The Iranian-German Tappe Rivi Project (TRP), North-Khorasan: (original) (raw)
Related papers
First Preliminary Report on the joint Iranian-German Excavations at Gohar Tappe, Mazandaran, Iran
Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Iran und Turan 41, 2009
1 The authors would like to thank M. Roaf for revising the article. 2 Impressive descriptions of the geographical conditions in this area were recorded by European travellers who entered the coastal plains of Gilāna nd Māzandarānb etween the 17 th and 20 th centuries: Olearius 1959, 466;M orier 1985, 525-526;V ámbéry 1867, 279-280; 303-304;L uschey 1983, 388. 3 See also Soltysiak/Mahfroozi 2008, 71-73. 4 Voigt/Dyson 1992, 172-173;M ahfroozi 2003.U seful information for dating comes from Turang Tappe, wherep ottery like this was found in Stratum IIB and therefore can be placedw ithin the first half of the fourth millennium BC. In the same stratum, burnished grey ware makes its first appearance at the site. 5 By comparison the ''six large centres'' mentioned by Mousavi 2008, 115,i nt he Gorgānp lain each cover an area of only 3 to 5 hectares.
In the summer of 2014, an Iranian-German team carried out the first systematic excavations at Tappe Pahlavan. The site is located in the Jajarm plain, a corridor between the Alborz Mountains in the north and the vast Dasht-e Khavir in the south. The surface of the site itself is littered with ceramics and the remains of an intensive production of stone beads. All stages of production are represented: from coarsely shaped pieces to finished polished beads. The most recent 14 C datings place the upper settlement horizon in the early sixth millennium BC. The site thus provides the earliest dates for the ceramic Neolithic period in Northeast Iran. The finds display clear ties with the Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods in Northeast Iran, and can be correlated with the cultural sphere of Kopet Dagh, located c. 200 km to the east. A large part of the retrieved ceramics can be described as a local Cheshmeh Ali variant. This ware would then be c. 500 years older than the hitherto known sequences, which as a rule begin after the mid-sixth millennium BC. Moreover, Djeitun ceramics, so characteristic for Northeast Iran and southern Turkmenistan and representative of the Late Neolithic in this region, are absent in Pahlavan. Hence, the question arises as to whether an early Chalcolithic must be postulated here, or an early manifestation of a local Cheshmeh Ali horizon.
The Abharroud basin is an important region in archaeological studies of the northwestern outskirts of the central plateau, and the west and northwest of Iran. Considering its environmental capabilities and geographical location, studying the region can leads us to a better understanding of regional relations and also inter-regional interaction between the cultural-geographical regions. During the two seasons of archaeological survey, 257 archaeological sites were discovered, dating from the lower Palaeolithic to recent ages. Of these, 34 sites contained prehistoric remains.
New excavations at Tappeh Asiab, Kermanshah Province, Iran
The site of Tappeh Asiab in Iran is one of only a handful of Early Neolithic sites known from the Zagros Mountains. Discovered during Robert Braidwood's 'Iranian Prehistory' project, the site has seen limited publication of its early excavations. Here, the authors challenge some of the initial assumptions made about the site by discussing the first findings of renewed excavations, in the hope of substantially improving our currently limited knowledge of the Early Neolithic in this region.
Tappeh Valiki: A Pottery Neolithic Site in the Neka Plain, Mazandaran, Iran
Iranian Journal of Archaeological Studies (IJAS), 2022
Eastern Mazandaran, a part of the larger southeastern Caspian region, assumed a distinctly important place in the Neolithic period. The region shows both a local Neolithic culture and trans-regional ties to the coeval cultures of Gorgan, Semnan, Damghan, and Shahrood plains, northeastern Iran, and southern Turkmenistan. In recent years, new, systematic excavations have covered the Neolithic sites in the plains of Behshahr and Neka, most notably Touq Tappeh and Tappeh Valiki. The latter, excavated in 2021 to demarcate its boundaries, is one of the largest Neolithic sites across the Neka plain. In this paper the archaeological site of Valiki is introduced and its small finds, in particular the pottery assemblage, are described. Representing the earliest phases of pottery production in the concerned plains, this assemblage evinces a local tradition of pottery technology in the Neolithic period in eastern Mazandaran, on the one hand, and regional and trans-regional contacts, on the other. A preliminary outline of the Neolithic settlement pattern in the involved plains is also given.