Conclusion. The Multifaceted Landscape of the Central Zagros during the Sasanian Period and Its Socioeconomic Transformation

The Conclusion provides concluding remarks about the role of different modes of production in the spatiotemporal horizons under examination and important variables such as their historical roads through the highlands. Chapter 6 argues that the Sasanian built environment of the Central Zagros was a multifaceted landscape made up of long-held human niche construction and contemporary adoptive formation processes, per either the varied natural setting of the Central Zagros or the late antique zeitgeist of the Near East. It moreover explains that this complex built environment contributed to Sasanian political culture from various perspectives, and was exploited by the political base of authority. The final chapter argues that to understand the economy and sociopolitical milieu of the late antique Central Zagros, it is crucial to consider the role of pastoral nomadism together with more sedentary economies. As per the interwoven inter-regional developments and long-standing highland-lowland symbiosis, it further recognises diversity in a single geographical zone and questions false generalisations and dichotomies, both in ancient literary traditions and modern literature. Finally, the conclusion discusses that the scale, nature, and dynamics of socioeconomic transformation in various territories differed and each of the cases, therefore, needs to be analysed in its context.