Authors
1
Department of Archaeology, Faculty of letters and Human Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
2
Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
10.22084/nb.2025.30881.2776
Abstract
Until 1979, two Kura-Araxes sites were recorded in the Qazvin Plain. During the surveys conducted since the 2000s, eight sites in the Qazvin plain have been identified, and one of them was excavated; however, there has been little effort to understand the characteristics of this culture in the region, which the authors try to understand despite the small number of sites. This paper focuses on the architecture, pottery, and subsistence economy of the Kura-Aras culture, mainly relying on the cultural materials of Tappeh Shizer and surface finds of other sites in the area. The characteristics of this culture in the region and its similarities and differences with other regions of the Kura-Araxes culture are the main questions of this article, which we seek to answer with the help of the findings of supplementary fieldwork, interdisciplinary sciences, and library studies using the deductive-inductive method. Now, according to this research, we know that there is a certain pattern in the architecture of this culture, which continued until later periods. Its ceramics also have general similarities in terms of form and decoration with the ceramics of other regions under the scope of this culture. Still, in a certain way, in the transition from the beginning of this culture in the area through the end of it, the abundance of incised decoration and the diversity of motifs have been greatly reduced compared to Central Zagros and the Northwest of Iran. The mode of pottery production in this period in the Qazvin plain could probably be a household/workshop industry. The subsistence economy in this period combines grain-based agriculture, viticulture, and sheep and goat breeding. Based on the radiocarbon dating of Tappeh Shizar, this culture in Qazvin plain can be dated to the first half of the third millennium B.C., coinciding with the Kura-Araxes II phase.
Keywords
Main Subjects
)