Ancient Charax Spasinou (Iraq) – Interpreting a multi-phase city

Abstract

The ancient city of Charax Spasinou was situated in southern Iraq near Basra, between the rivers Tigris and Eulaios, at the modern location Jebel Khayaber. It offers the opportunity to study the layout and functionality of a major urban city dating from the Seleucid to the Sasanian period. The city was originally founded by Alexander the Great and given the name Alexandria (Campbell et al. 2019: 215). After its destruction by flooding, it was re-founded in BC 166/165 by the Seleucid king Antiochos IV and re-named Antiochia. This settlement was again destroyed by flooding. It was rebuilt under Hyspaosines and named Charax Spasinou (ancient Greek for ‘palisade of [Hy]spa[o]sines’). Due to its favourable location Charax became a very important harbour in the Persian Gulf area and a major trading point between India and Babylonia, supplying goods further up to the Mediterranean (Campbell et al. 2019). Charax was first identified with Jebel Khayaber in 1965, when distinctive ramparts with an average height of 4m to 6m were documented (Hansman 1967: 39). In 2016 Jane Moon, Robert Killick and Stuart Campbell (University of Manchester), together with Stefan Hauser (University of Konstanz) and the Iraqi State Board for Antiquities & Heritage, started a project to document and protect the ancient city of Charax Spasinou. The aim is to investigate the site through an integration of remote sensing technologies and surface survey as well as limited excavations in order to reconstruct the city layout, its chronology and to document its state of preservation for purposes of conservation and site management.