Ricerc@Sapienza

The interdisciplinary Project aims at shedding light on the historical, linguistic and cultural development of Iran from Late Antiquity up to early Islam. Defining the dynamics of change and continuity in long-term periods of transition is one of the main needs in Iranian Studies. The Project therefore addresses a variety of areas, including material data, written sources and archaeological evidence, joining specialists of different disciplines. From a geographical point of view, the project addresses a macro-region corresponding to the northern part of the Iranian world, with a special focus on those areas of Iranian Plateau that are located on the commercial route running south of the Alborz. In the long transition from pre-Islamic to Islamic Iran, communities on this road witnessed major political and cultural developments, greatly contributing to the formation of Iranian culture and identity. Comparing material culture and documentary sources will provide a highly innovative perspective that may improve our understanding of a major transition period. In Sasanian and Early Islamic periods a wide range of cultural processes flourished in those areas, involving e.g. religion, identity, language. The reshuffling of material and intellectual habits had an outstanding impact on the Iranian social fabric and still requires an in-depth and comprehensive study to be fully understood. In this respect, the Project aims to address the analysis of transitional phenomena operating both in micro-systems (specific language phenomena, single sites, limited areas, local communities) and in macro-systems (languages, regions and central institutions). In order to achieve reliable results, sources and data of different nature (literary texts, epigraphy, material culture, ceramics and other objects, landscape documentation) will be studied in a wider perspective apt to provide methodological patterns of investigation that may foster a better understanding of historical dynamics.