his jour- ney. This report indicates the importance of the roads, of trade and of the attention paid to the geographical situation during the Parthian period. Isidore wrote this work as an economic-political geography for those passengers and caravans who tended to pass this way. In particular, Isidore mentions some 94839_Iran_Antiq_47-2012_05.indd 117 12/04/12 08:36 118 SAJJAD ALIBAIGI - KAMAL-ALDIN NIKNAMI - SHOKOUH KHOSRAVI of the stations, cities and villages he visited in the course of his journey of 858 schoeni (about 2145 km). The report we know as “Parthian Stations” of Isidore of Charax must be an extract from an official Parthian survey. Dating from the reign of the Roman Emperor Augustus, it gives us an idea of the extent of the Parthian empire and it is one of our most valuable sources (Wid- engren 1983: 1264). “Parthian Stations” mentions 18 satrapies through which the Royal Road passed (Lukonin 1983: 726). Isidore has carefully mentioned the names of cities and villages, monu- ments and temples, and some of their specific characteristics. Hence, we can obtain a great deal of information about the different areas mentioned in this very important book. In the present day, however, it is difficult to locate some of the places named due to our limited knowledge and lack of other sources. Identifications have been proposed for some Parthian sites, such as Cambadene (Jackson 1906: 230), Hekatompylos (Hansman & Stronach 1974; Hansman 1981), Phanaspa (Kleiss 1973) and Ekbatana (de Planhol 2003), but the available information is too scant and often it is not possible or easy to identify a site with full certainty. The main purpose of this article is to locate the ancient city of Bagistana mentioned in the “Parthian Stations”. Although there have been suggestions about the location of some ancient stations and cities based on this source, such as Cambadene (Jackson 1906: 230; Golzari & Jalili n.d.: 67), Conco- bar (Kambakhsh Fard 2007: 102; Calmeyer 1996: 13), Ekbatana (de Plan- hol 2003) and Bazigraban (Mehryar & Kabiri 2004: 262; Kabiri 1995) in Fig. 1. Location of Bisotun on the Royal Road (after Hinz 1979: 9, Abb. 1). 94839_Iran_Antiq_47-2012_05.indd 118 12/04/12 08:36 THE LOCATION OF THE PARTHIAN CITY OF BAGISTANA IN BISOTUN 119 western Iran, there had been no research conducted on the location of Bag- istana, so far. Many researchers, such as Olivier (1807), Rawlinson (1839), Müller (1855), Schoff (1914), Herzfeld (1920; 1968), Dandamaev (1976), Hinz (1979), Koch (1992) and Luschey (1996), identify Bagistana with pre- sent Bisotun, but they do not cite archaeological evidence for the proposition and furthermore they do not suggest any particular location for this city. Bagistana compared with the description by Isidore of Charax In “Parthian Stations”, Isidore wrote: 4. From that place, [Lower] Media, which extends 22 schoeni. The begin- ning is at the district of Carina, in which there are five villages in which there are stations, but no city. 5. From that place, Cambadene, which extends 31 schoeni, in which there are five villages, in which there are stations, and a city, Bagistana, situ- ated on a mountain, there is a statue and a pillar of Semiramis. 6. From that place, upper Media, 38 schoeni, and at 3 schoeni from the very beginning of it is the city of Concobar; there is a temple of Artemis, 3 schoeni. Then Bazigraban, which is a customs house, 3 schoeni … (Schoff 1914: 7). Now, based on Isidore’s text, we are going to present some evidence for the possible location of this city. As it is shown on road maps and is obvious from the text of “Parthian Stations”, the city of Bagistana (Baptana) is located between Cambadene (present Kermanshah) and Concobar (present Kangavar). Regarding the reliable propositions presented on the location of Cambadene in the west and Concobar in the east, it is clearly perceived that this city must be between these two places. These characteristics conform to the present day region of Bisotun, as has been proposed byabove mentioned scholars. Bisotun is a vast plain to the east of Kermanshah, along the well-known main road from Ekbatana to Babylon, the Royal Road (or the Silk Road). The main problem of this research is to identify which ancient site in the region of Bisotun and the region east of Kermanshah generally is the Par- thian city of Bagistana. Discussion There are some points necessary to observe in Isidore’s short text. First, he has clearly mentioned the situation of Bagistana on a mountain. The other point is the statue of the Assyrian queen Semiramis near the city. 94839_Iran_Antiq_47-2012_05.indd 119 12/04/12 08:36 120 SAJJAD ALIBAIGI - KAMAL-ALDIN NIKNAMI - SHOKOUH KHOSRAVI Based on studying the historical settlements of this region, the question arose whether the Parthian city of Bagistana conforms to present Bisotun and therefore we attempted to find a logical answer to this question as follows: 1. The remains of this city must be near Bisotun cliff on the mountain side. 2. This site must have an appropriate size for a city relative to what was mentioned in the sources about it. 3. Archaeological findings must prove its attribution to the Parthian era. 4. The site (city) must be located along the main way, as it was cited in Isidore’s book about his journey on the Royal Road. Now, we continue our discussion by observing the archaeological evi- dence and works of historians prior to Isidore. Archaeological findings and studies in the Bisotun area prove the existence of 79 ancient sites with remains of historical times and particularly the Parthian era (Motarjem A. & Mohammadifar Y. 2003: unpubl. ICHHO-Kermanshah report on Biso- tun; Mohammadifar Y. 2005a: unpubl. ICHHO-Kermanshah report on Harsin; Chehri M. 2008: unpubl. ICHHO-Kermanshah report on Harsin; Khanmoradi M. 2009: unpubl. ICHO-Bisotun report). Therefore it is not too difficult to distinguish which of the Parthian ancient sites in Bisotun region could be the possible location of the Parthian city of Bagistana. First of all, this city must be located on the mountainside and must have the minimum characteristics of a city as Isidore mentioned. Of the studies published on the region (Motarjem A. & Mohammadifar Y. 2003: unpubl. ICHHO-Kermanshah report on Bisotun; Mohammadifar Y. 2005a: unpubl. ICHHO-Kermanshah report on Harsin; Chehri M. 2008: unpubl. ICHHO- Kermanshah report on Harsin; Khanmoradi M. 2009: unpubl. ICHO-Biso- tun report), there has been no historical site with an extent of more than 221 ≈ 153 m (4 hectares), except for one site. The variation of extents can be an important factor along with a location on a mountainside. Impor- tantly historians such as Ctesias (Hinz 1979: 10) and Diodorus of Siculus (Diodore de Sicile II,13; Pirnia 1995: 1568-69) had mentioned the statue of Semiramis prior to Isidore. Exactly the same as Ctesias and Diodorus, Isidore also has assumed the relief carving of Darius the Great is an image of Semiramis. Therefore the city, which was visited by Isidore, must be located on the slope of the mountain near the relief of Darius the Great, which he presumed to be Semiramis. The other important point is that this historical site was possibly located near the ancient Silk Road (the Road of Great Khorasan), on which Isidore travelled during his journey. 94839_Iran_Antiq_47-2012_05.indd 120 12/04/12 08:36 THE LOCATION OF THE PARTHIAN CITY OF BAGISTANA IN BISOTUN 121 The Parthian site of Bisotun Investigations indicate the existence of a settlement covering a vast area from the Parthian era in the Bisotun plain, near the famous relief of Darius the Great.
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