Shir-i Shian and the Fifth-Millennium Sequence of Northern Iran

For decades, the fifth-millennium cultural sequence of northern Iran has not been well understood due to a dearth of radiocarbon-dated stratigraphic excavations in this region. Recent work by Anglo-Iranian teams in north-central Iran has done much to change this picture, but an in-depth study of the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Iran : journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies 2009-01, Vol.47 (1), p.1-22
Main Authors: Dyson, Robert H., Thornton, Christopher R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic conferences
Anau IA
Ancient civilizations of the near east
Archaeological excavation
Archaeological sites
Archaeological surveys
Archaeology
Art and archaeology
Asia
ceramics
Chalcolithic
Chalcolithic period
Cheshmeh Ali
Cultural institutions
Excavations
Hissar IA
Iran
Mesopotamia and Near East
Metal Ages
Middle East and Indian Peninsula
northern Iran
Pottery
Praehistorical periods
Prehistory and protohistory
Radiocarbon dating
Shir-i Shian
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Summary:For decades, the fifth-millennium cultural sequence of northern Iran has not been well understood due to a dearth of radiocarbon-dated stratigraphic excavations in this region. Recent work by Anglo-Iranian teams in north-central Iran has done much to change this picture, but an in-depth study of the material culture-particularly the ceramics-from this research is desperately needed to sort out many of the chronological problems associated with the new radiocarbon sequence. In order to instigate this discussion, this article seeks to draw out the remaining discrepancies in the archaeological sequence of the fifth millennium in northern Iran, and to juxtapose them with a complete publication of the fifth-millennium site of Shir-i Shian in north-eastern Iran, based upon archival records in the University of Pennsylvania Museum. This enigmatic site, excavated in the 1930s by Erich F. Schmidt but never published, displays a material culture known from mid-late fifth-millennium sites in both northern Iran and southern Turkmenistan. As such, it provides a critical link between these two regions, and highlights many of the problems inherent with forming a unified chronological sequence for the fifth millennium BC.
ISSN:0578-6967
2396-9202
DOI:10.1080/05786967.2009.11864756