Tepe Yahya

Coordinates: 28°19′51″N 56°52′03″E / 28.33083°N 56.86750°E / 28.33083; 56.86750
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Tepe Yahya
Kermān Province, Iran
Coordinates28°19′51″N 56°52′03″E / 28.33083°N 56.86750°E / 28.33083; 56.86750
Typesettlement
History
Founded4th - 3rd millennium BC
PeriodsBronze Age,
CulturesProto-Elamite, Halil Rud, Sassanian
Site notes
Excavation dates1968-1971, 1973, 1975
ArchaeologistsC. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky
ConditionRuined
OwnershipPublic
Public accessYes

Tapeh Yahya (

Kermān Province, Iran, some 220 kilometres (140 mi) south of Kerman city, 90 kilometres (56 mi) south of Baft city and 90 km south-west of Jiroft
. The easternmost occupation of the Proto-Elamite culture was found there.

History

Kerman Province, Iran. 3rd millennium BC - National Museum of Iran

Habitation spans the 6th to 2nd millennia BC and the 10th to 4th centuries BC.

In the middle of the 2nd millennium BC, the city was a production center of chlorite stone ware; these carved dark stone vessels have been found in ancient Mesopotamian temples.[1]

Steatite was also very common at this site. Nearby, a steatite mine has been discovered. Over a thousand steatite pieces belonging to Period IVB were found, indicating local manufacturing.[2]

The distribution of these vessels was very wide. They were found not only in Mesopotamia, but also in

Umm-an Nar in the Persian Gulf.[3]

Archaeology

Stone plate with engraved eagle. Copper Age. Ca. 4300 BC. Yahya VC Period.

The site is a circular mound, around 20 meters in height and around 187 meters in diameter. [4] It was excavated in six seasons (1968-1971, 1973, 1975) by the American School of Prehistoric Research of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology of Harvard University in a joint operation with what is now the Shiraz University. The expedition was under the direction of C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky. [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] Jane Britton was one of the excavators on the dig in 1968.[10]

Periodization is as follows:

Period I Sasanian pre: 200 BC-400 AD
Period II Achaemenian: 275-500 BC
Period III Iron Age: 500-1000 BC
Abandonment
Period IV A Shahdad/Kaftari - late 3rd to early 2nd millennium BC
Period IV B Halil Rud Civilization - 2nd half of 3rd millennium BC
Abandonment
Period IV C
Proto-Elamite
: circa 3000 BC
Abandonment
Period V Yahya Culture: 3400-3800 BC
Period VI Coarse Ware-Neolithic: 3800-4500 BC
Period VII Neolithic 4500-5500 BC

In the Neolithic period VII strata an extremely detailed green soapstone female figurine, of a phallic nature, was found. It featured eight individually drilled orifices. An associated charcoal sample was submitted for radiocarbon dating.[11]

In the late 4th millennium BC IV C period strata (comparable with levels 14-16 at Susa) a large Proto-Elamite monumental building, occupied for less than a century ,was constructed which covered most of the top of the mound. The design was similar to other Proto-Elamite sites and to the Uruk site at Habuba Kabira in Syria. Construction used a standardized 48 centimeter long by 24 centimeter wide by 8 centimeter thick brick throughout the complex. About 500 square meters of the complex have been excavated. The buildings were designed and constructed from the outside in using a base measure of 72 centimeters. The researcher noted this is close to the "large cubit" measure used throughout the ancient Near East. The first Proto-Elamite tablets were found on the floors.[12]

Among the discoveries were two Iron Age platforms from the

Achaemenid period.[13]

Metallurgy

Three metal artifacts were found at the site, a copper shaft-hole axe from layer IVB5, a copper/lead

theriomorphic figurine (listed as being found in IVB), and copper spearhead from layer IVC2. The 10.6% lead content of the figurine shows that it was actually from the Late Uruk period.[14][15]

A related site is Tal-i Iblis, where early metallurgy has also been attested.[2]

Early writing

Proto-Elamite tablet found at Tepe Yahya

To Period IVC belong twenty seven proto-Elamite tablets that have been recovered.[16] Also, eighty-four tablet blanks indicate that writing was being practiced at Yahya. These finds are similar to the discoveries at Susa Cb and Sialk IV.[2][17][18][19]

See also

References

  1. ^ Andrew Lawler, The World in Between Volume 64 Number 6, November/December 2011 archaeology.org
  2. ^ a b c C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky, The Early Bronze Age of Iran as seen from Tepe Yahya. (with Philip Kohl) Expedition, Vol. 13, Nos. 3-4, pp. 14-22, 1971
  3. ^ Potts, Daniel T., "Tepe Yahya, Tell Abraq and the chronology of the Bampur sequence", Iranica Antiqua 38, pp. 1-24, 2003
  4. ^ [1] D. Potts, The Potter's Marks of Tepe Yahya, Paléorient, vol. 7, iss. 7-1, pp. 107-122, 1981
  5. ^ C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky, Excavations at Tepe Yahya Iran 1967-1969: progress report 1, American School of Prehistoric Research Bulletin. no. 27, 1970
  6. ^ C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky, Tepe Yahya 1971: Mesopotamia and the Indo-Iranian Borderlands, Iran, vol. 10, pp. 89-100, 1972
  7. ISBN 0-19-725703-8
  8. ISBN 0-87365-541-9
  9. ISBN 0-87365-549-4
  10. ^ "Archaeological Unit From Harvard Unearths Lost Fortress in Persia". Harvard Crimson. Cambridge, Massachusetts. November 12, 1968. Retrieved December 30, 2018.
  11. ^ Lamberg-Karlovsky, C. C., and Richard H. Meadow, "A Unique Female Figurine: The Neolithic at Tepe Yahya", Archaeology, vol. 23, no. 1, 1970, pp. 12–17, 1970
  12. ^ [2] Beale, Thomas W., and Sarah M. Carter, "On the track of the Yahya large kuš: evidence for architectural planning in the Period IVC complex at Tepe Yahya", Paléorient, pp. 81-88, 1983
  13. ^ Lamberg-Karlovsky, C. C., and P. Magee, "The Iron Age platforms at Tepe Yahya", Iranica antiqua 34, pp. 41-52, 1999
  14. ^ [3] Meier, David Mathias Philip, "Preliminary archaeometallurgical investigations of Bronze Age metal finds from Shahdad and Tepe Yahya", Iranian Journal of Archaeological Studies 1.2, pp. 25-34, 2011
  15. ^ Heskel, D.& C.C. Lamberg-Karlovsky, "An alternative sequence for the development of metallurgy: Tepe Yahya, Iran" In T.A Wertime & J.D. Muhly (eds.) The Coming of the Age of Iron, pp. 229-266, 1980
  16. ^ Lamberg-Karlovsky, Clifford Charles, "Proto-Elamite account tablets from Tepe Yahya, Iran", Kadmos 10, pp. 97-9, 1971
  17. ^ C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky, The Proto-Elamite Settlement at Tepe Yahya, Iran, vol. 9, pp. 87-96, 1971
  18. ISBN 978-1-78297-419-2
  19. ISBN 0-87365-542-7

Further reading

External links

28°19′51″N 56°52′03″E / 28.33083°N 56.86750°E / 28.33083; 56.86750

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tepe_Yahya&oldid=1211811618"