Journal of Archaeological Studies

Abstract Kani Shaie is an important archaeological site in the Sulaymaniyah Province of Iraqi Kurdistan. Sitting in the center of the Bazyan Valley, it is located on a major communication axis that connects northern Mesopotamia via Kirkuk with the central Zagros Mountains of western Iran. Its main occupation spans the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age, from ca. 6000 to 2000 BCE. Later occupation of the Late Bronze Age, Neo-Assyrian period, and the Hellenistic-Parthian period is also well-represented in the lower mounded area of the site. Throughout these millennia, Kani Shaie was a major focus of settlement within the Bazyan Valley. While never reaching more than 3ha in size, occupation in each period attests to the settlement’s function as a local center that was connected within the exchange networks of southwest Asia. As such, Kani Shaie is of particular importance to connect the archaeology of western Iran with the Mesopotamian world. In this article, we present the excavation results of the 2024 season when two impressive architectural complexes were investigated. The first dating to the beginning of the Early Bronze Age, ca. 3000 BCE, in the aftermath of the collapse of the Uruk exchange network. The second belonging to the Hellenistic-Parthian period and likely connected to the southern expansion of the Adiabene kingdom.

Abstract Excavations in Tepe Barveh were conducted with the aim to shed further light on the period of painted Bronze Age wares and to refine the existing chronology for the Lesser Zab Basin in the first half of the 3^rd millennium BC. Thanks to its location in the upper valley of the Lesser Zab, the Barveh region served as a natural pathway for interaction between the Zagros foothills zones with the Rania and Peshdar Plain in Sulaimaniyah province in Iraqi Kurdistan, and the southern basin of Lake Urmia. By its overlapping Bronze Age sequence, the site offers a strong potential to fill the existing gap of information for the Early Bronze Age occupation in northwestern Iran. A foremost purpose of this paper is to situate Barveh within northwestern Iran, and to explore intra- and inter-regional interactions. The stratified occurrence of Painted Orange Ware (POW) is helpful to establish a sequence for the region and to fill the existing lacuna. EBA sites in northwestern Iran beyond the Kura Araxes zone remain understudied, and few sites offer deposits of considerable depth. The Early Bronze Age is generally associated with the burnished black pottery, while the orange pottery, a coeval and equally important cultural hallmark, has attracted less attention and remains a little known tradition. Hence, in light of the material culture excavated at Barveh, this paper seeks to gain an insight into the ways in which Tepe Barveh interacted with other regions dominated by the orange pottery culture. The ca. 8-meter deep EBA deposit at Barveh built up over c. 300 years and represents this period of POW in an uninterrupted sequence, attesting to cultural continuity over an extended period of time. The culture shows parallels with EBA sites in the southern Urmia Lake Basin and in the Rania and Peshdar plains in Iraqi Kurdistan

Abstract Shahdad is located on the western side of the Lut desert in the central Iranian Plateau. Shahdad has been a major focus of archaeological and archaeometallurgical research in the region due to extensive metallurgical activities documented at the site during the Bronze Age and for having the most abundant remains of copper metallurgy in southeastern Iran. The metallurgical developments at Shahdad have been well documented due to the previous studies by researchers working on the vast peripherial area of Shahdad dating to the period when the settlement was a permanently occupied city during the 3rd millennium BCE. Our latest surveys at the site have identified copper extraction metallurgy across a very large area based on significant amounts of ancient metallurgical remains on the surface including copper ores, moulds, crucibles, furnaces and complete metal tools. Pottery and slag have been observed macroscopically and microscopically in order to find particular traces of the metallurgical processes used during the EBA of Shahdad. Preliminary observations supply a new synopsis by re-tracing the ancient metallurgy at Shahdad. This research has revealed that the metal-workers of Shahdad mainly used copper sulphide (covellite) as their primary Cu-bearing ores. Three different slag types were identified according to their color, external texture and fabrication. Pottery samples were associated with copper metallurgy based on their phase characterizations, which were interpreted as the artefact of a distinct step in the metallurgical production process. This pottery is very porous and rough-textured due to the particular additives, leading to the formation of copper carbonate and copper oxide enrichments in the voids of the ceramic fabric.

Abstract  Hasanlu archaeological joint project in partnership with Iranian-American archaeologist is the one of the rare long-term archaeological projects carried out in northwest of Iran. In the process of this project (1957-1978), the layers from the Neolithic period to the historical period have been excavated. The Seventh period of Hasanlu Tepe is contemporary of early bronze age and the beginning of massive economic and social mutation in the cultural developments context of Middle East. Cultural materials of this period in Hasanlu Tepe have illuminated the obvious cultural differentiation between southern area of Urmia lake and the whole of Iran northwest region. Although the short report on this period material have been published, but there is still very little awareness on this period around the pottery types and its distribution, burial traditions and relationship between neighbors. Therefore, the present study intends to introduce the general characteristics of the culture of the seventh period of Hasanlu by referring to the findings of Hasanlu project and other excavations carried out in this area. cultural materials of this period illuminates that during the third millennium BC, there have been a distinguished socio-cultural zone from the Kura-Araxes area with painted Orange and Red pottery characteristic in the southern part of Lake Urmia to the southern slopes of Sahand Mountains. Which on the one hand interacted with northern Mesopotamia in west and on the other hand interacted with the Kura-Araxes communities in whole of north, eastern and southern area.

Abstract This paper will suggest a hypothesis about the Early Bronze Age administrative organization of Chogha Maran and the Mahidasht in the West Central Zagros based on administrative evidence retrieved from the Early Bronze Age trash deposits excavated at the site of Chogha Maran and previous researches and fieldworks carried out in the region. Based on this hypothesis, in order to adapt to the socio-economic and political developments of the Late Forth and Early Third Millennium B.C. and trying to diversify their subsistence strategies, communities of the region developed a village based mixed economy involving settled farmer groups and mobile pastoralist groups who could exploit pastoralism potential of the mountainous environment of the region as well as reorganizing regional and interregional trade around the Khorasan Highroad. Administrative organization of the communities had to be adjusted to the absence of mobile groups in the village during some periods of the year, therefore, they constructed a communal administration in which each group of people could store their products, foodstuff and properties and access to them when they need. As a result, different groups of people, especially the mobile ones had the assurance that they could protect and control their belongings in the village. Testing the hypothesis requires further studies on the administrative evidence excavated at Chogha Maran as well as museum research and fieldworks.

Abstract Early Bronze Age (EBA) in the Middle East is considered to be the dawn of civilization, spread of writing, and proto-urbanism; and Mesopotamia was the center of these historical events.
Cultural material remains at the beginning of this period in this vast area – including Western Iran, Caucasus (also beyond), Anatolia, Levant and Northern Mesopotamia – have wonderful similarities in spite of different names (EBA, Trans-Caucasian, Yanig culture, Kura-Arax culture).
Unluckily, for many reasons Archaeological researches focused on this vast area like Caucasus separately. For recent three decades there have been numerous surveys and excavations and multi-disciplined studies in western Iran. It seems EBA culture spreads out to Central Plateau of Iran so that the core of this culture could be Arax-Urmia-Kura basin.
Presented here are the results of an archaeological analysis on Early Bronze Age from Northwest of Iran, Central Zagros, Central Plateau of Iran and borderlands using some scientific information and data such as GIS and obsidian provenance studies.