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Document Details : Title: Comments on the Early Bronze Age in Iran Author(s): MOUSAVI, Ali Journal: Iranica Antiqua Volume: 40 Date: 2005 Pages: 87-99 DOI: 10.2143/IA.40.0.583201 Abstract : One of the challenging problems of Iranian archaeology has so far been the unexplained shift in the archaeological record of the mid-second millennium B.C. in northern Iran. This consists of a change in ceramic forms, burial customs, and a general abandonment/lack of settlements. The archaeological data observed in the second millennium B.C. sites in northern Iran have generated a whole series of speculations on the origin of such a change, which has generally been attributed to the introduction of a new population (the Indo-Iranians and Iranians) on the Iranian plateau. While archaeologists' attribution of pots to a new people seems to complicate the comprehension of the problem, the transition phase between the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age in the northern half of the plateau stands unclear. In this regard, the region of central northern Iran, especially that of Tehran, with a dense occupation of the Early Iron Age, has yielded considerable amount of the relevant evidence. The objective of this contribution is certainly not to debate once more about the complicated problems of association of ethnicity and archaeological evidence. This paper will attempt to draw up a series of comments based essentially on new discoveries, which may have some impact on our current knowledge on the emergence of the so-called Iron Age in northern Iran. |
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