ivan-e- karkheh: the spatial structure, form and function with reference to the archeological data

the information obtained from written sources, archaeological limited surface excavations and surveys as well as environmental studies in sassanid towns have made their spatial characteristics clear to some extent and become effective in determination of functional and visual identity of these cities. nevertheless, there are still a lot of cities from this period which their names listed in written sources by they have never been discovered yet. at the same time, there are some cities about of which only few pages or often lines of information exist despite of their unique role in history of this land. certainly, archaic city of “ivan-e-karkheh” is one of the samples from the latter group so we introduce it in the present passage. with approximate area that is three time than of archaiccity of susa, this city was constructed by order of sassanid king in first half of 4th ad century and it was considered as one of the most credible ruling centers at southwestern part of great iran. in this essay, it has been tried to represent an image, albeit an overall one, from spatial organization and its performance by reliance on the results came from authors’ archaeological studies done within a region with approximately 800 hectars on site and outskirts of this megalopolis of ancient world. chronological dating of all historical areas within the studied limit is considered as results of the present survey.