Structural Study of Wooden Abacus in Ashtbin Village Based on Samples in "Boonehghi"

Ecological materials are one of the characteristics of traditional Iranian architecture; this means according to the geography of each region, the specific materials of the same climate have been used. The village of Ashtbin, located on the banks of the Aras River, is a perfect example of this traditional Iranian architecture where wood and stone are its main indigenous materials. In some old houses in Ashtbin Village, there have been wooden abacuses, some of which have inscriptions and history. In addition to their functionality, they seem to have indigenous artistic features as they have been carved out of wood along with the designs. Some of them are located in spaces called "Boonehghi" and the rest in other spaces of buildings.  At present, Boonehghis are the only wooden structures in the village where the use of wooden abacus has been necessary and common. By considering these facts, applying the wooden abacuses in the constructions and decorations has been assumed as the local and indigenous tradition of Ashtbin Village’s "Booneh Ghai" spaces, with its pyramidal and relatively high architecture which was made of wood beams. These wooden abacuses are cut with special environmental shapes on which the patterns are engraved.  In this paper, all the surviving wooden abacuses are structurally introduced and analyzed based on features like technique, general form and patterns. For this purpose, after field survey, all the surviving wooden abacuses in the buildings of Ashtbin village have been identified, photographed and analyzed. According to the research has been done in this field, it seems that "Boonehghiha" has been the subject of unfamiliarity for researchers and specialists in the field of Iranian art and architecture for various reasons, so far only one article, one dissertation and one registration plan in this regard has been compiled, although it seems that there was an indigenous and local tradition in the construction and decoration of these wooden abacuses in the village of Ashtbin. Based on this, the research question is what kind of unique local features for the wooden abacuses of Ashtbin village can be proposed?  Thus, the aim of this study is to structurally investigate the indigenous visual features and index of the wooden abacuses of Ashtbin village.  The research method is descriptive and analytical comparison. The findings show that 48 wooden abacuses were found in field surveys of the village's historic buildings. Despite the large number of wooden abacuses and the variety of locations used, we see the use of indigenous woods in their construction. Also, the motifs are engraved on most of them geometrically based on the shape of a circle, in a certain way.  A special environmental shear patterns also were drawn on them. Finally, it seems that the tradition of making wooden abacuses in certain historical periods existed in the region of Azerbaijan, but with some differences in decoration and execution, in other words, in the past historical periods, in accordance with the climatic conditions of the region, it has been slightly associated with the change and taste of art masters in decorating them, which unfortunately in Iran has been less considered and introduced as a native architectural tradition..