Naysān (Iraq)

Naysān (also known as Jabal Khayabar and Naisān) is a tell and an archaeological site in southern Iraq.

The tell has not been excavated due to ongoing conflict and instability in the area, however, a preliminary survey was conducted in 1965.[1] That survey identified a series of impressive bastion walls of baked brick and significant pottery shards on the surface. The shards that could be identified belonged to the Sasanian or early Islamic periods [2] The city was a trapezoidal shape approximately 1.5 by 3 kilometres (0.93 mi × 1.86 mi).

The site has been identified as the ruins of Charax Spasinu.[3][4][5] This claim is based on the scale of the ruins, the fact that the local name for the ruins is Naysān which is probably a corruption of the Parthian name Maysān,[6] and the location of the ruins at the confluence of the Tigris and Karkheh Rivers as stated of Charax Spasinu, by Pliny the Elder.[7]

References

  1. ↑ J. Hansman, Charax and the Karkheh, Iranica Antiqua 7 (1967) page 21-58
  2. ↑ J. Hansman, “Charax and the Karkheh,” Iranica Antiqua 7, 1967, pp.pp. 36-45).
  3. ↑ A. B. Bosworth, Conquest and Empire: The Reign of Alexander the Great, Cambridge University Press page 159
  4. ↑ Charax Iranica online Webpage
  5. ↑ Katrien De Graef, Jan Tavernier, Susa and Elam. Archaeological, Philological, Historical and Geographical Perspective, page 523 and 497.
  6. ↑ Yāqūt, Kitab mu'jam al-buldan III
  7. ↑ Pliny the Elder, Natural History. Book VI. xxxi. 138-140.


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