Columned halls are considered one of the most important symbols of imperial ideology in the Achaemenid Persian Empire (ca. 550–330 BCE). Achaemenids adopted this particular architectural feature from earlier architectural traditions of the region and developed them into a much larger, imperial, scale. While massive columned halls in imperial Achaemenid capitals (e.g., Pasargadae, Susa, and Persepolis) were part of royal residences, smaller versions of these architectural features in provinces of the empire served as both the seats of the local governors, as well as expressions of the imperial authority. Archaeological research in the Caucuses has revealed a fairly sizeable number of architectural complexes with columned halls in this region. This is not surprising given that columned halls were an integral part of the architecture of power in the Caucuses before the rise of the Achaemenids. In fact, some of the older columned halls in the region were restored and reused by the Achaemenids when they annexed the Caucuses to their newly established Empire, while new ones were built throughout the region to express the imperial authority in a territory colonized by the Achaemenids.

We propose that the columned halls in the Caucuses were built in conjunction with a systematic program of restructuring the region with a new (Armenian) ethnic identity with close ties with the Persian overlords. This program of “Persianization” of the Caucuses seems to have paid off, for long after the fall of the Achaemenids, during the time of the later Iranian empires (the Arsacids and the Sasanids) (ca. 220 BCE–651 CE), the identity planted by the Achemenids played a vital role in conflicts with the Roman and Byzantine empires over the control of this strategic region.