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The settlement evolution of the Early Neolithic period is considered a milestone in the human cultural history. While the archaeological implications of this period are discussed extensively, the landscape of Early Neolithic Iran has remained underrepresented, mostly due to lack of geoarchaeological investigations. The early periods Formative and Archaic Susiana, attested in several sites in the Susiana plain in southwestern Iran, are of utmost importance as they bear witness to the first implications of standardization of material culture and intra-regional organization. This paper summarizes our current understanding of these periods as well as their landscape in the seventh and sixth millennia BCE. Then, it proposes a preliminary reconstruction of the landscape in this period based on recent geoarchaeological investigations by the author, applying a combination of different methods such as remote sensing, GIS analysis, and original geoarchaeological data including sediment cores, soil profiles, as well as laboratory analyses including sedimentological and chemical analyses (and lithological description in the field) and OSL dating. The results widen our perspective regarding the region’s hydrology. The Early Neolithic landscape of Susiana seems to have been different from the current one, primarily due to the tangible changes in watercourses and the noticeable differences in the surface soil and vegetation. The results further confirm that heavy sedimentation of later periods covers most of the surface of this buried landscape including now buried watercourses and small wetlands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sasanian period (224–651 CE) marked an era of large‐scale urban projects in southwest Asia, including Iran's semi‐arid highlands, with particular efforts to manipulate water bodies. This study presents a recent interdisciplinary investigation of a spring‐fed pond at the entrance of the Palace of Ardashir (Firuzabad plain, southwest Iran), part of a recently registered World Heritage site. Historical accounts suggest that the entire water system of the plain, including the pond, underwent a hydraulic re‐organization at the beginning of the Sasanian period, a fact that has never been investigated geoarchaeologically. A series of sediment cores were retrieved from the pond to probe its evolution and examine the extent of its landscape modification. The cores were sedimentologically described and radiocarbon‐dated with age–depth models established based on 57 AMS (accelerator mass spectrometry) 14C dates to understand the basin's depositional history. The results indicate that (i) Ardashir Pond has existed as part of a larger wetland complex since at least 4500 years ago, (ii) it was substantially enlarged at the beginning of the Sasanian era, and (iii) it was abandoned at the end of the Sasanian period. The Ardashir Pond is one of the first geoarchaeologically investigated case studies to demonstrate the Sasanian landscape in the framework of the "Iranshahr" sociopolitical concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]