“Iranian cultural heritage officials are on a collision course with rural communities after embarking on a legal crusade to reclaim the hills and nearby land on which, they believe, once stood the city of Jondishapour, where the Persian King Shapour I vanquished the Roman emperor Valerian more than 1,700 years ago. They have issued cultivation bans and pressed criminal charges against dozens of farmers accused of destroying parts of the archaeologically sensitive 300-hectare (741-acre) site.”