IntroductionWouter F.M. Henkelman, Stefan R. Hauser & Giuseppe LabisiI) Construing the Institutional LandscapeHow archaeological landscape reflects institutional landscape: Pasargadae and its surrounding territory as case studySébastien Gondet & Kourosh MohammadkhaniInstitutional landscape in the Achaemenid NortheastWu XinThe arrival of an empire: Features of a ruled landscape in North-KhorasanJudith Thomalsky & Mohammad Javad JafariTransformation of settlement structures and irrigation systems in the eastern Achaemenid hinterlands: The case of the Murghab alluvial fanNazarij BuławkaThe impact of the Sasanian irrigation system on the geographical divisions and institutional waterscape in EsfahānJaleh KamalizadThe Sasanian institutional landscape in Borazjan as seen through water managementZohreh Zehbari, Nasrollah Ebrahimi & Mehrdad Parsaei BorazjaniII) Nodes in the networkA) Estates and endowmentsDastgerd andar framud kardan: A diachronic study of dastgerd and related settlement models between the Sasanian and early Islamic periodsGiuseppe LabisiIlkhanid ways to appropriate, capitalise and develop the lands under their control: Approaches to government, land tenure and taxationBirgitt HoffmannB) Religious institutions: fire templesThe manifold roles of Sasanian fire temples and mows within the institutional landscape of the Sasanian EmpireNegin MiriSasanian fire temples of Khorasan: Institutional infrastructure across a sacred landscapeMeysam Labbaf-KhanikiInstitutions, location, and architecture: Transformation of landscape and its meaning through the construction of chahartaq structures in ancient IranSarvenaz ParsaC) Military control and administrationSasanian fortresses of Fars in contextAhmad Ali Asadi & Giuseppe LabisiNodes in the imperial network: “Fortified places” in the Achaemenid institutional landscapeRhyne KingIII) The manifestation of authorityThe inception of the institutional landscape of PersepolisPierfrancesco Callieri & Emad MatinKing’s land: The institutional landscape of Ardašīr-xwarrah and BīšāpūrAnahita MittertrainerThe Immortal under the plane tree: The lance-bearers of Achaemenid Pārsa as agents of institutional continuityWouter F.M. HenkelmanThis volume, containing the proceedings of a conference held in July 2022 in Istanbul, addresses and refines the concept of ‘institutional landscapes’ as they were created in Iran by the Achaemenid and Sassanian empires (with an excursus into the Ilkhanid period). It describes large-scale transformations of the physical landscape in terms of hydrological infrastructure, roads, large-scale plantations and settlement structures.It addresses specific nodes in the administrative network and associated forms of control such as estates, fortresses and fire temples. It wides the scope of the concept of institutional landscapes to manifestations of authority in the form of monumental architecture but also in that of agents of the crown roaming the countryside. The conference and the present volume are the fruits of the DFG-funded Iranian Highlands program (SPP 2176); they bear witness to the enduring and productive cooperation between Iranian and non-Iranian scholars of ancient Iran.This book is the fourth volume of a series published by the German-Iranian research cooperation “The Iranian Highlands: Resiliences and Integration in Premodern Societies”. The goal of the research project is to shine a new light on communities and societies that populated the Iranian highlands and their more or less successful strategies to cope with the many vagaries, the constant changes and risks of their natural and humanly shaped environments.