Investigating ceramic production during the Proto-Elamite period at Tepe Yahya, southeastern Iran: Results of instrumental neutron activation analysis of periods IVC and IVB ceramics

详细信息    查看全文

• 作者：Benjamin Mutin^a ; ^d ; ; C.C. Lamberg-Karlovsky^b ; Leah Minc^c
• 关键词：Early Bronze Age period ; Proto-Elamite Culture ; Southeastern Iran ; Ceramics ; Composition analysis
• 刊名：Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports
• 出版年：2016
• 出版时间：June 2016
• 年：2016
• 卷：7
• 期：Complete
• 页码：849-862
• 全文大小：1680 K

文摘

This article presents results of new instrumental neutron activation analysis of ceramics from Tepe Yahya (southeastern Iran) dating to Periods IVC and IVB and their implications for our understanding of the dynamics of ceramic production and distribution in southeastern Iran during the early Bronze Age period. This analysis was conducted as part of the National Science Foundation funded project Coordinated, Regional Trace-Element Studies at the OSU-RC Archaeometry Lab, focused on a re-evaluation of the Uruk expansion and interregional ceramic exchange in the late fourth millennium BC. Period IVC corresponds to the Proto-Elamite occupation at Tepe Yahya dating to ca. 3000 BCE, and Period IVB follows Period IVC in the third millennium BCE after a chronological hiatus.

Through this analysis we show that the ceramic assemblage recovered in Period IVC Proto-Elamite occupation resulted from a complex system that included local production as well as intraregional and interregional exchange. We suggest that the community that settled at Tepe Yahya built most of its typical Proto-Elamite ceramic vessels using clays available locally in the valley surrounding the site. Surprisingly, Burnished ware, a ceramic style well-represented at the site but usually more common in northern Iran, was also built using local clays. In the same period, additional, different styles of painted ceramics were present at the site. We suggest that these ceramics were made using clays available elsewhere in Kerman and Seistan-and-Balochistan provinces. Comparisons with compositions of materials from Period IVB revealed that changes occurred in ceramic production during this period.

Beyond ceramic production, broader implications are derived from these results for the understanding of the Proto-Elamite Culture, interactions in southeastern Iran around 3000 BCE, and the Proto-Elamite legacy in this area.