A System at the Edge of Chaos: Abdanan in the Sasanian Period

Chapter 3 discusses the Sasanian period archaeological data acquired from the county of Abdanan. Accordingly, The spatial models of the regional distribution of the abundant and diverse Sasanian sites are analysed. It is explained that the compound economy and the dimorphic social system of Abdanan County in the Sasanian period had roots in the diverse geography of the region and state investments that brought about demographic growth and economic development. The chapter discusses that the interwoven interaction and transportation networks of people, materials and information between the Abdanan region in the Central Zagros and the neighbouring lowlands of Khuzestan and southern Mesopotamia attest that they should not be construed as oppositional territories, but as complementary. According to the complex adaptive systems model, it is argued that available data on an inter-regional system in the late antique Middle East determine the condition of a general inter-regional system at the edge of chaos where after a period of intense exploitation of land, according to the climate fluctuations of the Late Antique Little Ice Age and the socioeconomic crisis of the Early Medieval period, most of these areas entered an era of population and fiscal decline.