Parsa approximately corresponding to the modern-day Iranian province of Fars can reasonably
be considered to occupy a prominent place in the history of Ancient Iran. Indeed it was the
heartland of the Persian empires of the Teispids Achaemenids and Sasanians. The spectacular
archaeological remains of Fars are well known - we need only think for example of the
monumental remains of Persepolis. Much less is known about life outside of the royal palaces
and about human-environment interactions in this region. In recent decades a new interest in
socio-environmental issues in the humanities the use of innovative scientific methods in
archaeology and the rapid expansion of the field of paleoenvironmental studies have vastly
increased the potential for investigating this topic from an interdisciplinary perspective. The
contributions to this volume are the result of a scholarly effort to investigate the landscape
and society of ancient Fars using an integrative approach which benefits from the
contributions from the humanities and the natural and technological sciences.
