Hassan Basafa; sadegh davari; Nasir Eskandari
Abstract
Recognition of burial methods and interpretation of grave artifacts are reflection of human beliefs about the other world, customs, religious beliefs as well as social structures and ...
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Recognition of burial methods and interpretation of grave artifacts are reflection of human beliefs about the other world, customs, religious beliefs as well as social structures and complexities. The emergence of urban centers and their expansion in the Early and Middle Bronze Age led to the formation of extensive exchanges and interactions between the most important cultural centers in eastern Iran and Central Asia. During this period, special burial traditions were formed, the most important of which is cenotaph, whose understanding about the origin is one of the main objectives of the present study. This tradition started from the Early Bronze Age in the southeast at Shahr-e Sokhteh, Shahdad and Khonaman sites and in later periods it is considered as a pervasive phenomenon in the eastern half of Iran and Central Asia. In this regard, the main question of the research is why cenotaphs are formed. The general assumption is based on this logic that according to the quantitative and chronological study of the statistical community, the main origin of this tradition or burial method is attributed to the southeastern region of Iran and perhaps the Early Bronze Age at Shahr-e Sokhteh. This tradition then spread in the Middle Bronze Age in Khonaman and Shahdad Cemeteries of Kerman and finally in the direction of cultural communication, movement of people and ideas, communication network mechanism, indirect trade and nomadic craftsmen, spread widely in Central Asia in the late Bronze Age.
