A group of ‘giants’ houses’ recently discovered  in Salmas Region, Iran

Behrouz Khanmohammadi; Roberto Dan; Afrasiab Garavand

doi:10.32028/ajnes.v14i1-2.975

Authors

Behrouz Khanmohammadi
Roberto Dan
Afrasiab Garavand

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.32028/ajnes.v14i1-2.975

Keywords:

Iran, West Azerbaijan Province, survey, ‘Giants’ Houses’, cyclopean architecture, Bronze Age, Iron Age

Abstract

This paper describes a group of recently discovered structures identified during survey activities carried out in 2019 by the authors. All the newly discovered sites are located in the Shepiran Rural District of the Kohsar District, which is part of Salmas County in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran. The group of buildings exhibits interesting and unusual features. To date we have had the opportunity to study eighteen specimens of this type of building. These buildings are very similar in size and shape to the so-called ‘Giants’ Houses’ well attested in south-eastern Turkey, especially in the southern part of Lake Van, and in Armenia. Although the architectural simplicity of these structures, some suggestions regarding their functional interpretation have been proposed.

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