Field Report on the 2015 Current Archaeological Works of the Joint Iran-French Project on Pasargadae and its Territory

International audienceThe Iranian-French project resumed its archaeological work on the site of Pasargadae in the latter half of 2015, the capital founded by Cyrus the Great in the center of the ancient province of Persia. It is the first step of a program that will span over several years and during which we will gradually enrich the Pasargadae archaeological map on a large scale. In the continuity of the previous 1999-2009 programs, we tried to have a better understanding of the layout of the Achaemenid city that was developed following a new pattern where the garden, the park, plays a prominent role. We also would like to further study the territorial changes just before the Achaemenid Empire as well as after its fall until the Islamic period. To approach these topics we gather a pluridisciplinary team that carried out complementary survey works (geophysics, topography, fieldwalking, surface ceramic collection, geoarchaeology) to build a comprehensive reconstruction of the Pasargadae cityscape from the early Achaemenid to Islamic periods. The works were performed inside the protected area of the site as well as in its nearby surroundings. This article presents our methodology as well as our preliminary results. The important 2015 achievements were to demonstrate that the south Tol-e Taḵt hillslope is built, to firmly show that the Achaemenid/post-Achaemenid occupation extended southeast of the Royal Garden and to shed light on the ancient settlement system some kilometers north of the city core part. In the same time an important topography work has been started to accurately document the whole visible archaeological features over the site. The main fallout of thesesurveys is to bring to light parts of the Cyrus project for Pasargadae as well as the complex and evolving landscape of the site and its territory before and after the Achaemenid period