payam-e bastanshenas
Year:2013 | Volume:9 | Issue:18|Papers Count:9

Unlike the Zagros and Alborz mountains, except for few cases, our information about Paleolithic of Central Plateau of Iran is limited to accidental discovery of some open air sites and few rock shelters. A quick look to the known sites of the central plateau of Iran shows that they are mostly yielded scattered surfaces materials and, like other open air sites, contain no archeological deposit. This caused little knowledge on the Paleolithic archaeology which is merely limited to techno typological futures of the surface artifacts, while other aspects such as cultural characteristics, settlement patterns and environmental settings are unknown in the region. Therefore, newly discovered site of Qaleh Kurd Cave with Middle Paleolithic remains in the Southwestern mountainous region of Qazvin province is very important and noteworthy. The preliminary analysis of the collected chipped stones from the surface of the site indicates the presence of Levallois technique and Mousterian products. Illegal pits inside the cave show more than 2.5 meters of Paleolithic sediment deposited in the entrance - of the cave indicating the importance and high potential of the site for excavation.

The Lithic Analysis of archaeological investigations can provide some information related to productive activities and socio-economic organizations of ancient societies. Nevertheless, if the materials would be connected to important centers and also periods of transitional phases of Late Prehistoric cultures, with the study of their typology, functions and technologies of stone tools, may characterize the role of the artifacts in the formation and development of some aspects of craft specializations, Nomadism and exchanges. As a result, the study of stone tools on the ancient site of Tappeh Mehr Ali in the Northern Fars province about 720 samples is appropriate to access the aims. The lithic industry and Chaine Operatoire of Tappeh Mehr Ali is based on the blade, flake, bladelet and some amounts of cores that indicated the production in the site and possibly distributed them to other societies of Northern Fars.

In the present paper, Tepe Sarghal'eh andits surface fingings have been studied. This survey coincided with excavation of one of the sites in the region. The site had previously been identified. In this review we have tried to gather complete data. The discovered potsherds show this mound just belongs to late Chalcolithic period and Il-Khanid (Mongol) dynasty. What makes this mound a remarkable one is the existence of first Uruk pottery samples in Kurdistan province. In other words, finding such potsherds in Sarghal'eh Tepe indicates the importance of this site - as it is located on the route to Mesopotamia- and the influence of Mesopotamia on this area, selecting appropriate places as well as the site size.

Regional archaeological survey involves identifying archaeological traces and sites that can provide a good picture about inter and extra cultural relationships in the region. However, systematic sampling involves dividing the survey area into a sampling frame that gives us details data and information from the sit. Since the Khorasan area is poorly studied in the prehistoric period, we chose Tappeh Borj which is located near Nishapur for stratified systematic sampling in order to get better understanding about cultural and archaeological characteristics on the site and the region. In the following we will mention the results of typology and classification of archaeological findings. Based on the archaeological evidence, we would argue that there was a local culture in the site because there is no significant correlation with neighboring areas.

This paper presents a reassessment of the chronology of Konar Sandal North- one of the largest excavated sites of Jiroft plain in Halil Valley- based on comparative analysis of the materials of KSN with two of the excavated sites of Halil Basin, Konar Sandal South and Tepe Yahya. The Halil Rud Archaeological Project (2002-2008) showed that the site consists two different settlements, lower occupational settlement and upper Ziggurat type monumental mud-brick platform. It has been argued that KSN is not contemporary with 3rd millennium urban center of KSS and proposed that the lower settlement of KSN cab be dated back to early 2nd millennium BC and superimposed platforms can be assigned to first half of 1st millennium, sometime between 9th-7th Centuries BC.

Trying excavation of department of Archaeology of university of Tehran in Qazvin plain at Tape Sagzabad carried out in autumn 2009 and two small Trenches (7 & 8) with stratigraphic aims at south part of the site were excavated. Unfortunately, cultural layers of Tape Sagzabad have been badly damaged, due to illegal excavation, but the south part of the site seemed to be safer from the destruction. The cultural layers of this part especially in Trench 7 presented logical and regularly cultural sequence. In this Trench the evidence of historical period, Iron Age and late Bronze Age was found, but because of the small excavated area of excavation (just 2×2 m. dimension) we could not find any structure. However, the pottery evidence of the Trenches provided the possible offers of relative chronology of this part of the site. The thickness of the cultural layers of this part, especially in Tranche 7, presents a large extent of the site in the south part showing the necessity of determination excavation for the Tape Sagzabad. This paper focused on typology, classification, presentation and comparison of the different kinds of the potteries comming from of those two stratigraphic Trenches and we will try to present the relative chronology of south part of Tape Sagzabad.

Cups and goblets are two groups of Iron Age pottery in Iran. There are many parallels in shape and usage between the two, thus they can be fixed in a single group. The important difference between them is their height, so that the cups are usually shorter than the goblets. These wares are indicator of Iron Age I and II, and often found in the cemeteries of this age. Their geographical distribution is vast, and they observed in northwest, north and south slope of Alborz Mountains, central plateau and central Zagros. A total of 344 samples of these cups and goblets have been excavated and published from Iron Age sites in these regions. This research aims to propose a new typology for the wares and to study their geographical distribution. The main criterion in this typology is the shape of the ware. For this purpose, the complete shape of the ware is divided in four sections, and based on variation and combination of the four sections, some types are defined. Geographical distribution of the types in the different regions is not uniform and harmonious, rather some types are found in all regions and some others are common in some regions. This situation can indicate presence of local tendency in production of the ware.

Fire was treated respectfully in antiquity but a few studies have been accomplished in this regard in the case of Urartians. Usually there was a deity with the function of “Fire Deity” among ancient people, but this is not the case for Urartians. This is strange, as Urartians lived in a cold environment and therefore one can safely assume that fire must have had significant importance for them. There is no explicit reference regarding the importance of fire or a specific Fire Deity in Urartian royal inscriptions, but it is possible to trace the function of the Fire Deity in Urartian works with respect to the most important Urartian god Haldi. This paper is an attempt to study some pieces of evidence, such as a depiction of Haldi on a shield from the archaeological site Anzaf and fireplaces at the site of Ayanis to show that a fire was lit for Haldi and this could be called “Triumph Fire”. Also Haldi, himself, may have been the Fire Deity. His fire had the characteristics of the Triumph Fire such as ever-burning, relation with Triumph God, burning in temples and possibly even in requiring sacrifice and offerings.