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Examples of Triangle Style pottery from sites in Turkey: a-b. Van (Tarhan 1994: fig. 18.1-2); c-f. Karagündüz (Sevin 1998: fig. 2.1, 2.5, 3.1, 3.5).
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This paper advances an interpretive pottery typology for the northern Near Eastern highlands during early historical periods, or the mid-7 th to late 4 th centuries B.C. The study represents an effort to integrate intuitive approaches to pottery classification that use vessel form and surface appearance as discrimi-nant criteria with a consideratio...
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This article presents the results of the first excavation season of the Mersin cemetery, in the Semnan region, Iran. The cemetery was discovered through surface reconnaissance for the documentation of the area’s archaeological heritage before the construction of the Finesk Dam. Rescue excavations were then conducted in 2014 in three distinct areas of the necropolis. Particularly interesting were results were obtained from trench 3 in which 15 tombs dating to the Achaemenid period were found. This discovery is of particular importance because it reveals interesting information about the Late Iron Age in the area, which was virtually unknown prior to these investigations.
The highland plains of western Iran have been investigated with varying intensity. The Sarfirouzabad plain, located in the south of Kermanshah province, although visited perfunctorily, has not previously been studied systematically, despite desirable ecological and environmental conditions. In 2009, a team from the University of Tehran conducted a systematic and intensive field survey in the region to identify archaeological settlements and to assess their location concerning ecological, environmental and cultural factors impacted the distribution of sites on the plain. The surveyed area was walked in transects at 20-metre intervals and resulted in the identification of 332 archaeological sites from different cultural periods, which added much to the limited knowledge about the history of this region. During this survey, Pa-Chogha as the biggest tell site in the area, was identified. Fifty-nine samples of pottery and five stone tools were collected from the surface of Pa-Chogha dated from Late Chalcolithic to Islamic periods. Unfortunately, due to the expansion of Pa-Chogha village, the site is in danger of being destroyed. Our aim to publish this article is to introduce the Pa-Chogha as an important site for the chronology of Central Zagros at first, and preventing the further destruction of this site at the second.
Solgi or Sharif Abad tepe (A&B) is one of the larger settlement sites of the Gamasi-Ab river basin in Nahavand plain. This site lies at the intersection of old ancient roads that go from Sahne, Harsin and Kangavar to Nihavand and the other eastern regions. In the study of this area, pottery from the Early Bronze Age (Godin IV-Yanik, Kura-Araxes), pottery related to Godin III, II and pottery of the historical period were obtained. The examination of these pottery artefacts reveals extensive cultural exchanges of the inhabitants of the region with the northwestern and neighboring areas in the Bronze and Iron Ages. In addition, a closer examination of the lifestyle in this settlement area gives us a complete view of these people’s use of biological resources and their interaction with the environment. Among the reasons for the location and development of this settlement in the Bronze and Iron Age the main one was easy access to water resources and fertile agricultural lands. This article provides a brief overview of the geographical situation of the region and the history of archaeological research conducted in Nihavand and then focuses on the natural landscape of Sharif Abad. The next part of it describes the archaeological data from this location and analyzes its chronology. The article is concluded by a succinct summary.
Ağrı Dağı ve Van Gölü Havzası’nda yaptığımız yüzey araştırmaları ve Karagündüz Höyüğü kazısı sonuçları Doğu Anadolu Bölgesi Akhaimenid Dönemi için yeni bulgular eklemiştir. Bölgede Geç Demir Çağı’nı temsil eden post-Urartu ve ardından gelen Akhaimenid dönemlerine ilişkin bulgulara araştırma alanımızda daha çok Van Gölü Havzası’nda rastlanmıştır. Post-Urartu Dönemi’nde olduğu gibi Urartu Krallığı başkenti etrafında yoğunlaşan Akhaimenid Dönemi yerleşimleri bilgimizin yetersiz olduğu bir sürece katkıda bulunurlar. Makalede, Akhaimenid Dönemi Ağrı Dağı ve Van Gölü Havzası’nda yaptığımız yüzey araştırmaları, Karagündüz Höyüğü kazısı sonuçları ve yazılı kaynaklar temelinde incelenmiştir.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Van Gölü, Ağrı Dağı, Urartu, Akhaimenid, Doğu Anadolu, Pers, Geç Demir Çağ
Our surveys in the basin of Lake Van and Mt Ağrı, and the results of the Karagündüz excavation have given new data for the Achaemenid period in eastern Anatolia. Evidence related to the post-Urartu and subsequent Achaemenid periods representing the Late Iron Age in the region has been found mainly in the basin of Lake Van in our research area. The settlements of the Achaemenid period concentrated around the Urartian capital contribute to a period in which our knowledge is insufficient as in the post-Urartian period. The article contains, the Achaemenid period is analysed based on the results of Mt Ağrı and Lake Van Basin surveys, excavation at Karagündüz Mound and written sources.
Keywords: Lake Van, Mt Ağrı, Karagündüz, Urartu, Achaemenid, Eastern Anatolia, Persian, Late Iron Age
Lake Van basin, which was the heartland of the Urartian kingdom, has the most striking data in eastern Anatolia for the Iron Age sequence. The evidence for the post-Urartian period following the collapse of the Urartian kingdom and where our knowledge is insufficient to have been found in the basin of Lake Van so far. Even though the archaeological evidence is extremely few compared to the Urartian period, they are important because they belong to a period in which we have quite limited information. The excavations at Karagündüz Mound, Van Fortress Mound, Çavuştepe Fortress and our surveys in the basin enabled us to obtain new results for the post-Urartian period. The article contains the end of the kingdom in the basin of Lake Van, where the Urartian capital is located within the framework of both written sources and archaeological evidence, and the socio-political structure of the highland of eastern Anatolia.
Keywords: Lake Van, Urartu, Post-Urartu, Eastern Anatolia, Medes, Late Iron Age
Urartu Krallığı’nın merkezi bölgesi olan Van Gölü Havzası, Doğu Anadolu Bölgesi içinde Demir Çağı sıradüzeni açısından dikkat çekici verilere sahiptir. Urartu Krallığı’nın yıkılışını izleyen ve bilgimizin oldukça sınırlı olduğu Post-Urartu Dönemi’ne ilişkin bulgulara bugüne değin Van Gölü Havzası’nda rastlanmıştır. Arkeolojik bulgular Urartu Dönemi’ne göre son derece az sayıda olsa da, hakkında hemen hiç bilgimizin olmadığı bir döneme ait olmaları açısından önemlidirler. Karagündüz Höyüğü, Van Kalesi Höyüğü ve Çavuştepe Kalesi kazıları ile havzada yaptığımız yüzey araştırmaları Post-Urartu Dönemi için yeni bulgular edinmemizi sağlamıştır. Makalede, arkeolojik kanıtlar ve yazılı kaynaklar çerçevesinde Urartu Krallığı başkentinin yer aldığı Van Gölü Havzası’nda krallığın sona eriş süreci ve Doğu Anadolu yüksek yaylasındaki sosyo-politik yapı ele alınmıştır.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Van Gölü, Urartu, Post-Urartu, Doğu Anadolu, Med, Geç Demir Çağ
A rich and diverse pottery assemblage from the Middle Bronze Age through the Urartian Red Burnished Ware and local “post-Urartian ware” of the Iron III period comes from occupational deposits discovered within the lower town of Metsamor during fieldwork in 2018. The stone architecture recorded in this sector functioned in the first half of the 1st millennium BC. The pottery finds thus represent periods from Iron Age I to Iron Age III, for the first time producing a detailed sequence for the previously less than satisfactorily documented Iron Age I phase. New types of pottery were also distinguished for the Urartian and post-Urartian phases.
Models for iron innovation in Eurasia are predicated on understanding the relationship between the bronze and iron industries. In eastern Anatolia, the South Caucasus, and Iran, the absence of scientific analyses of metallurgical debris has obscured the relative chronology, spatial organization, and economic context of early iron and contemporary copper-alloy industries. Survey and excavation at Mtsvane Gora, a fortified hilltop site close to major polymetallic ore sources in the Lesser Caucasus range, recovered metallurgical debris dating to the 8th-6th centuries BC. Optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and energy and wavelength dispersive spectrometry revealed evidence for both iron and copper-alloy metallurgy, including smithing and alloying. Metal particles trapped within clear iron smithing slags were contaminated with copper, arsenic, and tin, suggesting that iron and copper-alloy working took place in the same hearths. The discovery of a small fragment of unprocessed material consisting of pyrite and jarosite, minerals typical of major nearby polymetallic ore deposits, links the secondary smithing and alloying at Mtsvane Gora with nearby mining activities, though the nature of those connections remains unclear. While the earliest iron in the region probably predates the Mtsvane Gora assemblage, the remains date to a period when iron use was still expanding, and they are at present the earliest analytically confirmed, radiocarbon-dated iron metallurgical debris in the Caucasus. The remains are therefore significant for understanding the spread of iron innovation eastward from Anatolia and the Levant. When considered in light of evidence from other Near Eastern sites, the results support a model for innovation in which early iron manufacturing was at least partially integrated with the copper-alloy metallurgical economy.
The South Caucasus occupies the divide between ancient Mesopotamia and prehistoric Europe, and was thus crucial in the development of Old World societies. Chronologies for the region, however, have lacked the definition achieved in surrounding areas. Concentrating on the Tsaghkahovit Plain of north-western Armenia, Project ArAGATS's multi-site radiocarbon dataset has now produced Bayesian modelling, which provides tight chronometric support for tracing the transmission of technology, population movement and social developments that shaped the Eurasian Bronze and Iron Ages.
