Ali A . Vahdati (علي اكبر وحدتي) (original) (raw)
Papers by Ali A . Vahdati (علي اكبر وحدتي)
book: New Voices in Iranian Archaeology. edited by Karim Alizadeh, Megan Cifarelli, 2025
In 2016 and 2018, the Iran-China Joint Expedition carried out two seasons of fieldwork at Tepe Na... more In 2016 and 2018, the Iran-China Joint Expedition carried out two seasons of fieldwork at Tepe Naderi, which is composed of an imposing tepe and a dilapidated adobe fortification wall enclosing it. The expedition implemented a multidisciplinary research strategy, comprising radiocarbon, archaeometric, archaeobotanical, and zooarchaeological studies so as to develop a robust understanding of the recovered materials. Beside two trenches (Tr .1 and Tr. 2), the team opened 12 small test pits at the foot and along the periphery of the tepe to grasp the stratigraphy and formation of the tepe. Moreover, they performed geophysical and drilling surveys to delineate the boundary of archaeological deposits. The results of the two seasons of fieldwork suggest that Tepe Naderi was first settled during the late 4th millennium BCE (ca. 3500 BCE) and continued to be occupied intermittently until the Late Islamic period. Radiocarbon dates assign the tepe to the Late Chalcolithic, Bronze, and Iron Ages, and the lacustrine sediment around the tepe to later periods. It appears that throughout prehistoric times the site was closely associated with both the Namazga culture ofsouthern Turkmenistan and the Burnished Grey Ware culture of the Gorgan/Damghan region, and the area of Shirvan, where Tepe Naderi is located, was a zone of cultural interactions between Central Asia and the Iranian Plateau from the 4th to the 2nd millennium BCE.
Illustrated History of Early Iran, 2023
Journal of Archaeological Science, 2023
The Newsletter No. 94 Spring 2023, 2023
Bastanshenakht, 2024
Throughout the third millennium B.C.E., eastern regions of Iran, from the cultural domain of Grea... more Throughout the third millennium B.C.E., eastern regions of Iran, from the cultural domain of Greater Khorasan and the Gorgan-Damghan cultural domain in the northeast to the southern regions in the Helmand civilization in Sistan and Baluchistan and the Halilrud civilization in Kerman, provided important raw materials such as metals and semi-precious stones. These materials were transported through an extensive network of land and sea trade routes from Balkh)Bactria(and Merv)Margiana(and the Indus Valley to the western civilizations of Elam and Mesopotamia. Khorasan played a role as a cultural link between Central Asia, southeastern Iran, and the Iranian Central Plateau during this period, while also exhibiting its own unique cultural characteristics during the second and third millennia B.C.E. This article examines the cultural status of Khorasan during the Bronze Age)urbanization period(and the Iron Age. Given that archaeological excavations and surveys in Greater Khorasan have not been uniformly distributed, our understanding of prehistoric cultures in the region varies across different areas. Unlike northern Kopet Dag)present-day Turkmenistan(, which has been explored by archaeologists for many years and has yielded a relatively complete succession of prehistoric cultures, much less is known about the ancient cultures of southern Kopet Dag)present-day Khorasan(. Therefore, this article discusses the Bronze and Iron Age cultures of Khorasan using the terminology commonly employed in Central Asian chronology.
Science 382, 1276–1281, 2023
Corpus of Indus Seals and Inscriptions 3, New material, untraced objects, and collections outside India and Pakistan Part 3: Indo-Iranian Borderlands (Eastern Iran, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan), 2022
This paper presents a number of Bronze Age stamp seals from six sites of Khorasan including Yarim... more This paper presents a number of Bronze Age stamp seals from six sites of Khorasan including Yarim Tepe (Darreh Gaz), Tepe Dand (Upper Atrak Valley), Shahrak-e Firuzeh, Tepe Damghani, and Tepe Etka (all in Nishapur-Sabzevar plain), as well as the seals from Iran-Italy excavations at Tepe Chalow (Jajarm plain).
Grave 12 of Tepe Chalow is the richest burial excavated to date at the site. It is a typical GKC ... more Grave 12 of Tepe Chalow is the richest burial excavated to date at the site. It is a typical GKC pit grave in which was buried a female adolescent younger than 18 years. In the grave were found 34 objects: 12 typical GKC pottery vases; 4 stone objects of chlorite, white and black stone, serpentine, and lapis lazuli; 13 metal objects of gold, bronze, typical GKC, and two ivory pins. The burial matches the funeral rituals attested at Chalow. The grave was oriented NE-SW and the body crouched on the right side with the hands near the face, looking toward the SE. Ceramic vessels were placed behind the back of the skeleton, from the head to the feet; there were two pins near the shoulders and two bracelets on the arms; the large vase near the feet contained a significant object. The chlorite objects were grouped near the face of the deceased, and so were the metal objects and ivory pins, with the exception of a small bronze jar and two pins. The beads also were near the face and the neck...
Archaeometry, 2022
Blue-white stonepaste wares were an outgrowth of the bursting innovations of Near Eastern potters... more Blue-white stonepaste wares were an outgrowth of the bursting innovations of Near Eastern potters striving to imitate Chinese products during the Islamic period. Building on the results of previous research, this paper seeks to increase our knowledge of this type of ceramics by analyzing 16 Qajar period samples from Tepe Naderi in North Khorasan Province, Iran, with stereo microscopy, Raman spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. It appears that the bodies of these samples are characterized by high silicon and high alkali, a hallmark of the traditional Iranian stonepaste. They are coated with transparent alkali glazes and colored with the chromogenic elements of Cr, Co, Fe and Mn derived from chromite, hematite and cobalt ferrite, the latter of which is the decomposed phase of cobaltite ore known from Qamsar in Iran. The provenance of these samples cannot be probed at present, however, due to the lack of study of contemporaneous ceramics in the Near East.
Science, 2022
Donkeys transformed human history as essential beasts of burden for long-distance movement, espec... more Donkeys transformed human history as essential beasts of burden for long-distance movement, especially across semi-arid and upland environments. They remain insufficiently studied despite globally expanding and providing key support to low- to middle-income communities. To elucidate their domestication history, we constructed a comprehensive genome panel of 207 modern and 31 ancient donkeys, as well as
15 wild equids. We found a strong phylogeographic structure in modern donkeys that supports a single domestication in Africa ~5000 BCE, followed by further expansions in this continent and Eurasia and ultimately returning to Africa. We uncover a previously unknown genetic lineage in the Levant ~200 BCE, which contributed increasing ancestry toward Asia. Donkey management involved inbreeding and the production of giant bloodlines at a time when mules were essential to the Roman economy and military.
L’aridification climatique de la fin du troisieme millenaire est un fait atteste par les reconsti... more L’aridification climatique de la fin du troisieme millenaire est un fait atteste par les reconstitutions paleoclimatiques pour le Proche et le Moyen Orient comme pour l’Asie centrale. Ce qui pose question ce sont les consequences de cette aridification climatique pour les societes humaines et la maniere dont elles s’y sont adaptees. L’etude geomorphologique des sites de Sabzevar au Nord-Est du plateau iranien et de Bam situe au Sud-Est du plateau iranien montre qu’entre le Chalcholitique et l’Âge du Fer les ressources en eau diminuent mais que grâce a des contextes tectoniques favorables au piegeage de la nappe phreatique les societies humaines s’adaptent en changeant de localisation et en adoptant de nouvelles techniques d’irrigation, en l’occurrence, la technique des qanâts.
The World of the Oxus Civilization, 2020
Over the Mountains and Far Away: Studies in Near Eastern history and archaeology presented to Mirjo Salvini on the occasion of his 80th birthday, 2019
Tales of Three Worlds - Archaeology and Beyond: Asia, Italy, Africa, 2020
The distribution of the objects belonging to the so-called ‘BMAC’ or ‘Oxus Civilization’ has been... more The distribution of the objects belonging to the so-called ‘BMAC’ or ‘Oxus Civilization’ has been limited to the area of southern Central Asia, with a few exceptions (usually prestige objects) found outside of this area. Recent data and materials gathered through archaeological surveys and excavations, as well as chance finds, and confiscated objects mainly from illegal excavations in north-eastern Iran, that eventually were housed in the local museum collections help to re-define the boundaries of this archaeological cultural complex. This latter seems to be distributed in a much wider area than formerly perceived, encompassing almost the whole territory of the historical region of Greater Khorasan.
Paléorient, 2011
Les petroglyphes ont une grande importance tant pour l’etude des cultures et des activites econom... more Les petroglyphes ont une grande importance tant pour l’etude des cultures et des activites economiques anciennes, que pour leur forme artistique. Le site a petroglyphes de Jorbat, recemment decouvert, dans le nord de la plaine de Jajarm, est l’un des plus grands sites d’art rupestre de l’Iran. Du point de vue chronologique, quantitatif et iconographique, il constitue l’ensemble le plus riche dans le nord-est de l’Iran. L’iconographie rupestre de Jorbat, qui s’echelonne du Bronze final a l’epoque moderne, possede des paralleles proches avec les sites a petroglyphes du plateau central de l’Iran et ceux des steppes de l’Asie centrale. Les representations et compositions les plus importantes du site sont brievement presentees dans cet article. Par une approche comparative, nous tentons de dater et d’interpreter les images dans leur contexte historique et geographique.
Iranica Antiqua, 2010
The Neolithisation of northeastern Iran is an important topic for our understanding of the develo... more The Neolithisation of northeastern Iran is an important topic for our understanding of the development, transmission and spread of technological and socio-econoniical innovations. Archaeological fieldwork in the south of Turkmenistan and north of Iranian Khorassan has already shown the richness of prehistoric cultures in the region. However, our understanding of the spread of Neolithic practices across northeastern Iran, especially the northern fringe of the great central desert, is relatively limited. This paper focuses on a region of north-eastem Iran that has so far not been explored archaeologically and introduces a large. Neolithic-Chalcolithic craft production site, namely Tepe Pahlavan.
Khorasan-Namak, In: M. Labbaf-Khaniki and M.M. Amini Qomi (eds.), 2021
The historians and geographers of the early and middle Islamic period have touched upon a region ... more The historians and geographers of the early and middle Islamic period have touched upon a region by the names of "Arghiyan", "Bam-o Arghiyan", "Jahan-o Arghiyan" and "Jahan Arghiyan", which was seemingly among the important regions of northern Khorasan such as Nishabur, Khaboushan, Esfarayen, Sabzevar and Jajarm. The available historical texts bear witness to the fact that Arghiyan was bounded in the north by Quchan, and it was located somewhere between Esfarayen and Nishabur, at the foot of Binaloud mountain. The accurate location of Arghiyan is still unknown and at least there is no consensus on its whereabouts, despite the intensive efforts that the scholars have made so far in this respect. The authors of this article try to pinpoint this historical place by collating information from historical, geographical and literary texts and investigating archaeological evidences. In the county of Esfarayen, the present district of "Barn-o Safi Abad" is the same historical Arghiyan which was mentioned in the historical and geographical texts from the early Islamic period by the name of Arghiyan, but later in the Ilkhanid period was called "Bam-o Arghiyan", and then in the Timurid period it adopted the name of "Jahan-o Arghiyan" and eventually in the Safavid period "Jahan Arghiyan". At the time of Qajars, this name abandoned, and then its was called "Bam-o Safi Abaft" whose first part came from the old name and the second part was named after Safi Khan Boqayeri who ruled over this region in the wake of the migration of Boghayeri Turkic tribes from Serakhs to this region.
book: New Voices in Iranian Archaeology. edited by Karim Alizadeh, Megan Cifarelli, 2025
In 2016 and 2018, the Iran-China Joint Expedition carried out two seasons of fieldwork at Tepe Na... more In 2016 and 2018, the Iran-China Joint Expedition carried out two seasons of fieldwork at Tepe Naderi, which is composed of an imposing tepe and a dilapidated adobe fortification wall enclosing it. The expedition implemented a multidisciplinary research strategy, comprising radiocarbon, archaeometric, archaeobotanical, and zooarchaeological studies so as to develop a robust understanding of the recovered materials. Beside two trenches (Tr .1 and Tr. 2), the team opened 12 small test pits at the foot and along the periphery of the tepe to grasp the stratigraphy and formation of the tepe. Moreover, they performed geophysical and drilling surveys to delineate the boundary of archaeological deposits. The results of the two seasons of fieldwork suggest that Tepe Naderi was first settled during the late 4th millennium BCE (ca. 3500 BCE) and continued to be occupied intermittently until the Late Islamic period. Radiocarbon dates assign the tepe to the Late Chalcolithic, Bronze, and Iron Ages, and the lacustrine sediment around the tepe to later periods. It appears that throughout prehistoric times the site was closely associated with both the Namazga culture ofsouthern Turkmenistan and the Burnished Grey Ware culture of the Gorgan/Damghan region, and the area of Shirvan, where Tepe Naderi is located, was a zone of cultural interactions between Central Asia and the Iranian Plateau from the 4th to the 2nd millennium BCE.
Illustrated History of Early Iran, 2023
Journal of Archaeological Science, 2023
The Newsletter No. 94 Spring 2023, 2023
Bastanshenakht, 2024
Throughout the third millennium B.C.E., eastern regions of Iran, from the cultural domain of Grea... more Throughout the third millennium B.C.E., eastern regions of Iran, from the cultural domain of Greater Khorasan and the Gorgan-Damghan cultural domain in the northeast to the southern regions in the Helmand civilization in Sistan and Baluchistan and the Halilrud civilization in Kerman, provided important raw materials such as metals and semi-precious stones. These materials were transported through an extensive network of land and sea trade routes from Balkh)Bactria(and Merv)Margiana(and the Indus Valley to the western civilizations of Elam and Mesopotamia. Khorasan played a role as a cultural link between Central Asia, southeastern Iran, and the Iranian Central Plateau during this period, while also exhibiting its own unique cultural characteristics during the second and third millennia B.C.E. This article examines the cultural status of Khorasan during the Bronze Age)urbanization period(and the Iron Age. Given that archaeological excavations and surveys in Greater Khorasan have not been uniformly distributed, our understanding of prehistoric cultures in the region varies across different areas. Unlike northern Kopet Dag)present-day Turkmenistan(, which has been explored by archaeologists for many years and has yielded a relatively complete succession of prehistoric cultures, much less is known about the ancient cultures of southern Kopet Dag)present-day Khorasan(. Therefore, this article discusses the Bronze and Iron Age cultures of Khorasan using the terminology commonly employed in Central Asian chronology.
Science 382, 1276–1281, 2023
Corpus of Indus Seals and Inscriptions 3, New material, untraced objects, and collections outside India and Pakistan Part 3: Indo-Iranian Borderlands (Eastern Iran, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan), 2022
This paper presents a number of Bronze Age stamp seals from six sites of Khorasan including Yarim... more This paper presents a number of Bronze Age stamp seals from six sites of Khorasan including Yarim Tepe (Darreh Gaz), Tepe Dand (Upper Atrak Valley), Shahrak-e Firuzeh, Tepe Damghani, and Tepe Etka (all in Nishapur-Sabzevar plain), as well as the seals from Iran-Italy excavations at Tepe Chalow (Jajarm plain).
Grave 12 of Tepe Chalow is the richest burial excavated to date at the site. It is a typical GKC ... more Grave 12 of Tepe Chalow is the richest burial excavated to date at the site. It is a typical GKC pit grave in which was buried a female adolescent younger than 18 years. In the grave were found 34 objects: 12 typical GKC pottery vases; 4 stone objects of chlorite, white and black stone, serpentine, and lapis lazuli; 13 metal objects of gold, bronze, typical GKC, and two ivory pins. The burial matches the funeral rituals attested at Chalow. The grave was oriented NE-SW and the body crouched on the right side with the hands near the face, looking toward the SE. Ceramic vessels were placed behind the back of the skeleton, from the head to the feet; there were two pins near the shoulders and two bracelets on the arms; the large vase near the feet contained a significant object. The chlorite objects were grouped near the face of the deceased, and so were the metal objects and ivory pins, with the exception of a small bronze jar and two pins. The beads also were near the face and the neck...
Archaeometry, 2022
Blue-white stonepaste wares were an outgrowth of the bursting innovations of Near Eastern potters... more Blue-white stonepaste wares were an outgrowth of the bursting innovations of Near Eastern potters striving to imitate Chinese products during the Islamic period. Building on the results of previous research, this paper seeks to increase our knowledge of this type of ceramics by analyzing 16 Qajar period samples from Tepe Naderi in North Khorasan Province, Iran, with stereo microscopy, Raman spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. It appears that the bodies of these samples are characterized by high silicon and high alkali, a hallmark of the traditional Iranian stonepaste. They are coated with transparent alkali glazes and colored with the chromogenic elements of Cr, Co, Fe and Mn derived from chromite, hematite and cobalt ferrite, the latter of which is the decomposed phase of cobaltite ore known from Qamsar in Iran. The provenance of these samples cannot be probed at present, however, due to the lack of study of contemporaneous ceramics in the Near East.
Science, 2022
Donkeys transformed human history as essential beasts of burden for long-distance movement, espec... more Donkeys transformed human history as essential beasts of burden for long-distance movement, especially across semi-arid and upland environments. They remain insufficiently studied despite globally expanding and providing key support to low- to middle-income communities. To elucidate their domestication history, we constructed a comprehensive genome panel of 207 modern and 31 ancient donkeys, as well as
15 wild equids. We found a strong phylogeographic structure in modern donkeys that supports a single domestication in Africa ~5000 BCE, followed by further expansions in this continent and Eurasia and ultimately returning to Africa. We uncover a previously unknown genetic lineage in the Levant ~200 BCE, which contributed increasing ancestry toward Asia. Donkey management involved inbreeding and the production of giant bloodlines at a time when mules were essential to the Roman economy and military.
L’aridification climatique de la fin du troisieme millenaire est un fait atteste par les reconsti... more L’aridification climatique de la fin du troisieme millenaire est un fait atteste par les reconstitutions paleoclimatiques pour le Proche et le Moyen Orient comme pour l’Asie centrale. Ce qui pose question ce sont les consequences de cette aridification climatique pour les societes humaines et la maniere dont elles s’y sont adaptees. L’etude geomorphologique des sites de Sabzevar au Nord-Est du plateau iranien et de Bam situe au Sud-Est du plateau iranien montre qu’entre le Chalcholitique et l’Âge du Fer les ressources en eau diminuent mais que grâce a des contextes tectoniques favorables au piegeage de la nappe phreatique les societies humaines s’adaptent en changeant de localisation et en adoptant de nouvelles techniques d’irrigation, en l’occurrence, la technique des qanâts.
The World of the Oxus Civilization, 2020
Over the Mountains and Far Away: Studies in Near Eastern history and archaeology presented to Mirjo Salvini on the occasion of his 80th birthday, 2019
Tales of Three Worlds - Archaeology and Beyond: Asia, Italy, Africa, 2020
The distribution of the objects belonging to the so-called ‘BMAC’ or ‘Oxus Civilization’ has been... more The distribution of the objects belonging to the so-called ‘BMAC’ or ‘Oxus Civilization’ has been limited to the area of southern Central Asia, with a few exceptions (usually prestige objects) found outside of this area. Recent data and materials gathered through archaeological surveys and excavations, as well as chance finds, and confiscated objects mainly from illegal excavations in north-eastern Iran, that eventually were housed in the local museum collections help to re-define the boundaries of this archaeological cultural complex. This latter seems to be distributed in a much wider area than formerly perceived, encompassing almost the whole territory of the historical region of Greater Khorasan.
Paléorient, 2011
Les petroglyphes ont une grande importance tant pour l’etude des cultures et des activites econom... more Les petroglyphes ont une grande importance tant pour l’etude des cultures et des activites economiques anciennes, que pour leur forme artistique. Le site a petroglyphes de Jorbat, recemment decouvert, dans le nord de la plaine de Jajarm, est l’un des plus grands sites d’art rupestre de l’Iran. Du point de vue chronologique, quantitatif et iconographique, il constitue l’ensemble le plus riche dans le nord-est de l’Iran. L’iconographie rupestre de Jorbat, qui s’echelonne du Bronze final a l’epoque moderne, possede des paralleles proches avec les sites a petroglyphes du plateau central de l’Iran et ceux des steppes de l’Asie centrale. Les representations et compositions les plus importantes du site sont brievement presentees dans cet article. Par une approche comparative, nous tentons de dater et d’interpreter les images dans leur contexte historique et geographique.
Iranica Antiqua, 2010
The Neolithisation of northeastern Iran is an important topic for our understanding of the develo... more The Neolithisation of northeastern Iran is an important topic for our understanding of the development, transmission and spread of technological and socio-econoniical innovations. Archaeological fieldwork in the south of Turkmenistan and north of Iranian Khorassan has already shown the richness of prehistoric cultures in the region. However, our understanding of the spread of Neolithic practices across northeastern Iran, especially the northern fringe of the great central desert, is relatively limited. This paper focuses on a region of north-eastem Iran that has so far not been explored archaeologically and introduces a large. Neolithic-Chalcolithic craft production site, namely Tepe Pahlavan.
Khorasan-Namak, In: M. Labbaf-Khaniki and M.M. Amini Qomi (eds.), 2021
The historians and geographers of the early and middle Islamic period have touched upon a region ... more The historians and geographers of the early and middle Islamic period have touched upon a region by the names of "Arghiyan", "Bam-o Arghiyan", "Jahan-o Arghiyan" and "Jahan Arghiyan", which was seemingly among the important regions of northern Khorasan such as Nishabur, Khaboushan, Esfarayen, Sabzevar and Jajarm. The available historical texts bear witness to the fact that Arghiyan was bounded in the north by Quchan, and it was located somewhere between Esfarayen and Nishabur, at the foot of Binaloud mountain. The accurate location of Arghiyan is still unknown and at least there is no consensus on its whereabouts, despite the intensive efforts that the scholars have made so far in this respect. The authors of this article try to pinpoint this historical place by collating information from historical, geographical and literary texts and investigating archaeological evidences. In the county of Esfarayen, the present district of "Barn-o Safi Abad" is the same historical Arghiyan which was mentioned in the historical and geographical texts from the early Islamic period by the name of Arghiyan, but later in the Ilkhanid period was called "Bam-o Arghiyan", and then in the Timurid period it adopted the name of "Jahan-o Arghiyan" and eventually in the Safavid period "Jahan Arghiyan". At the time of Qajars, this name abandoned, and then its was called "Bam-o Safi Abaft" whose first part came from the old name and the second part was named after Safi Khan Boqayeri who ruled over this region in the wake of the migration of Boghayeri Turkic tribes from Serakhs to this region.
Iran: Iron Age I (ایران در عصر آهن 1), 2005
A Persian translation of Inna Medvedskaya's book on Iron Age of Iran with an afterword to the Per... more A Persian translation of Inna Medvedskaya's book on Iron Age of Iran with an afterword to the Persian edition by the author
Proceedings of the international Conference on The Iron Age in Western Iran and Neighbouring Regi... more Proceedings of the international Conference on The Iron Age in Western Iran and Neighbouring Regions, 2-3 Nov. 2019, Kurdistan University, Sanandaj, Iran, Volume 1 in Persian, Volume 2 in English
National Museum of Iran, 2018
The date(s) in which the Marlik cemetery was in use has been subject to considerable debate. The ... more The date(s) in which the Marlik cemetery was in use has been subject to considerable debate. The cemetery is dated from the 14th to the 10th centuries BC by Negahban relying on stylistic analyses of the material. This dating has been accepted by most scholars, but some lean toward the low end of this time span by pointing out a few artifacts characteristic of 8th - 7th centuries BC. Based on the similarities between the objects of Marlik and the Urartian material, few people even tend to lower the chronology of Marlik to the 6-7 centuries BC. However, further typological analysis of the Iron Age material from Marlik and other sites in the Caspian region showed that all of the stone-built tombs at Marlik were constructed and used for richly furnished interments during the Iron Age I (second half of the 2nd millennium BC) some of which were reused for secondary burials during Iron Age III (1st millennium BC). A new chronological scheme for the relative and calendar dating of the necropolis of Marlik is achieved through an artifact seriation based on a typological categorisation of the finds and their occurrence in certain tombs(Piller 2008). Accordingly, three successive chronological stages are determined in the cemetery which are called Early Marlik Culture (15th - 13th Cent. BC), Classic Marlik Culture (12th - 11th Cent. BC), and Late Marlik Culture (10th Cent. BC). A number of toms of Early Marlik culture were reused for later inhumations during the Iron Age III.
The book examines a wide range of archaeological evidence from ancient Iran involving sculpting, ... more The book examines a wide range of archaeological evidence from ancient Iran involving sculpting, painting, murals, etc which depicts sport activities and games. in addition to the physical sport activities, a series of non-physical recreations like board games are also considered. After a general overview of the sport in ancient world including Greece, Egypt, Mesopotamia, the book concentrates on the textual and actual archaeological evidence concerning sport in ancient times on the Iranian World.
The Iron Age in the Iranian plateau has been the subject of a well-established tradition of studi... more The Iron Age in the Iranian plateau has been the subject of a well-established tradition of studies and field researches over the past half century. Compared to other periods, a large number of Iron Age sites, mostly cemeteries, have been excavated in various parts of Iran which led to the discovery of enormous amount of archaeological material from the late second and first millennium BC. Archaeological finds from well-known sites such as Hasanlu, Marlik, Ziwiye, and various Iron Age sites in Luristan have been distributed worldwide in many museum galleries and private collections, giving rise to a plethora of scholarly publications about the period. The most famous sites with Iron Age levels were first excavated in western Iran at Sialk (Cemetery A) and Giyan, and later in northwestern Iran around the west, east, and south shores of Lake Urmia, close to the Zagros mountains bordering Mesopotamia and Anatolia. The appearance of "Early Western Gray Ware" along with a number of other apparent changes in architecture and burial rites of Urmia Basin in the second half of the second millennium BC is claimed to mark a complete break with local Late Bronze ceramic traditions. A similar cultural break after the Bronze Age also is reported from excavated Iron Age levels of sites in western Iran and is attributed to the arrival of Iranian tribes. This cultural change was reportedly abrupt and several centuries earlier than the first appearance of Iranian names in the Assyrian royal texts in the 9th century BC. This paper is an overview of studies on the Iranian Iron Age sites and various polities known through Mesopotamian sources and/or archaeological investigations, theoretical issues concerning the Iranian Iron Age, its proposed chronologies, and contemporary linguistic evidence from western Iran aiming at pinpointing major scientific challenges and drawing new scheme for future researches.
Journal of Iran National Museum, 2020
Grave 12 of Tepe Chalow is the richest burial excavated to date at the site. It is a typical GKC ... more Grave 12 of Tepe Chalow is the richest burial excavated to date at the site. It is a typical GKC pit grave in which was buried a female adolescent younger than 18 years. In the grave were found 34 objects: 12 typical GKC pottery vases; 4 stone objects of chlorite, white and black stone, serpentine, and lapis lazuli; 13 metal objects of gold, bronze, typical GKC, and two ivory pins.m The burial matches the funeral rituals attested at Chalow. The grave was oriented NE-SW and the body crouched on the right side with the hands near the face, looking toward the SE. Ceramic vessels were placed behind the back of the skeleton, from the head to the feet; there were two pins near the shoulders and two bracelets on the arms; the large vase near the feet contained a significant object. The chlorite objects were grouped near the face of the deceased, and so were the metal objects and ivory pins, with the exception of a small bronze jar and two pins. The beads also were near the face and the neck, probably forming one or more necklaces. Remains of ovid/caprid bones inside a pottery bowl indicate a food-offering for the burial. All of these burial goods and funeral rituals of grave 12 at Chalow have close parallels at many burial grounds of Bactria and Margiana indicating close cultural ties between the area of northern Khorasan with the Bactro-Margiana cultural sphere.m