Dioceses of the Church of the East to 1318 to represent them. None of these four dioceses is mentioned again, and it is not clear when they lapsed. By the end of the 5th century there were at least three East Syriac dioceses in the Sassanian province of Media in western Iran. Canon XXI of the synod of Isaac in 410 foreshadowed the extension of the metropolitan principle to the bishops of Beth Madaye and other relatively remote regions. Hamadan (ancient Ecbatana) was the chief city of Media, and the Syriac name Beth Madaye (Media) was regularly used to refer to the East Syriac diocese of Hamadan as well
Ecbatana the tell in support of arcaheology, though actual excavation did not begin until 1983. By 2007, 12 seasons of excavation had occurred. The work on the tell is ongoing. The Greeks thought Ecbatana to be the capital of the Medes empire and credited its foundation to Deioces (the "Daiukku" of the cuneiform inscriptions). It is alleged that he surrounded his palace in Ecbatana with seven concentric walls of different colours. In the 5th century BC, Herodotus wrote of Ecbatana: "The Medes built the city now called Ecbatana, the walls of which are of great size and strength, rising in circles