Publications so far
0
| 1. |  | Rol, Nolwen; Bernbeck, Reinhard; Wolff-Heger, Lisa; Akbari, Hassan; Hessari, Morteza; Pollock, Susan; Schäfer, Daniel: Chalcolithic Painted Pottery of the Sialk III Period: Quantifying Stylistic Continuities and Changes on the Northern Central Plateau. In: Iran. Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies, 2022. (Type: Journal Article | Abstract | Links | BibTeX)@article{nokey,In the last two decades, the Varamin Plain to the southeast of Tehran has been the focus of intensified archaeological work, with surveys and excavations yielding new insights into the region’s settlement history. New material from the dynamic network of Chalcolithic sites on the Jajrud alluvial fan now offers a more solid basis to assess the links between the Varamin Plain and the site of Tappeh Sialk in the Kashan Plain, which still remains a reference point for this period. In this paper, we use painted pottery to examine the dating and relationships of the settlements of Ahmadabad-e Kuzehgaran and Chaltasian on the Varamin Plain to Tappeh Sialk. Based on an in-depth quantitative analysis of motif assemblages at the three sites, we evaluate contemporaneities as well as stylistic similarities and differences. We highlight both shared temporal trends and regional specificities. |
| 2. |  | Maziar, Sepideh: Geographical Proximity and Material Culture; The Interplay Between Syunik and the Southern Part of the Araxes River Basin in the 6th to the 3rd Millennium BC. In: Quaternary International, iss. 579, pp. 42-58, 2021. (Type: Journal Article | Abstract | Links | BibTeX)@article{nokey,The region that is known today as Syunik in the south/southeastern part of Armenia is geographically a close neighbour of the southern part of the Araxes river basin in today Iran. Political upheavals and boundaries hindered fieldwork in these areas for many years. The archaeological project of the Araxes valley (APAV) is one of many other projects that launched in 2013 in this region and focused on the southern basin of the Araxes River. The results of the excavations of two sites, Kohne Pasgah Tepesi and Kohne Tepesi, and the intensive survey carried out in this area, enable us to shed more light on the settlement dynamics, material culture and economic/social networks of this area and its neighbours. The period from the 6th up to the middle part of the 4th millennium BC represents the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods in this region. The material culture of both periods shares many common characteristics with contemporary traditions at sites of the southern Caucasus. Later, in the last part of the 4th millennium BC, a cultural tradition that originated in the southern Caucasus, known as the Kura-Araxes cultural tradition, expanded over a vast area, including the southern part of the Araxes river basin. Based on the study of the pottery styles and obsidian flow, the patterns of interconnection between regions, communities, and sources, and commodity flows are examined. The role of the Araxes River and its tributaries in this interplay over the stated time span is the other inquiry of this article. Furthermore, I will investigate whether spatial propinquity had any impact on commodity flows and exchange, and if so, did this impact affected the material culture and technological practices or not. |
| 3. |  | Stöllner, Thomas; Aali, Abolfazl: Long-Term Salt Mining in Chehrābād: Resilient Strategies in Accessing Mineral Resources at the Iranian Highlands. In: Pearls, Politics and Pistachios: Essays in Anthropology and Memories on the Occasion of Susan Pollock’s 65th Birthday, pp. 352-369, Ex Oriente/Propylaeum, Berlin/Heidelberg, 2021. (Type: Book Chapter | Links | BibTeX)@inbook{nokey, |
| 4. |  | Stöllner, Thomas; Aali, Abolfazl; Kashani, Natascha Bagherpour (Ed.): Tod im Salz. Eine archäologische Ermittlung in Persien. Nünnerich-Asmus Verlag & Media GmbH, 2020, ISBN: 978-3-96176-141-8. (Type: Book | Abstract | Links | BibTeX)@book{nokey,Since the first discoveries in 1993 bodies or body-parts of eight humans have been discovered at the salt-mine of Douzlākh at Chehrābād. These bodies allow a reconstruction of their lives as workers during the different operation periods. By involving many different scientific fields, it became possible to investigate their palaeo-medical aspects, their diet and their health status as well the causes of their death and their involvement into different aspects of the mining operation and logistics of the mine. It is possible not only to reconstruct three different catastrophes during the Achaemenid, the early and the late Sasanian times but also to understand the social aspects of the working people. The Achaemenid miners certainly came from abroad but already stayed a while in the region, apart from the young miner no. 4 who seems to have arrived shortly before the catastrophe. This group of migrants possibly were sent within a “bandaka”, an Achaemenid labour duty. The Sassanian miners partly came from a “regional” background but also came shortly before their deaths. Saltman 1 is interesting as he is an older individual who possibly had a special role within the miners. Mining at Douzlakh was predominantly operated in periods of strong centralized political systems when governmental activities could be organized over longer distances. |
| 5. |  | Maziar, Sepideh; Zalaghi, Ali: Exploring Beyond the River and Inside the Valleys: Settlement Development and Cultural Landscape of the Araxes River Basin Through Time. In: Iran, iss. 59, pp. 36–56, 2020. (Type: Journal Article | Abstract | Links | BibTeX)@article{nokey,Geographical landmarks, especially rivers, have always played an important role in forming or hampering interplay between societies. In some cases, they act as a “communication route” and in some others as “obstacles”. In north-western Iran, it is possible that the Araxes River played such a decisive role by sculpting its surroundings. While our studies are not yet sufficiently adequate to understand the exact role of this river in different time spans, we can begin in some way to conceptualise its role in different periods. The Araxes Valley Archaeological Project (AVAP) was developed with the general aim of investigating settlement development from the fifth to the third millennium BC. Furthermore, studying the possible and probable routes of interaction, both inter- and intra-regional, between the Jolfa and Khoda Afarin plains and the southern Caucasus and north-western Iran, networks of contacts and exchange, and gaining a better understanding of the geographical characteristics of this area and its landscape were among our aims. In this article, the general history of occupation along this river is given to provide a preliminary database to understand the geographical and socio-political potential of this part in order to pursue more comprehensive studies in the future. |
| 6. |  | Bernbeck, Reinhard; Hessari, Morteza; Pollock, Susan; Rol, Nolwen; Akbari, Hassan; Eger, Jana; Saeedi, Sepideh: Soundings at Three Chalcolithic Sites in the Varamin Plain, 2018. In: Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Iran und Turan, vol. 49, pp. 49-75, 2020, ISSN: 1434-2758. (Type: Journal Article | Abstract | Links | BibTeX)@article{nokey,The Chalcolithic period (late 5th and 4th mill. BCE) is central to an understanding of the social, economic, and political changes that led to the first states in western Asia as well as the early uses of writing and complex administrative systems in Iran and Mesopotamia at the end of that millennium. In Iran, the late 5th through the first half of the 4th mill. BCE is characterized by several broad, regionally distinct material culture patterns. They range from complex societies of the late Susiana and Uruk traditions in lowland Khuzestan to Lapui and Banesh in the Kur River Basin and surroundings and the Sialk III tradition on the central plateau. These traditions have ofen been treated as monolithic entities, with research geared towards the identification of broad similarities over large geographic areas. This has been done to the detriment of investigations of local specificities. We have no understanding yet as to how Sialk III or Banesh traditions might have found local expressions nor to what extent there existed economic, political, or cultural variability within such traditions.This pattern of regionalization gives way in the latter part of the 4th mill. to the Proto-Elamite phenomenon with its striking similarities in administrative artifacts and to some extent in mundane artifacts such as pottery. Proto-Elamite material culture, usually attributed to the Early Bronze Age, can be found across the central plateau and into the highland valleys of the Zagros as well as in the lowlands of southwestern Iran. Here, too, the pre-dominant research emphasis has rested on the ex-amination of similarities, with studies of regional differences taking the back seat until quite recently. The processes that led to the emergence of this macro-phenomenon are not well understood; further understandings of them will require investigations at both large and small scales. The project we present here aims to examine those long-term developments in the Varamin Plain, with a focus on the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age periods. We argue for the need for locally and regionally based understandings of these long-term trajectories. In this first phase of the project, we have placed our emphasis on the Sialk III period. In this paper we report on a series of brief soundings excavated in the summer of 2018 at the three Sialk III sites of Ahmadabad-e Kuzehgaran, Chaltasian South, and Ajor Pazi. Our goals for this initial work were the following: –to investigate the depth of cultural deposits at each site as well as the preservation of architecture and other remains; –to acquire organic samples with which to build a robust radiocarbon-based chronology for the Varamin Plain; –to systematically recover and document pottery in order to construct a locally based ceramic chronology that can be connected to but does not directly depend on that used for other regions (e.g., the Sialk sequence); –to systematically collect artifacts as a window into understanding economic practices; –to collect animal bones, plant remains, and soil samples as a basis for investigating subsistence practices and local environmental conditions. The study of the finds and samples is underway. Here we present summaries of the fieldwork con-ducted and the first preliminary results of our analyses. |
| 7. | Helwing, Barbara: Early complexity in highland Iran: recent archaeological research into the chalcolithic of Iran. In: Turkish Academy of Sciences Journal of Archaeology, iss. 8, pp. 39-60, 2005. (Type: Journal Article | Links | BibTeX)@article{nokey, | |
| 8. |  | Bulgarelli, Grazia M.: Tepe Hisar. Preliminary Report on a Surfrace Survey, Aug. 1972. In: East and West, vol. 24, no. 1-2, pp. 15-27, 1974. (Type: Journal Article | Links | BibTeX)@article{nokey, |
2022 |
|
| Rol, Nolwen; Bernbeck, Reinhard; Wolff-Heger, Lisa; Akbari, Hassan; Hessari, Morteza; Pollock, Susan; Schäfer, Daniel: Chalcolithic Painted Pottery of the Sialk III Period: Quantifying Stylistic Continuities and Changes on the Northern Central Plateau. In: Iran. Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies, 2022. (Type: Journal Article | Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Chalcolithic, Pottery, Varamin Plain)@article{nokey,In the last two decades, the Varamin Plain to the southeast of Tehran has been the focus of intensified archaeological work, with surveys and excavations yielding new insights into the region’s settlement history. New material from the dynamic network of Chalcolithic sites on the Jajrud alluvial fan now offers a more solid basis to assess the links between the Varamin Plain and the site of Tappeh Sialk in the Kashan Plain, which still remains a reference point for this period. In this paper, we use painted pottery to examine the dating and relationships of the settlements of Ahmadabad-e Kuzehgaran and Chaltasian on the Varamin Plain to Tappeh Sialk. Based on an in-depth quantitative analysis of motif assemblages at the three sites, we evaluate contemporaneities as well as stylistic similarities and differences. We highlight both shared temporal trends and regional specificities. |
2021 |
|
| Maziar, Sepideh: Geographical Proximity and Material Culture; The Interplay Between Syunik and the Southern Part of the Araxes River Basin in the 6th to the 3rd Millennium BC. In: Quaternary International, iss. 579, pp. 42-58, 2021. (Type: Journal Article | Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Bronze Age, Chalcolithic, Economy, Kura-Araxes, Neolithic, Settlement mobility, Social, social relations, Survey)@article{nokey,The region that is known today as Syunik in the south/southeastern part of Armenia is geographically a close neighbour of the southern part of the Araxes river basin in today Iran. Political upheavals and boundaries hindered fieldwork in these areas for many years. The archaeological project of the Araxes valley (APAV) is one of many other projects that launched in 2013 in this region and focused on the southern basin of the Araxes River. The results of the excavations of two sites, Kohne Pasgah Tepesi and Kohne Tepesi, and the intensive survey carried out in this area, enable us to shed more light on the settlement dynamics, material culture and economic/social networks of this area and its neighbours. The period from the 6th up to the middle part of the 4th millennium BC represents the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods in this region. The material culture of both periods shares many common characteristics with contemporary traditions at sites of the southern Caucasus. Later, in the last part of the 4th millennium BC, a cultural tradition that originated in the southern Caucasus, known as the Kura-Araxes cultural tradition, expanded over a vast area, including the southern part of the Araxes river basin. Based on the study of the pottery styles and obsidian flow, the patterns of interconnection between regions, communities, and sources, and commodity flows are examined. The role of the Araxes River and its tributaries in this interplay over the stated time span is the other inquiry of this article. Furthermore, I will investigate whether spatial propinquity had any impact on commodity flows and exchange, and if so, did this impact affected the material culture and technological practices or not. |
| Stöllner, Thomas; Aali, Abolfazl: Long-Term Salt Mining in Chehrābād: Resilient Strategies in Accessing Mineral Resources at the Iranian Highlands. In: Pearls, Politics and Pistachios: Essays in Anthropology and Memories on the Occasion of Susan Pollock’s 65th Birthday, pp. 352-369, Ex Oriente/Propylaeum, Berlin/Heidelberg, 2021. (Type: Book Chapter | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Achaemenid, Administration, Bronze Age, Chalcolithic, Institutions, Iron Age, Islamic era, Minerals, Mining, Neolithic, Resilience, Resources, Salt, Sasanian, Zanjan)@inbook{nokey, |
2020 |
|
| Stöllner, Thomas; Aali, Abolfazl; Kashani, Natascha Bagherpour (Ed.): Tod im Salz. Eine archäologische Ermittlung in Persien. Nünnerich-Asmus Verlag & Media GmbH, 2020, ISBN: 978-3-96176-141-8. (Type: Book | Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Achaemenid, Administration, Bronze Age, Chalcolithic, Institutions, Iron Age, Islamic era, Minerals, Mining, Mobility, Neolithic, Salt, Sasanian, Zanjan)@book{nokey,Since the first discoveries in 1993 bodies or body-parts of eight humans have been discovered at the salt-mine of Douzlākh at Chehrābād. These bodies allow a reconstruction of their lives as workers during the different operation periods. By involving many different scientific fields, it became possible to investigate their palaeo-medical aspects, their diet and their health status as well the causes of their death and their involvement into different aspects of the mining operation and logistics of the mine. It is possible not only to reconstruct three different catastrophes during the Achaemenid, the early and the late Sasanian times but also to understand the social aspects of the working people. The Achaemenid miners certainly came from abroad but already stayed a while in the region, apart from the young miner no. 4 who seems to have arrived shortly before the catastrophe. This group of migrants possibly were sent within a “bandaka”, an Achaemenid labour duty. The Sassanian miners partly came from a “regional” background but also came shortly before their deaths. Saltman 1 is interesting as he is an older individual who possibly had a special role within the miners. Mining at Douzlakh was predominantly operated in periods of strong centralized political systems when governmental activities could be organized over longer distances. |
| Maziar, Sepideh; Zalaghi, Ali: Exploring Beyond the River and Inside the Valleys: Settlement Development and Cultural Landscape of the Araxes River Basin Through Time. In: Iran, iss. 59, pp. 36–56, 2020. (Type: Journal Article | Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bronze Age, Caucasus, Chalcolithic, Georgia, Iron Age, Kura-Araxes, Landscape, Mobility, Neolithic, Settlement and subsistance systems, Settlement mobility, Settlement structure, Structure development)@article{nokey,Geographical landmarks, especially rivers, have always played an important role in forming or hampering interplay between societies. In some cases, they act as a “communication route” and in some others as “obstacles”. In north-western Iran, it is possible that the Araxes River played such a decisive role by sculpting its surroundings. While our studies are not yet sufficiently adequate to understand the exact role of this river in different time spans, we can begin in some way to conceptualise its role in different periods. The Araxes Valley Archaeological Project (AVAP) was developed with the general aim of investigating settlement development from the fifth to the third millennium BC. Furthermore, studying the possible and probable routes of interaction, both inter- and intra-regional, between the Jolfa and Khoda Afarin plains and the southern Caucasus and north-western Iran, networks of contacts and exchange, and gaining a better understanding of the geographical characteristics of this area and its landscape were among our aims. In this article, the general history of occupation along this river is given to provide a preliminary database to understand the geographical and socio-political potential of this part in order to pursue more comprehensive studies in the future. |
| Bernbeck, Reinhard; Hessari, Morteza; Pollock, Susan; Rol, Nolwen; Akbari, Hassan; Eger, Jana; Saeedi, Sepideh: Soundings at Three Chalcolithic Sites in the Varamin Plain, 2018. In: Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Iran und Turan, vol. 49, pp. 49-75, 2020, ISSN: 1434-2758. (Type: Journal Article | Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Archaeobotany, Archaeozoology, Chalcolithic, Dating, Economy, Sounding, Tehran)@article{nokey,The Chalcolithic period (late 5th and 4th mill. BCE) is central to an understanding of the social, economic, and political changes that led to the first states in western Asia as well as the early uses of writing and complex administrative systems in Iran and Mesopotamia at the end of that millennium. In Iran, the late 5th through the first half of the 4th mill. BCE is characterized by several broad, regionally distinct material culture patterns. They range from complex societies of the late Susiana and Uruk traditions in lowland Khuzestan to Lapui and Banesh in the Kur River Basin and surroundings and the Sialk III tradition on the central plateau. These traditions have ofen been treated as monolithic entities, with research geared towards the identification of broad similarities over large geographic areas. This has been done to the detriment of investigations of local specificities. We have no understanding yet as to how Sialk III or Banesh traditions might have found local expressions nor to what extent there existed economic, political, or cultural variability within such traditions.This pattern of regionalization gives way in the latter part of the 4th mill. to the Proto-Elamite phenomenon with its striking similarities in administrative artifacts and to some extent in mundane artifacts such as pottery. Proto-Elamite material culture, usually attributed to the Early Bronze Age, can be found across the central plateau and into the highland valleys of the Zagros as well as in the lowlands of southwestern Iran. Here, too, the pre-dominant research emphasis has rested on the ex-amination of similarities, with studies of regional differences taking the back seat until quite recently. The processes that led to the emergence of this macro-phenomenon are not well understood; further understandings of them will require investigations at both large and small scales. The project we present here aims to examine those long-term developments in the Varamin Plain, with a focus on the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age periods. We argue for the need for locally and regionally based understandings of these long-term trajectories. In this first phase of the project, we have placed our emphasis on the Sialk III period. In this paper we report on a series of brief soundings excavated in the summer of 2018 at the three Sialk III sites of Ahmadabad-e Kuzehgaran, Chaltasian South, and Ajor Pazi. Our goals for this initial work were the following: –to investigate the depth of cultural deposits at each site as well as the preservation of architecture and other remains; –to acquire organic samples with which to build a robust radiocarbon-based chronology for the Varamin Plain; –to systematically recover and document pottery in order to construct a locally based ceramic chronology that can be connected to but does not directly depend on that used for other regions (e.g., the Sialk sequence); –to systematically collect artifacts as a window into understanding economic practices; –to collect animal bones, plant remains, and soil samples as a basis for investigating subsistence practices and local environmental conditions. The study of the finds and samples is underway. Here we present summaries of the fieldwork con-ducted and the first preliminary results of our analyses. |
2005 |
|
Helwing, Barbara: Early complexity in highland Iran: recent archaeological research into the chalcolithic of Iran. In: Turkish Academy of Sciences Journal of Archaeology, iss. 8, pp. 39-60, 2005. (Type: Journal Article | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Chalcolithic)@article{nokey, | |
1974 |
|
| Bulgarelli, Grazia M.: Tepe Hisar. Preliminary Report on a Surfrace Survey, Aug. 1972. In: East and West, vol. 24, no. 1-2, pp. 15-27, 1974. (Type: Journal Article | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Bronze Age, Chalcolithic, Semnan, Survey)@article{nokey, |