The Iranian Plateau during the Bronze Age

L’ouvrage rassemble une partie des contributions présentées lors du colloque « Urbanisation, commerce, subsistance et production au IIIe millénaire avant J.-C. sur le Plateau iranien » qui s’est tenu à la Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée à Lyon les 29 et 30 avril 2014. Les vingt articles réunis livrent un état récent de la recherche archéologique dans cette région du Moyen‑Orient pour l’âge du Bronze. Le développement socio-économique entre le mode de vie rural et la formation des villes et des états soulève de nombreuses interrogations sur le processus de l’urbanisation. Quel est l’impact des relations culturelles entre le Plateau iranien et les régions adjacentes (Mésopotamie, Sud-Caucase, Asie centrale, vallée de l’Indus) ? Quel est le contexte global de l’âge du Bronze sur le Plateau Iranien ? Comment s’opère l’expansion de la culture Kuro-Araxe à partir du Caucase ? Comment le royaume élamite se met en place ? Quel est l’apport des fouilles et travaux récents dans l’Est iranien ? Quelle est l’influence de la vallée de l’Indus, un centre d’urbanisation important en Asie ? Comment se manifestent les singularités du monde iranien ? 

Alors que la thématique de l’urbanisation en Mésopotamie a été très débattue ces dernières décennies, cette question est abordée depuis peu pour le Plateau iranien. Le présent volume émane d’une communauté internationale d’archéologues d’institutions iraniennes, européennes et américaines, spécialistes reconnus de l’archéologie iranienne de l’âge du Bronze. Il dresse un panorama de l’état des recherches qui se nourrit amplement des travaux de terrain en cours. L’ouvrage rend compte de la dynamique actuelle de la recherche archéologique en Iran, riche de nouveaux questionnements et de nouvelles perspectives, et constitue un apport original à la réflexion sur l’émergence des villes au Moyen-Orient.

The book compiles a portion of the contributions presented during the symposium “Urbanisation, commerce, subsistence and production during the third millennium BC on the Iranian Plateau”, which took place at the Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée in Lyon, the 29-30 of April, 2014. The twenty papers assembled provide an overview of the recent archaeological research on this region of the Middle East during the Bronze Age. The socio-economic transformation from rural villages to towns and nations has prompted many questions into this evolution of urbanisation. What was the impact of interactions between cultures in the Iranian Plateau and the surrounding regions (Mesopotamia, the South Caucasus, Central Asia, Indus Valley)? What was the overall context during the Bronze Age on the Iranian Plateau? What was the extent and means of the expansion of the Kuro-Araxe culture? How did the Elamite Kingdom become established? What new knowledge has been contributed by the recent excavations and studies undertaken in the east of Iran? What was the influence of the Indus Valley culture, known as an epicentre of urbanisation in South Asia? What are the unique characteristics of the ancient cultures in Iran?

While the urbanisation of early Mesopotamia has been the subject of much debate for several decades, this topic has only recently been raised in respect to the Iranian Plateau. This volume is the product of an international community from Iranian, European, and American institutions, consisting of recognised specialists in the archaeology of the Iranian Bronze Age. It provides an overview of the latest research, including abundant results from current on-going excavations. The current state of archaeological research in Iran, comprising many dynamic questions and perspectives, is presented here in the form of original contributions on the first emergence of towns in the Near and Middle East.

While the urbanisation of early Mesopotamia has been the subject of much debate for several decades, this topic has only recently been raised in respect to the Iranian Plateau. This volume is the product of an international community from Iranian, European, and American institutions, consisting of recognised specialists in the archaeology of the Iranian Bronze Age. It provides an overview of the latest research, including abundant results from current on-going excavations. The current state of archaeological research in Iran, comprising many dynamic questions and perspectives, is presented here in the form of original contributions on the first emergence of towns in the Near and Middle East.

While the urbanisation of early Mesopotamia has been the subject of much debate for several decades, this topic has only recently been raised in respect to the Iranian Plateau. This volume is the product of an international community from Iranian, European, and American institutions, consisting of recognised specialists in the archaeology of the Iranian Bronze Age. It provides an overview of the latest research, including abundant results from current on-going excavations. The current state of archaeological research in Iran, comprising many dynamic questions and perspectives, is presented here in the form of original contributions on the first emergence of towns in the Near and Middle East.

• Emmanuelle Vila, Marjan Mashkour, Régis Vallet, Michèle Casanova, Jan-Waalke Meyer. Preface.

The global context of the Bronze Age on the Iranian Plateau

• Jan-Waalke Meyer.The global context of the Bronze Age on the Iranian Plateau

Expansion of the Kura-Araxes culture in Iran

• Giulio Palumbi .The expansion of the Kura‑Araxes culture in Iran: what role for the Uruk?
• Sepideh Maziar. Iran and the Kura-Araxes cultural tradition, so near and yet so far
• Alexia Decaix, Fatemeh Azadeh Mohaseb, Sepideh Maziar, Marjan Mashkour, Margareta Tengberg. Subsistence economy in Kohneh Pasgah Tepesi (eastern Azerbaijan, Iran) during the Late Chalcolithic and the Early Bronze Age based on the faunal and botanical remains
• Alexia Decaix, Rémi Berthon, Fatemeh Azadeh Mohaseb, Margareta Tengberg. Toward a definition of the Kura-Araxes agropastoral systems

Elamite Kingdom

• Alain Le Brun. Susa at the turn of the 4th and 3rd millennia
• Ali Zalaghi. An overview of the settlement patterns of Susa III period in the Upper Khuzestan. Archaeological survey in the western bank of the Karkheh river
• Alireza Sardari, Samira Attarpour. From the Proto-Elamite to Shimashki: the third millennium BC at Tappeh Senjar, the Susiana Plain
• Elnaz Rashidian. In search of cities in Elam. For a geoarchaeological approach to the toponym-hydronym interaction

Urbanisation in eastern Iran

• Julie Bessenay-Prolonge, Régis Vallet. Tureng Tepe and its high terrace, a reassessment
• Ali A. Vahdati, Raffaele Biscione, Riccardo La Farina, Marjan Mashkour, Margareta Tengberg, Homa Fathi, Fatemeh Azadeh Mohaseb. Preliminary report on the first season of excavations at Tepe Chalow. New GKC (BMAC) finds in the plain of Jajarm, NE Iran
• Nasir Eskandari. Regional patterns of Early Bronze Age urbanization in the southeastern Iran. New discoveries on the western fringe of Dasht‑e Lut
• David M.P. Meier. A pyrotechnological installation from the “metallurgical workshop” at Shahdad and its next geographical and chronological comparisons

Production and trade

• Mina Dabbagh. The contribution of women to trade and production in Elam society
• Henri-Paul Francfort. Iran and Central Asia. The Grand’Route of Khorasan (Great Khorasan Road) during the third millennium BC and the “dark stone” artefacts
• Holly Pittman. Bronze Age interaction on the Iranian Plateau. From Kerman to the Oxus through seals
• Sedigheh Piran. Prestige objects in South East of Iran during the Bronze Age in the National Museum of Iran
• Michèle Casanova. Exchanges and trade during the Bronze Age in Iran
• Babak Rafiei-Alavi. The biography of a dagger type. The diachronic transformation of the daggers with the crescent-shaped guard

The transition to Iron Age

• Hamid Fahimi. The Bronze Age and the Iron Age on the Central Iranian Plateau. Two successive cultures or the appearance of a new culture?

Conclusion

• Jan‑Waalke Meyer, Emmanuelle Vila, Régis Vallet, Marjan Mashkour. The urbanisation of the Iranian Plateau and adjacent areas during the Bronze Age. Concluding thoughts