Tepe Ghabristan: Difference between revisions

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The same small area also includes a 6th and 5th millennium BC settlement of Zagheh (Zaghe) (1.5 hectares), and the 2nd millennium BC, and Iron Age settlement of Sagzabad (Segzabad, [[Sagezabad]])(0.3 kilometers east, 14 hectares).<ref>E. 0. Negahban, “Preliminary Report of Qazvin Expedition: Excavation of Zaghe, Qabrestan, Sagzabad, 1971-1972”, Marlik 2. Journal of the Institute and Department of Archaeology. Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Teheran, 1977, pp. 26-44, fig. 45-64, 1977</ref>

The same small area also includes a 6th and 5th millennium BC settlement of Zagheh (Zaghe) (1.5 hectares), and the 2nd millennium BC, and Iron Age settlement of Sagzabad (Segzabad, [[Sagezabad]])(0.3 kilometers east, 14 hectares).<ref>E. 0. Negahban, “Preliminary Report of Qazvin Expedition: Excavation of Zaghe, Qabrestan, Sagzabad, 1971-1972”, Marlik 2. Journal of the Institute and Department of Archaeology. Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Teheran, 1977, pp. 26-44, fig. 45-64, 1977</ref>

According to Google Maps, the small rural settlement of Segzabad contains Teppe Zagheh on its northwestern outskirts. Tepe Ghabristan is located about 4km north of Teppe Zagheh.

According to Google Maps, the small rural settlement of Segzabad contains Teppe Zagheh on its northwestern outskirts. Tepe Ghabristan is located about 4km north of .

According to some other information, “Tape Zaghe, Tape Ghabrestan, and Ghare Tape (7000 BC)” are located within the same cluster about 4km north of Segzabad ([[Sagezabad]]).

== Description ==

== Description ==

Archaeological site in Qazvin province, Iran

Tepe Ghabristan (also Tepe Ghabrestan and Tepe Qabrestan) is an important late Chalcolithic tell in Iran’s Qazvin province in the northwest of the country, about 130 kilometers west of modern Tehran. It is a four hectare (possibly reaching 10 hectares at its peak) low-lying site on Qazvin Plain.

Tepe Ghabristan is important for understanding early metallurgy (copper workshops, crucibles), settlement patterns, and environmental shifts. It was buried under alluvium during its early history.[1] It is a part of the Sagzabad Cluster research project in Iran, involving teams from the University of Tehran and international collaborators.[2]

The same small area also includes a 6th and 5th millennium BC settlement of Zagheh (Zaghe) (1.5 hectares), and the 2nd millennium BC, and Iron Age settlement of Sagzabad (Segzabad, Sagezabad)(0.3 kilometers east, 14 hectares).[3]

According to Google Maps, the small rural settlement of Segzabad (Sagezabad) contains Teppe Zagheh on its northwestern outskirts (probably wrong location). Tepe Ghabristan is located about 4km north of Sagezabad.

According to some other information, “Tape Zaghe, Tape Ghabrestan, and Ghare Tape (7000 BC)” are located within the same cluster about 4km north of Segzabad (Sagezabad).

Tepe Ghabristan was occupied in the 4th millennium BC though many Iron Age graves, mostly destroyed by looting, were found at the top level. Geophysical surveys of the site reveal hidden features like irrigation channels and structures, highlighting a slowdown in sediment deposition. Its cultural connections also reveal broader Near Eastern trends, and links with prehistoric Uruk, as demonstrated by pottery.

It was also a very early metalworking hub, as demonstrated by extensive copper workshops with crucibles, molds, furnaces, and large amounts of copper, suggesting significant production.

The 4th millennium BC settlement was destroyed in a violent conflagration with many sling bullets being found.[4][5][6]

The site was excavated from 1970 until 1974, led by Yousef Majidzadeh. While most of the remains were of subsistence agriculture, metalworking, and pottery production there was one well built (1 meter walls) mounumental complex at the top of the mound, interpreted as a temple or administrative center. The complex covered 170 square meters with ten rooms, one thought to be a courtyard.[7][8][9][10][11]

Excavations resumed in 2002 and 2003 by a University of Tehran and Iranian Cultural Heritage Organisation team led by Fazeli Nashli.[12][13][14]
More recently the site periodization has been changed slightly:[15][16][17]

  • Ghabristan I – Early Chalcolithic 4300–4000 BC
  • Ghabristan II/III – Middle Chalcolithic 4000–3700 BC
  • Ghabristan III/IV – Late Chalcolithic 3700–3000 BC
Typical Urukean Beveled Rim Bowl from northern Iraq. Uruk period, 4000-3100 BCE, featuring Chaff-Faced appearance. Sulaymaniyah Museum, Iraq

Beveled rim bowls, diagnostic pottery for the Uruk Culture, were found (layer IV.I-3) at the site as well as conical cups.[18][19]

Tepe Ghabristan and Tepe Sialk, as shown on the map of Uruk expansion during the Late Uruk period, ca 3500-3300 BC.

The appearance of Grey Ware at Tepe Ghabristan and the related site of Tepe Sialk in Isfahan province around 3700 BCE is generally interpreted as representing a break in the local cultural sequence. This is a handmade, chaff tempered and Chaff-Faced Ware, that is also reported from many Chalcolithic period sites in Western Iran, upper Mesopotamia, as well as in Syria, Iraq, and the south-east of Turkey.

This type of pottery suggests a widespread, transient cultural phenomenon across western Iran, potentially linked to the Uruk expansion in southwest Asia.[20]

Two kinds of kilns were found, square and horseshoe shape (interpreted as pottery kilns).[21] A large decorated pottery fragment was found which the excavator described as an “oldest pictorial expression”.[22][23][24] Excavators found a coppersmith workshop with “crucibles, open molds (bar ingots), tuyeres, slag, 20 kilos copper are (malachite), 2 silver buttons from
Level 9, lower Level 10, a shaft hole ax, hammers, and picks”.[25]
[26] It has since been suggested that the tuyeres were actually mould fragments.[27]

The remains of dromedary camel were found at the site.[28]

  1. ^ Schmidt, Armin, and Hassan Fazeli, “Tepe Ghabristan: a Chalcolithic tell buried in alluvium”, Archaeological Prospection 14.1, pp. 38-46, 2007
  2. ^ E. 0. Negahban, “Preliminary Report of Qazvin Expedition: Excavation of Zaghe, Qabrestan, Sagzabad, 1971-1972”, Marlik 2. Journal of the Institute and Department of Archaeology. Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Teheran, 1977, pp. 26-44, fig. 45-64, 1977
  3. ^ E. 0. Negahban, “Preliminary Report of Qazvin Expedition: Excavation of Zaghe, Qabrestan, Sagzabad, 1971-1972”, Marlik 2. Journal of the Institute and Department of Archaeology. Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Teheran, 1977, pp. 26-44, fig. 45-64, 1977
  4. ^ Alibaigi, Sajjad, and Sirvan Mohammadi Qasrian, “Who Burned the Prehistoric Village of Ghabristan in Fourth Millennium BC?”, Archaeology Journal 4.1, pp. 39-58, 2024
  5. ^ [1]Vidale, Massimo, Hassan Fazeli-Nashli, and François Desset, “The late prehistory of the northern Iranian Central Plateau (c. 6000–3000 BC): growth and collapse of decentralised networks”, Surplus without the state, political forms in prehistory, 10th archaeological conference of Central Germany, October 19-21, 2017 in Halle (Saale), 2018
  6. ^ Fazeli Nashli, H. & A. S. Naghshineh, “Iron Age Burials of Tepe Ghabrestan”, in H. Fazeli Nashli (ed.), The Archaeology of the Qazvin from the Sixth to the First Millennium BC. Tehran: University of Tehran Press, pp, 121-148, 2006 (in Persian)
  7. ^ [2]Majidzadeh, Y. “An early industrial proto-urban center on the Central Plateau of Iran: Tepe Ghabristan.” Essays in Ancient Civilization Presented to Helene J. Kantor. Vol. 47. Chicago: Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, pp. 157-174, 1989
  8. ^ Y. Majikzadeh, “Excavations in Tepe Qabrestan: The first two Seasons, 1970 and 1971”, Marlik 2. Journal of the Institute and Department of Archaeology. Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Teheran, pp. 45-61, pl. 66-96, 1977
  9. ^ F. Malekzadeh, “A Preliminary Report on the Excavation of Trench E, Qabrestan third Season, 1972”, Marlik 2. Journal of the Institute and Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Teheran, 1977, pp. 63-66, pl. 97-127, 1977
  10. ^ E. 0. Negahban, “Preliminary Report of Qazvin Expedition: Excavation of Zaghe, Qabrestan, Sagzabad, 1971-1972”, Marlik 2. Journal of the Institute and Department of Archaeology. Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Teheran, 1977, pp. 26-44, fig. 45-64, 1977
  11. ^ Y. Majidzadeh, “Correction of the Internal Chronology for the Siyalk III Period on the Basis of the Pottery Sequence at Tepe Ghabristan”, Iran, vol. XVI, pp. 93-101, 1978
  12. ^ Fazeli, H., “Socioeconomic Transformation on the Qazvin Plain: Excavation of Tepe Ghabristan Report 2006, Season Three”, Iranian Center for Archaeological Research, Tehran, 2007
  13. ^ Majidzadeh, Yousef. “Excavations at Tepe Ghabristan”, Iran, Rome: Instituto Italiano, 2008
  14. ^ [3]Fazeli Nashli, Hassan, and Armin Schmidt, “Tepe Ghabristan: Geophysical Survey Report”, The International Journal of Humanities 13.3, pp. 31-50, 2006
  15. ^ Fazeli, Hasan, Edna H. Wong, and Daniel T. Potts, “The Qazvin Plain Revisited: A Reappraisal of the Chronology of the Northwestern Central Plateau, Iran, in the 6 th to 4 th Millennium BC”, Ancient Near Eastern Studies 42, pp. 3-82, 2005
  16. ^ Pollard, A. Marc, et al., “A new radiocarbon chronology for the North Central Plateau of Iran from the Late Neolithic to the Iron Age”, Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Iran und Turan 45, pp. 27-50, 2013
  17. ^ Fazeli Nashli, H. & R. Abbasnezhad Sereshti, “Prehistoric Chronology of Tepe Ghabrestan”, in H. Fazeli Nashli (ed.), The Archaeology of the Qazvin from the Sixth to the First Millennium BC. Tehran: University of Tehran Press, pp. 79-120, 2006 (in Persian)
  18. ^ Potts, Daniel, “Bevel-rim bowls and bakeries: evidence and explanations from Iran and the Indo-Iranian borderlands”, Journal of Cuneiform Studies 61.1, pp. 1-23, 2009
  19. ^ [4]Abbasnejad Seresti, Rahmat, and Roghayyeh Sattari Galoogahi, “Beveled rim bowls of the eastern half of the iranian plateau: examination and analysis”, Journal of Sistan and Baluchistan Studies 2.2, pp. 25-34, 2022
  20. ^ Sirvan Mohammadi Qasrian 2020, Uruk Grey Ware in Western Iran.
  21. ^ Alizadeh, Abbas, “A protoliterate pottery kiln from Chogha Mish”, Iran 23.1, pp. 39-50, 1985
  22. ^ Majidzadeh, Yousef, “Sialk III and the pottery sequence at Tepe Ghabristan: the coherence of the cultures of the Central Iranian Plateau”, Iran 19.1, pp. 141-146, 1981
  23. ^ [5]Haghighat, Ali, et al., “A Fabulous Narrative of a Semi-Anonymous Myth of Pre-Historic Era in the Iranian Plateau”, The International Journal of Humanities 19.3, pp. 21-36, 2012
  24. ^ Majidzadeh, Y., “The oldest narrative pictoral phrase on a pottery vessel from Tappeh Qabrestan”, Alizadeh. A., and Majidzadeh. Y., and Malek Shahmirzadi S (eds.), The Iranian World, Essay on Iranian art and archaeology, presented to Ezat O. Negahban, pp. 80-84, 1999
  25. ^ Yener, K. A., “The Rise of Complex Metal Industries in Anatolia, Ancient Turkey: The Domestication of Metals”, Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2000
  26. ^ Y. Malekzadeh, “An Early Prehistoric Coppersmith Workshop at Tepe Ghabristan”, Akten des VII. Internationalen Kongresses fur lranische Kunst und Archaologie, Munchen, 7.-10. September 1976, Archaologische Mitteilungen aus Iran, Erganzungsband 6, Berlin, pp. 82-92, 1979
  27. ^ Pigott V.C., “A heartland of metallurgy”, in HAUPTMANN A. et al. (eds), The Beginnings of Metallurgy. Der Anschnitt Beiheft 9, pp. 107-120, Bochum: Deutsches Bergbau Museum, 1999
  28. ^ D. T. Potts, “Camel Hybridization and the Role of Camelus Bactrianus in the Ancient Near East”, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 47(2), pp. 143-165, 2004

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