Document Type : Research Paper
Author
Assistant Professor, Department of Archaeolog, University of Shahrekoord
Abstract
Despite the lack of a clear understanding of the relationships of eastern and southeastern Arabia with different Iranian regions during pre-Sassanian era and the paucity of written evidence from this period, the huge corpus of archaeological evidence obtained from this region and the few available historical documents show that the region maintained close contacts with Iran and was under legal and formal control of the Parthians.
As its main objective, the present work seeks to analyze the archaeological material from the Parthian sites in eastern and southeastern Arabia that corroborate these contacts.
Pottery is among the major material that reflects the close ties that existed between sites in the southern and northern regions of the Persian Gulf. Pottery sherds are the most frequent evidence that support relationship between southern shores of the Persian Gulf and different regions of Iran during Sassanian and Parthian periods, in particular diagnostic examples that are widely known from Iranian sites. Of particular related examples are glazed, monochrome and bichrome painted, Londo, eggshell, and coarse black types.
Apart from pottery, other categories of the material culture such as coins, metal objects, glasses, statuettes, architecture, and Aramian inscriptions are now available from a number of Parthian sites in eastern and southeastern Arabia to prove the close contacts of the northern and southern coasts of the Persian Gulf.
Keywords
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