By Eberhard W. Sauer, Jebrael Nokandeh, Konstantin Pitskhelauri and Hamid Omrani Rekavandi (presented by EWS) (University of Edinburgh, National Museum of Iran, Iv. Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University and Iranian Cultural Heritage, Handcraft and Tourism Organisation)

Abstract

Recent scholarship increasingly often considers ancient military fortifications ineffective and largely symbolic. Fieldwork in the northern frontier zone of the Sasanian Empire (3^rd-7^th centuries AD), notably in modern Iran and Georgia, tells a very different story. The late antique world’s longest fort-lined wall and the largest military compounds of antiquity, manned by a large and well-organised army, contributed much to keeping this mega-empire secure. At the same time, the empire made use of natural mountain chains as defensive barriers more effectively than any Near Eastern empire ever before. This not only allowed the Sasanian state to retain its vast territorial possessions and to regain most of those temporarily lost in the 4^th and 5^th centuries, but to expand even further in the 6^th and early 7^th century. It also created the security needed for unprecedented urban growth and investment in urban infrastructure.