Abstract:
Sasanian’s imperial policy aimed to construct new towns, massive irrigation infrastructures, and land modification by depopulating rural areas in order to carry out massive agriculture projects particularly in Khuzestan. Shushtar with its ancient relics presents a unique chance to investigate some of these development activities, mainly in terms of irrigation.
Several chief irrigation organs have been identified inside and to south of Shushtar to shift parts of the Karun River water to the Gargar and control its flow in order to create a complex transformed landscape where it is known as the Mianab plain today.
The Gargar Channel and its expansion over the plain have not yet been systematically investigated. One of the main issues is whether the Gargar was opened as an artificial channel during Sasanian period or it was a natural stream, the flow and capability of which was utilized by ancient people for irrigation purposes. Two major obstacles to address this issue include lack of sufficient historical accounts about this ancient irrigation system, and landscape elucidation, i.e. separating
changes created by human and those formed naturally through field examinations.
Evidence presented and briefly discussed in this article would hypothesize that this watercourse was originally a man made channel that was later on changed its course and formed a naturally cut river. That is why two terms are presented here: the Gargar “Channel” and the Gargar “River”. It is also proposed that an avulsion had occurred at the point where
Band-e Mahibazan is located and changed the course of the Gargar Channel forever
Machine summary:
A Note on the Gargar Irrigation System Abbas Moghaddam* Iranian Center for Archaeological Research (ICAR), Tehran, Iran and Honorary Research Associate of the University of Sydney (Received: 13/ 03/ 2012 ; Received in Revised form: 06/ 05/ 2012 ; Accepted: 21/ 07/ 2012) Sasanian’s imperial policy aimed to construct new towns, massive irrigation infrastructures, and land modification by depopulating rural areas in order to carry out massive agriculture projects particularly in Khuzestan.
Several chief irrigation organs have been identified inside and to south of Shushtar to shift parts of the Karun River water to the Gargar and control its flow in order to create a complex transformed landscape where it is known as the Mianab plain today.
Among Sasanian urban centers located in the Upper Khuzestan plain such as Ivan-e Karkheh, Jundishapur and Susa, Shushtar’s ancient relicts provide a clearer picture of the Sasanian’s imperial policy aimed to construct new towns, massive irrigation infrastructures, and land modification by depopulating rural areas in order to carry out massive agriculture projects (Adams 1981:215, *Corresponding author e-mail address: abbas.
The huge earthen channels at the southern sector of the ancient town of Dastva, whose role has not been yet precisely IRANIAN JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL STUDIES 2: 2 (2012) A note on the Gargar 38 (View the image of this page) Fig. 1: Map showing the Shushtar Irrigation elements in the upper Mianab Plain.
The average minimum and maximum elevation IRANIAN JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL STUDIES 2: 2 (2012) A note on the Gargar 42 (View the image of this page) Fig. 3: Tracking the proposed Gargar irrigation system in the upper Mianab Plain.