Journal of Research on Archaeometry
Year:2018 | Volume:4 | Issue:2 |Papers Count:8

The method of using plaster nails for fixing the mansion of Morteza Gholi Khan Egbalosaltaneh, the commander of Maku, in Qajar period was purposed. These paintings are important for art researchers since it is the beginning of a kind of innovation in Iranian art in Gajar period (Fig. 1). The western elements have been used in the interior design of the mansion and the execution of interior decorations such as the spaces colors and the most delicate arrangements in architectural ornamentations in terms of painting in the interior and exterior spaces (Table 1). The techniques of making painting layers in Qajar period have been employed in this monument which supporting layer, liners, the substrate and material layers are aligned with the same period historical houses resulted during the comparative studies (Fig. 2). . . .

There are many archaeological sites in Iran that have been remained unknown and have been ignored during these years with our neglect and under the pretext of the growth of cities and villages. The study of these sites, each of which is a ring in the history of human studies, is necessary for the correct understanding of the culture of the past. In the village of Koukherd-which is located in Bastak, Hormozgan province-there is a less well-known ancient site, which is called “ Sibeh” by inhabitants of the village as well as in some written documents, too. Today, the ancient city of Sibeh is located on the southwest of the village of Koukherd, where a several residential houses are built on the site core zone of the historic city in the north-east. The dispersion of remains from prehistoric to the late Islamic era around the Koukherd region, the existence of rock paintings from prehistoric to Islamic, the water structure of Tereneh, which is constructed in Sassanid period and the Islamic tomb of Dogonbadan, all demonstrate the richness of this region. In 2017, archaeological surveys and in particular, the geophysical survey were carried out by the archaeological mission under the direction of Mohammadkhani in the ancient site of Koukherd village. The collect of some of sherds pottery were one of the actions carried out during the archaeological surveys. Glaziers and design of the collected pieces indicate their belonging to the Islamic period, but their exact dating will definitely require more studies and experiments in the future. Other activities were included studying, photographing, and survey of two tomb building and bathroom/Hammam which carried out by the archaeologists. The purpose of this research was to introduce the ancient site of Sibeh city and to express the results of the surveys which will cause acquaintance with this ancient site and future supplementary studies by other researchers. At first, the contents from written sources was presented where it was tried to provide a brief description of the site. In the following, with the pictures and short written, two ancient buildings, the tomb and the bathroom/Hammam were introduced. Also, by presenting the tables of pottery analysis, got acquainted with the site's pottery and by showing maps obtained from geophysical surveys and digital maps, and studying and analyzing data, the contents have been arranged. One of the including activities done in these surveys was the determination of the site core zone of the ancient city of Sibeh, and the identification of archaeological monuments in the sphere of influence of site that included the tomb and the bath/Hammam. With geophysical surveys, subsurface structures appeared in different parts of the site. The most important anomalies appeared in the magnetic survey in the eastern part of the ancient site are regular linear anomalies, which are marked on the map (Fig. 10) in the western part of the Sibeh bath/Hammam area and show a rectangular structure that is located in the northwest corner of another square structure. In the west of the Sibeh city, in the cemetery part of the Dogonbadan-because of the existence of the Bunjeron part/Stone town and ancient graves, the eastern part of the Dogonbadan was selected for magnetic survey-in the north part of the magnetic map, there are regular linear magnetic anomalies that clearly indicate the plan of subsurface structures. Although the existence of some monument around the archaeological site confirms that this geographic area has been settlement in pre-Islamic, the results of this fieldwork and superficial pottery samples studied have lead the authors to doubt about assigning the site to pre-Islamic period.

Temple of Verjuy or Mehr Temple is one of the particular monuments in the type of regional architecture, in the slope of Sahand volcano; has been located in Verjuy village in the suburbs of the Maragheh city, East Azerbaijan province, Iran. The Verjuy researchers believe that this building belongs to the Mithraism religion which is an Iranian ancient religion (248 BCE-224 CE). But, new excavation around the temple demonstrated that this building is a part of underground rocky architecture with an unclear date and history. Underground Verjuy temple has seven spaces with a number of holes which are connected to each other. According to the literature, the temple was a worshiping place before Islam, but since then, the evidence show that it was used as a mosque. The architectural decorations of the temple have not been taken into consideration and in general, a lot of references, repeat the first information related to the history, usage and stone carving of this temple. As the specific architectural decorations of this monument have not yet been scientifically studied, the exploring variety of architectural decorations as well as the characterization of materials used for making the decorations of this building would be one of the main objectives of this research. Based on the results obtained, the main decorations of temple are including: carving of Islamic Arabesque and Quranic inscriptions as well as Moqarnas decoration inside the dome of the main space of the building. The results also showed the application of mortar on architectural decoration as a plaster inside the building and also on the surface of Moqarnas as a very thin layer in Islamic era. Moreover, the field work (redrawing the plan of temple and describe of architectural spaces as a documentation of architectural decorations with photography) and sampling of plaster along with XRPD, XRF and thin section petrography analysis were done. The results of this research show that, except for stone decoration, there is another decoration with lime base mortar in cover of Muqarnas work and some other places of the building, that this new finding is reported for the first time. This finding showed the application of the building during different periods and it is possible to attribute the earliest works and shreds of evidence of the use of the original dome in its new use in the Islamic era, to the Ilkhanid period.

Nowadays, the use of fuzzy mathematics and fuzzy logic are increasing in various sciences. Archaeology is one of the sciences that is less attended with the methods of fuzzy mathematics and fuzzy logic. Due to the nature of many archaeological data, however, the use of such methods in archaeology can be beneficial. In this research, it has been tried to explain applications of fuzzy logic and fuzzy mathematics in archaeology. This research have six sections. In the beginning, history of using fuzzy logic in archaeology is presented. Then, fuzzy logic is explained, and in section three, necessity of using fuzzy mathematics and fuzzy logic in archaeology are explained at first and then, situations, parts and mechanism of using fuzzy mathematics and fuzzy logic in archaeology are explained. Situations are where the use of fuzzy mathematics and fuzzy logic are useful, including: when the collected data/documentation/information are imprecise, when the relationships between the variables are imprecise and when there is disagreement between archaeologists. Parts of archaeology where fuzzy logic and fuzzy mathematics are applicable include descriptions of data and analysis of data, postdiction, and decision making. The mechanism of using fuzzy mathematics and fuzzy logic in archaeology include fuzzy reliability, designing of fuzzy inference system, and the use of fuzzy statistics. In section four, virtual reconstruction in archaeology is presented. In section five, the fuzzy reliability is explained and its applications in archaeology are described. One of the applications of fuzzy reliability is its use for the virtual reconstruction of destroyed buildings. And finally in section six, to show the process of this method, as a case study, a semi-destructive structure is reconstructed by using fuzzy reliability. The Toghrul Tower, where a small part of tower is collapsed, is selected for such a case study. Of course, this method is applicable to buildings where a lot of them have been destroyed, and to complex buildings. To determine the characteristics, experts commented on technical, geographical, architectural elements of building. Reconstruction is done step by step and in each step, the reliability is calculated. The reliability of the final model is obtained by combining the reliability of the steps. To obtain reliability, two methods have been suggested: use of expert opinion or mathematical/statistical analysis. The Toghrul Tower is reconstructed in comparison with its similar buildings, as well as architectural and technical analysis. Finally, the form of Toghrul Tower was recognized with determined possibilities. This method is beneficial to the archaeologists and conservator for the scientific prediction and postdiction of the structures and objects.

Using the stones to make tools and vessels dated back to Paleolithic and Neolithic periods. Stones so called soft stones, along with the alabaster, are one of the most famous stones that have been used to produce vessel in Near East, where they are in use currently in different applications. Soft stone vessels reach to highest level of flourishing during the Bronze Age and its geographical exchange area stretches from India in east to Syria in west. Iran, as one of the most important places of this kind of stones, was a potentially center in this trade and archaeological sites such as Tape Yahya and Konar Sandal in Kerman province are some of the most famous sites in making and exporting this kind of objects. Although soft stone vessel making continued during historical to Islamic era, but this industry has been neglected by researchers and archaeologist. In addition, until now morphological and artistic reports and archaeometry studies have focused only on Bronze Age vessels. During six seasons archaeological excavations at an Islamic Archaeological site called Shadyakh near to modern city of Neyshabur (about 2 km south east of Neyshabur), which its date goes back to Early and middle Islamic period, many cultural objects, like the pottery, glass, metal, bones, human skeletal, plaster, and architectural remains have been discovered. Beside of these samples, several pieces of soft stone vessels were discovered from several archaeological excavations. No evidence of workshop or crafting was reported and according to geological reports around this region, no outcrop of soft stone was seen. Although that these vessels are important, no study have yet been conducted on them. At this research, the vessels have been archaeometrically studied. The main objective of this research was to gain the information about the structural characteristics of soft stone vessels recovered from this site. Before this, Kohl and his collogues in 1979 carried an investigation on large amount of Bronze Age archaeological samples from Middle East. They found several main groups and a mine around Mashhad was recognized. Other researches on soft stones include Razani’ s M. A and Imami and his colleague’ s researches on new chlorite mines of Ashin; and Afshari Nezhad and Razani’ s research on structural characterization and conservation of Jiroft cultural basin’ s chlorite vessels. The only research on historical and Islamic soft stone vessels was about the effect of cooking conditions on structure of vessels. At this research, totally 16 samples from different seasons of archaeological excavations of Shadyakh were collected and analyzed by XRD, 4 sample analyzed by XRF, and 2 samples by SEM. The results of XRD analysis showed two main groups, while 21 trace elements and 11 chemical compound were detected by XRF. The raw data was studied by Excel statistic software. At this study, overlap graph was prepared according to finding difference or similarity between samples where the results show high similarity among the samples. The SEM and XRD results show that main compounds are Talc, Steatite, Soapstone, Clinochlore, Graftonite, Dolomite, Britholite and Clinochlore. All samples have these compounds, therefore, it could be concluded that Shadyakh samples come from one geological zone.

Recently, three season of archeological investigation on the Esfandagheh plain in Kerman province has been carried and several Neolithic sites back to seven and six millennium BC has been recorded in this region. Among these, Gav Koshi is a small Neolithic site less than one hectares and has been located in the northwest city of Jiroft. Based on the results of three season of excavations, the site has two important ceramic Neolithic phase of early seventh (with more than 500 years of occupation) and late seventh millennium BC with some gaps between on it. In recent chronological study, Khanipour and Niknami (2017) propose the following chronological tables for the Fars regions includes Transitional Rahmat Abad (7500-7000 BC), Formative Mushki (7000-6400 BC), Mushki (6400-6000 BC), Jari (6000-5600 BC) and Shams Abad (5600-5200 BC) and therefore, the first phase of Gav Koshi back to the Formative Gav Koshi (700-6500 BC) with local development. While the site abandoned for a short period of time, it was reoccupied again during the Gav koshi period (ca. 6400-6000 BC, see table 1). The ceramics of the first phase is completely local and handmade with a fine greyish slip covered on the surface. The red geometric broken lines applied on the exterior around the neck of bowls or diamond used the entire of surface? ? ? . The houses were made with mudbrick structures (35×12×12 cm), sometimes the thickness of mudbrick is 50 cm, and so three mudbrick contains the thickness of wall, where they have been usually joint to each other. The houses dimensions were usually between 2. 50 m to 4 m, indicates enough space for each family. Usually, the floor was covered by red ochre. For the roof, they usually used local reed which is still grow in the region. One of the important discovery of Gav Koshi was a room with dimensions of 285×360 cm, with a floor raised look like a platform and the floor carefully painted with red ochre. The whole internal walls were also painted with red ochre. Numerous of animal bones and also lots of human and animal figuries were found inside the room, indicates that the room had been probably used for ritual practices. The second phase was very close to the surface and it seems by the time the archtectural remains have been destroyed. While the ceramic of the lower layers indicates local development, but chronologically, the ceramics of upper layers reveal regional chrecterestics similar with Kushk-e Hezar, Mushki/Bashi, Qasr e-Ahmad and Harmangan in the Fars region (Khanipour and Niknami, 2017). During the second phase of Gav Koshi, several samples of mortars and pestles found with the obsidian cores and blades, all indicates regionalization of Kerman Neolithic during the last quarter of seven millennium BC.

Bioarchaeology is an interdisciplinary academic specialty, which through the scientific analysis and interpretation of archaeological human skeletal remains, bridges the link between the biological sciences, medicine, anthropology and social sciences. The cornerstone of bioarchaeology is the interaction between culture and human biology. Since the study of people and ancient societies is one of the main goals of archaeology, therefore, in the absence of studies of human remains, archaeology will be a very poor discipline. Scientific and systematic studies of human skeletal remains have effective contribution to our understanding of the complex concepts of social identities of people and past societies. Nevertheless, bioarchaeological studies of human skeletal remains can provide a unique perspective which cannot be offered by archaeological materials alone, and can be a complementary source of information that can contribute to the interpretation of an archaeological site. Human skeletal remains offer valuable data for evaluating biological relationships/distance between human groups, along with suggesting aspects of their lifestyle, mortality rates, diet and nutrition, and health and disease. This provides an extraordinarily detailed picture of the physiological and biological responses of past populations to the stresses posed by their environments. The early studies of human skeletal remains in the world were based on ‘ racial’ types and ‘ classification’ of individuals into different races and groups, however, later and over the past 40 years, these dangerous ‘ racial tendencies’ were abandoned – there has been a huge revolution in biological studies of human remains, and these studies have progressed towards coherent and scientific studies and at the demographic level (for example: genetic kinship, diet, disease, life style of ancient people, biological and cultural development). During this period and so far, efforts have been made to collect human skeletal remains in different part of the world. Official associations and professional organizations have been established for bioarchaeologists and experts in the field. At the same time, there are some very large projects carried out on general samples of human remains in order to answer specific questions. Unfortunately, the archaeological human skeletal remains in Iran have been neglected and Iranian archaeology is less concerned with the study of human skeletons than with the analyses of the artefacts and cultural materials recovered from the Iranian archaeological sites. Our knowledge in this regard is very limited and incomplete and we have no proper understanding of the ancient people of Iran. This has probably been the result of 1) lack of clear knowledge and awareness about bioarchaeology of human skeletal remains and the importance of ancient human skeletons as a key source of information in the studies of past societies, 2) absence of bioarchaeological/human osteological/palaeopathological department in none of the departments/universities or scientific institutions in Iran, 3) and of course lack of or absence of academic specialists in the field of human remains/bioarchaeology in Iran. This paper considers and introduces the discipline of bioarchaeology and its contribution to the study of ancient human skeletal remains from the archaeological sites. In addition, it provides an overview of the history and development of bioarchaeology as a discipline from the 18th century onwards, the history of bioarchaeological research in Iran, and the ethical issues surrounding human skeletal remains.