Report on Archaeological Researches for Localization of Laodicea Temple in Nahavand

Subject Areas : Historical Archaeology

Mahdi Rahbar ¹ , Sajjad Alibaigi ^{2 *}

1 - Research Institute of Cultural Heritage and Tourism, Tehran, Iran.
2 - Ph.D. Candidate in Archaeology, Department of Archaeology, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran. Molana Institute of Higher Education.

Received: 2023-07-10 Accepted : 2023-07-10 Published : 2011-08-23

Keywords: Nahavand, Seleucid period, Laodice Temple, Ionic Capital-column, Archaeological Sounding,

Abstract :

The Hellenistic period is one of the most controversial in the history of Iran. Most of our information from this period drives from accounts of Greek classic historians and geographers such as Strabo, Poliny, and Apian which give us an ambiguous picture of Seleucid period in Iran. In spite the fact that the Seleucids established their rule over a large part of western Iran for a long period and founded several cities archaeological evidence for the period are few and scanty. The chance discovery of the Greek inscription of Antiochos III in 1943, which refers to the temple of Laodicea, was a turning point in the archaeological and historical studies of Seleucid period in Iran. In addition to the Greek inscription, invaluable finds including bronze figures of Greek deities, stone altar, capital-column, and characteristic potsherds of Seleucid period have been found in historical area of Do- Khaharan (two sisters) northeast of Nahavand city which attest the existence of a Greek temple in the region. In general, historical records and archaeological evidence introduce the city of Nahavand in western Iran as an important centre from the time of Seleucid to the end of Sassanian period. This article presents results of archaeological sounding which was carried out in 2005 and 2011 to find the location of Laodicea temple.