Kuh-e Khwaja

 

	Location:	Sistan, Iran
	Other Names:
	Dates:
	Type of building:
	Material:	Wall painting
	Fieldwork:
	1915 Earl Stein       1941 Ernst Herzfeld   — Excavation   1961 Giorgio Gulini   — Excavation   13? Soror Ghanimati   — Excavation     Mahmoud Mousavi   — Excavation   2007; 2011 Sayed Rasoul Mousavi Haji and Reza Mehr Afarin   — Excavation
	Description:
	Located on an island in Lake Hamun, this mud-brick complex was rebuilt in the Sasanian period and served as a Zoroastrian priestly college (herbedestān). Radiocarbon dating shows two phases of construction: 80-240 CE and 540-640 CE. Exemplary stucco and painting decorations were uncovered.
	Bibliography:	Ghanimati, Soroor. “Kuh-E Khwaja and the Religious Architecture of Sasanian Iran.” In The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Iran, 878–908. Edited by Daniel T. Potts. Oxford: Oxford University Press., 2013. (Link) Ghanimati, Soroor. “New Perspectives on the Chronological and Functional Horizons of Kuh-e Khwaja in Sistan.” Iran 38 (2000): 137–50. (Link) Gullini, Giorgio. Architettura iranica dagli Achemenidi ai Sasanidi: Il “pallazo” di Kuh-I Khwagia (Seistan). Turin: G. Einaudi, 1964. Kawami, Trudy S. “Kuh-e Khwaja, Iran, and Its Wall Paintings: The Records of Ernst Herzfeld.” Metropolitan Museum Journal 22 (1987): 13-52. (PDF) Mishmastnehi, Moslem. “The Application of Crystallographic Interpretation on Technical Study of Gypsum-Based Historical Materials (Case studies of stucco decoration of Kuh-e Khwaja and Gypsum Mortars from Shadiakh and Alamut).” Journal of Research on Archaeometry  1, 2 (2016): 1-14 (Link) Waqs Abbasi, Zahir, Reza MehrAfrin and Seyed Rasoul Mousavi Haji. “Analysis, Typology, and Chronology of Stuccos in the Palace of Kuh-e Khwajeh.” Scientific Quarterly Islamic Art 15, 25 (2019): 233-261. (Link)