Hasan Fazeli Nashli; Mojtaba Safari; Hamed Tahmasebi Far; Judith Thomalsky
Abstract
AbstractThe Shahneh Poshte Cemetery, located in the Babol district and encompassing approximately 11 hectares, represents one of the richest Iron Age sites in both Mazandaran and Iran. ...
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AbstractThe Shahneh Poshte Cemetery, located in the Babol district and encompassing approximately 11 hectares, represents one of the richest Iron Age sites in both Mazandaran and Iran. Situated in the foothills of the central Alborz Mountains, the site was excavated over two field seasons in 2018 and 2019. These investigations resulted in the identification of 39 analyzable burials, along with a diverse assemblage of associated grave goods, including pottery vessels, ornaments, decorative items, and weapons. This study seeks to establish both relative and absolute chronologies through comparative analysis of selected artifacts, supplemented by radiocarbon dating of human remains and charcoal samples. In addition, it addresses questions concerning cultural interactions between Shahneh Poshte and both intra-regional sites within Mazandaran and extra-regional sites across the Iranian Plateau. The funerary assemblages indicate that the majority of burials and material culture correspond closely to local Mazandaran stylistic traditions. However, certain objects exhibit affinities with broader trans-regional formal styles characteristic of areas such as Gilan, Gorgan, the central Iranian Plateau, and northwestern Iran during the late second and first millennia BC. Radiocarbon analysis of five human skeletons, yielding dates from the late second millennium to the second half of the first millennium BC, corroborates the relative chronology established through typological comparison. On the basis of combined relative and absolute chronological assessments of the 39 burials, 29 graves can be assigned to Iron Age I–III, while the remaining 10 are attributable to the late Achaemenid–early Parthian period (Iron IV). As at other significant Iron Age cemeteries, pottery constitutes the principal diagnostic category for establishing relative chronology at Shahneh Poshte. The range and typology of ceramic vessels demonstrate strong stylistic and cultural connections with contemporaneous sites within Mazandaran and across Iran more broadly.Keywords: Shahneh Poshte Cemetery, Relative and Absolute Chronology, Iron Age, Human Burials, Funerary Objects. 1. IntroductionThe Iron Age and its early stages are among the most questionable and complex archaeological topics in Iran and fundamental questions about it are still being raised after years of archaeological excavations. From the beginning until now, the focus of research on the Iron Age in Iran has been mainly on the Central Plateau, Zagros and especially northwestern regions, which was first established by Dyson’s extensive excavations at Hasanlu and the study of other important sites in the Solduz and Oshnavieh plains such as Yanik Tepe, Geoy Tepe, Haftvan, Dinkhah and Aqrab Tepe (see Dyson, 1965a; Dyson and Muscarella. 1989). In other words, other problems related to study of the Iron Age in Iran are dating, presenting a chronology and dividing it into three stages which was previously done based on the Hasanlu project. Now, with our increasing knowledge of different regions of Iran, the need to review the chronology and the way in which the Bronze Age cultures ended, the transition process and the beginning of the Iron Age is felt more than ever. However, studies related to Iron Age cultures in different regions of Iran have not been conducted in the same way, and many regions including northern slopes of the Alborz and the plains of the southern margin of Caspian Sea are full of ambiguities about processes of the beginning of the Iron Age and its developmental stages. In this regard and based on a study of one of the Iron Age societies in northern Iran, the present study attempts to address the questions of this important field by providing absolute dating of five human burials and two charcoal samples from the settlement area, as well as a comparative study of the cultural materials of the Shahneh Poshte cemetery and their comparative studies within the Iron Age chronology of Mazandaran and Iran. In other words, the combination of absolute and relative dating is one of the most advanced projects in explaining the chronology of Iron Age of Mazandaran and northern Iran, which will partially address the challenges of the limited knowledge of this period in this field and will answer questions about the absolute and relative date and sequence of use of this site, the chronological relationship of the burials of site with each other, as well as explaining the chronology of Iron Age and historical period of Mazandaran and some cultural regions of Iran. 2. DiscussionOne of the most important aspects of the Shahneh Poshte cemetery study, which distinguishes it among the many Iron Age sites in the Mazandaran region and Iran, is the absolute carbon-14 dating studies on a number of human remains and cultural materials from this cemetery. A total of 7 absolute dating samples, including 5 human burial remains and 2 charcoal samples from two settlement trenches, clearly show that 39 burials at this site are located in the Iron I to Achaemenid-Early Parthian period (Iron IV), such that burial number 3 is related to Iron I (1008-1216 BCE/1192-1047 BCE), burial number 8 is related to late Iron I and early Iron II (917-1108 BCE/936-1043 BCE), burial number 35 is related to the Iron II period (834-925 BCE/822-983 BCE), burial number 18 is related to the late Achaemenid/Iron IV period (338 BCE) and finally burial number 20 belongs to late Achaemenid-Early Parthian period (Iron IV/4th to 2nd centuries BCE). In addition to the absolute dating of human burials, also two absolute dating samples were extracted from trench 7 and contexts 4 and 5 with settlement evidence which are very valuable in their own right. Therefore, two charcoal samples from Context 4 dated 215±30 BCE and Context 5 dated 160±30 BCE in Trench 7 showed that the Shahneh Poshte cemetery was used simultaneously as a cemetery and settlement space after the end of Iron III during the Achaemenid, Seleucid and early Parthian periods (in line with burial findings of Trench 6). Also, comparative studies for relative dating including the morphology of the body and handle and the color of the vessels in forms such as gray, red, brown, red-orange jars and jugs, bowls, vessels with solar bodies and handles, milk jugs, tripod vessels as well as weapons, ornaments and some structures of the graves, in line with the absolute dates of the site, exactly complement the chronological framework of Shahneh Poshte and all can be dated to the Iron Ages I, II, III and finally IV (late Achaemenid to early Parthian), generally the 12th to 3rd centuries BC. In fact, these objects are clearly comparable with contemporaneous intra-regional sites in Mazandaran province as well as other regions including the Gorgan Plain, Gilan, central plateau and northwest Iran. Based on the archaeological evidence, it seems that during the Iron I-III periods and then Iron IV (Achaemenid to early Parthian period), there is a great deal of similarity between Iron Age sites in large parts of Iran. Among these, Iron Age of Mazandaran has the greatest similarity with the Gilan region sites such as Qaleh-e-Kuti I and II, Kalvarz, Meryan, Tandovin, Tol, as well as with the Central Plateau region with sites such as Sagzabad and Qeytariyeh. 3. ConclusionAs one of the large and very rich cemeteries in the central Alborz basin in northern Iran, the Shahneh Poshte cemetery is an important site for a case study on the cultural trends and cultures of the Iron Age in northern Iran and the Mazandaran region. It can answer many questions about the processes of the region’s entry into the Iron Age, including socio-cultural changes, economic and nutritional patterns, burial traditions and practices, social classifications and common class systems, structures of graves and cultural-commercial connections within and outside the region through the study of burial data. Initial studies of the cultural materials of this site in the form of 39 burials and settlement contexts, as well as other surface artifacts obtained during two seasons of archaeological excavations indicate abundant typological connections with findings from neighboring Iron Age sites in Mazandaran and other parts of Iran, just as a major part of the chronology and sequence of the Iron Age in different regions of Iran is based on relative and comparative chronology with other regions. In summary, the diverse and diverse collection of graves in the Shahneh Poshte cemetery, based on absolute dating studies (5 samples of human skeletal and 2 charcoal samples from settlement contexts) as well as relative and comparative dating with intra-regional areas of Mazandaran and neighboring areas like the Gorgan Plain, Gilan, Semnan and the central plateau (Tehran, Rey, Qazvin, Karaj and Kashan) indicates a long-term history of use of site from the late 2nd millennium BCE to the early second half of the 1st millennium BCE. More precisely, the people of northern foothills of the Alborz mountain range in the south of the Babol region of Mazandaran used this space and place to bury their dead from the Iron Age I, probably continuously, to the Achaemenid, Seleucid and early Parthian periods (Iron IV) and have used their burial methods and traditions for several generations. The set of 7 absolute dating samples along with the study of dateable burial objects reveals the cultural and social trends of Shahneh Poshteh people society and thus makes a significant contribution to the reconstruction and compilation of the Iron Age chronology of Mazandaran and Iran.
