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Document Details : Title: Beyond the Mounds Subtitle: Insights into a Late Sixth Millennium BCE Sherd Scatter Site in the Shahroud Plain, Northeast Iran Author(s): ROUSTAEI, Kourosh Journal: Ancient Near Eastern Studies Volume: 55 Date: 2018 Pages: 143-182 DOI: 10.2143/ANES.55.0.3284689 Abstract : This article deals with the results of an excavation at a sherd scatter site of the Cheshmeh Ali culture, Ghaf Khāneh, in the Shahroud Plain, northeast Iran. The site was sounded in five trenches in 2006 and yielded a rather large collection of stratified ceramics. Two 14C dates suggest that the site was occupied in the late sixth millennium BCE. Based on the thin archaeological deposits and almost identical time range of the two absolute dates, it is proposed that the site was in use for a short period of time. Furthermore, the evidence suggests that Ghaf Khāneh cannot be considered an ordinary village site, but instead was a site with a specific function, such as a ceramic manufacturing workshop. The site also provides evidence of an unprecedented early occurrence of the Grey Ware which was destined to be the hallmark of the Bronze Age cultures of the region in the fourth to second millennia BCE. |
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