Sistan: part 1. Heritage Places

Deposit of Heritage Places from the Sistan region (Iran, Afghanistan) maintained within the EAMENA database.

This dataset is an exported subset of the Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa (EAMENA) database. It includes archaeological and cultural heritage places, such as ancient settlements, historical structures, traditional villages, and irrigation systemswithin the central areas of the historical landscape of Sistan (سیستان), located in eastern Iran and southwestern Afghanistan. The data was gathered by the visual inspection of 16,875 km2 of open-access satellite imagery accessible on Google Earth covering the period from 2001 to 2022, utilising the EAMENA methodology for archaeological and condition assessment. It is stored in the EAMENA web-based open-access database, hosted by the University of Oxford. The primary objective of compiling this dataset is to evaluate the impact of recent climate and environmental changes, as well as other disturbance factors, such as agriculture, building and development, and infrastructure, on the cultural heritage places of this historical region.

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The two repositories (Heritage Places and Grid Squares) both pertain to Part 1 of the Sistan survey. This dataset primarily focuses on the central areas of Sistan, but it can be expanded through future surveys to include the eastern parts of Sistan in Afghanistan and additional undocumented areas in Iran.