JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL STUDIES
Year:2013 | Volume:5 | Issue:2 (SERIAL NO. 8)|Papers Count:10

This paper seeks to document the specific structural patterns of Bit Hilanis architecture which were in used in the ancient Near East from the second to the first millennium B.C. The recognition of Bit Hilanis architectural characteristics as well as their provenances and their spread from Anatoly to Palestine have always remained the important issues to be addressed by art historians and archaeologists. The main goal of this paper is to explain the architectural, religious and economic aspects of Bit Hilanis within the Anatolian cultural contexts and assess their cultural interactions with the adjacent areas. To do this we tried to provide a detailed characteristic of Bit Hilani’s architecture and their related arts as the basis to compare material remains from a group of Bit Hilanis. The comparisons were also developed through regarding the descriptions of Bit Hilanis by the different written sources as through which some parts of either the Bit Hilanis structures or their decoration details could be reconstructed.

Western parts of the Chaharmahal and Bakhtiyari Province (Ardal County) due to containing high mountains, deep valleys and small intermountain plains as well as the placement in the path of the nomads have long been of interest to humans. The nomadic communities of the mountainous regions of Chaharmahal VA Bakhtiyari culturally interacted with the lowland areas of Fars and Khuzestan's plain during history. Considering the subsistence pattern of the region, understanding the characteristics of the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods, their settlement pattern, the impact of environment on the formation and distribution of sites and determining the type of nomads are the issues which will try to address them through this research. To investigate the effect of environmental factors on the Neolithic and Chalcolithic settlements such as altitude, slope, aspect, distance from river, distance from communication paths, and ground structure and the existence of faults in the region were evaluated by statistical methods. To find out the possible relationships between the natural factors and settlement patterns we used digital maps as the basis for the GIS analyses. In general, two types of settlement pattern are identified: permanent and nomadic.

The Organization of stone tool production is one of the most important aspects of lithic assemblage studies. Reduction process indicates how lithic material was prepared and transported through reductive phases which can be reconstructed according to remaining material from each phase. Such studies are important in explaining the differences between lithic assemblages from the same period and in a region and their variability in various periods. Sequential models have distinct characteristics which distinguishes them from other archaeological structures. The concept has been proposed by American archaeologist as “reduction sequence” and by French archaeologists as “Chaine Operatoire”, which are almost the same. In this article reduction sequence is studied in Epipalaeolithic and early Neolithic of Izeh Plain, in North West of Kuzistan, Iran. Determining factors in Organization of chipped stone production, including recourse availability, settlement patterns and production trajectory are studied in lithic assemblages of Izeh sites. The only extant PPN Neolithic site, Tepe Imamzadeh Mahmud shows that there has occurred a major change in the production trajectory of bladelets from Epipalaeolithic to Neolithic and at least the location of different reduction junctures which were not exactly separated from each other in previous Epipalaeolithc period, has got relatively separated in the form of a work-camp of bladelet production workshop in PPN Neolithic.

In Iranian archaeology, Sistan played an important role especially in the Parthian period. This region is well known since it was cross road for Greeksto reach the East, a place for Scythians arrival, the presence of powerful Suren Pahlav clan and the place of epic and heroic tales. During the Parthian era favorable environmental conditions of Sistan caused to arise many of towns and settlements in this region as from the total 1662 archaeological site discovered, 392 of which were assigned to be occupied by Parthians. Evidence of these settlements are scattered in the northern and especially southern half of Sistan which are nowadays remain a depopulated desert. Large Parthian sites were identified in each of the two parts so that we regarded them as the central places according to their ranking in Sistan. During this period of time, Sistan was a prosperous land and it was populated due to the abundance of water resources and suitable arable lands. This paper tries to explore the impact of environmental factors in the Parthian settlement patterns since our archaeological data derived from our fieldwork indicated that there has been a positive correlation between the environment and the sites occupation processes.

The climatic conditions of Sistan plain and its coexistence paved the way for settlement of human populations, establishment of various residential sites and perhaps more importantly, emergence of civilizations that have given rise to the great cities such as Shahri-Sukhteh and Tang-e Gholaman.Although the accumulation of residential areas in the plain during different times and their proximity to the Hirmand River has attracted archaeologists over the past decades to this culturally rich region but study of hundreds of Islamic sites still remains ambiguous.The present research therefore, studies the distribution and chronology of these sites during Islamic era based on the historical texts, reports of archaeological activities and other related documents and evidence. In particular, it has been attempted to determine the development of Islamic cities in Sistan region and to study their changes during the Islamic era based on the archaeological records. It has also been tried to analyze the functionalities of the major cities of Sistan during the early Islamic period.The results of this research indicate that the capital of Sistan region has moved during Islamic era to be centered in the various cities and the cities such as Zaranj, Shahr-e Sistan, Shahr-e Sistan-e Nou, Jalal-Abaad, Kondark, Sekooheh and Shahr-e Naseri, were in turn appointed as the governmental centres of Sistan during Islamic era in the stated order.

Coin and coining as civilization indices have undergone many changes and development. It has been argued that the economic and political positions of states have always affected not only the physical shapes of a coin but its economic values within the current trade systems. To understand the changes were seen in the coining during the different time periods several political social, economic, cultural and even military issues should be considered. Thus to survey coining trend in the Greek state of Bactria, we have considered different aspects of changes and development according to the Emergence and Decline of Civilizations Theory with a special reference to Ibn Khaldoon and Toynbee theories. The focus of this paper is process of coining in the Greek state of Bactria and it also attempts to clarify some of the historical ambiguities and technological complications which occurred in course of coining.

Kohgilouyeh and Boyrahmad mountainous region has been played an important role in Iranian archaeology especially where the formation of nomadic communities is discussed. Through history different nomads have settled the region due to its moderate climate and fertile pasturelands. Archaeological studies having recently been conducted in this region have shown variant settlement sites which have temporally been used by these nomadic communities. One of these sites is Kombus Bonari which has been located in Choram county of Kohgilouyeh and Boyrahmad. In 2009, this site was precisely investigated by the authors to specify its real extent as well as its chronological orders. In this research our findings based on an archaeological and ethno-archaeological approaches is presented. It is important to say that Kombus Bonari provided us a diagnostic type of Islamic pottery known as Islamic Painted Potteries which have not been reported from the region before.

Leather artifacts have organic and degradable structure and some historic samples have remained from different historical periods. Studies of these scarce specimens have a great importance in the conservation procedure by which the structural study of leather artifact for understanding production process and used materials can be achieved. For this purpose a historic leather bottle has been studied. The leather bottle along with other Seljuk leather artifacts have been discovered during the excavation of Qhalee Kooh-i Qaen historical site in 2006. These artifacts have a great importance due to their historical technical characteristics in the clarifying of Seljuk leather making technology. In this study hair follicle pattern and cross section (by the SEM) studies have been applied for skin type identification. Chemical spot test used to characterization of vegetable tannins, sulfate, Al and Fe in the leather specimen. Inorganic compounds have been analyzed by SEM-EDS. Moreover, characteristics of grain and corium layers extracted tannins from leather and free fats in the structure were investigated by ATR-FTIR analysis. Results showed the application of goat skin with lime depilatory which was tanned by condensed vegetable tannins. There is a probable use of Fe compounds for leather dying. Measurements showed the presence of 3.3 – 4.2 % free fat in the leather structure accompanied by white deposit on grain layer. Comparative study by ATR-FTIR analysis indicated the use of animal fat and especially sheep tallow in the manufacture of leather.

Water resources throughout human history have always been an important factor in attracting human settlement. The main purpose of this paper was to investigate what is the role of Shadchay River in the location of two prehistoric settlements that are called Tepe Meymon Abad. In this research by field studies and also to investigate the characteristics of the sediments, samples were taken from the trenches of archaeological sites and remains of ancient waterway. The results obtained are compared with each other and also the necessary maps were plotted by using GIS and Freehand software. The results of the geoarchaeological studies show that these two sites are located on the alluvial plains and on the end of the Karaj alluvial fans. The fine-grained alluvial fan deposits of the Karaj, has created favorable conditions for the human settlement in this area. According to the samples taken and all evidence, probably in the past, a tributary of the Karaj river flowed in a course which is different from its nowadays water way and consequently by its redirection the settlement moved and transferred to a location closer to the river.

Archaeological investigations on the soil of archaeological sites indicates that human settlement and residence in a particular area, may lead to enrichment of certain elements such as phosphorus, magnesium, calcium and potassium, due to the production of rubbish, waste, domestic and industrial waste and many other cases. Investigation the range of elements in the soils, make it possible to identify different types of activities that have been carried out in the ancient times. In this research we selected Tape Zaghe to evaluate and identify some particular places in this mound during the Chalcolithic period. Through a field survey classified soil samples have been extracted from different layers of its settlement. For elemental analysis of samples we used “XRF” method and for the classification of elements, multivariate statistical methods were performed. The analysis of samples showed high concentration of some elements in the different parts of the Zaghe site. By comparing elemental concentrations of the samples as well as control samples that were taken from the different parts of the mound, we could identify the places that some special activities for example cooking of pottery, food preparation and consumption and burial practice were accomplished. Finding out the process of starting various specialized production activities in Chalcolithic society of Zaghe would lead to the proposition that the deep social and economic changes occurred in Zaghe from Neolithic to Chalcolithic as the particular activity places of Chalcolithic Zaghe indicated.