The Iranian Plateau during the Bronze Age
Development of urbanisation, production and trade
The book compiles a portion of the contributions presented during the symposium “Urbanisation, commerce, subsistence and production during the third millennium BC on the Iranian Plateau”, which took place at the Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée in Lyon, the 29-30 of April, 2014. The twenty papers assembled provide an overview of the recent archaeological research on this region of the Middle East during the Bronze Age. The socio-economic transformation from rural villages to towns and ...
L’ouvrage rassemble une partie des contributions présentées lors du colloque «Urbanisation, commerce, subsistance et production au iiie millénaire avant J.-C. sur le Plateau iranien» qui s’est tenu à la Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée à Lyon les 29 et 30 avril 2014. Les vingt articles réunis livrent un état récent de la recherche archéologique dans cette région du Moyen‑Orient pour l’âge du Bronze. Le développement socio-économique entre le mode de vie rural et la formation des villes...
Note de l’éditeur
Cover art: © Nasir Eskandari.
Éditeur : MOM Éditions
Lieu d’édition : Lyon
Publication sur OpenEdition Books : 19 mars 2020
ISBN numérique : 978-2-35668-177-5
DOI : 10.4000/books.momeditions.7816
Collection : Archéologie(s) | 1
Année d’édition : 2019
ISBN (Édition imprimée) : 978-2-35668-063-1
Nombre de pages : 356
Emmanuelle Vila, Marjan Mashkour, Michèle Casanova et al.
PrefaceThe global context of the Bronze Age on the Iranian Plateau
Jan-Waalke Meyer
Early urbanisation in IranA view from the west – some considerations about the theory of urbanisation
Expansion of the Kura-Araxes culture in Iran
Alexia Decaix, Fatemeh Azadeh Mohaseb, Sepideh Maziar et al.
Subsistence economy in Kohneh Pasgah Tepesi (eastern Azerbaijan, Iran) during the Late Chalcolithic and the Early Bronze Age based on the faunal and botanical remainsAlexia Decaix, Rémi Berthon, Fatemeh Azadeh Mohaseb et al.
Toward a definition of the Kura-Araxes agropastoral systemsElamite Kingdom
Alain Le Brun
Susa at the turn of the 4th and 3rd millenniaAli Zalaghi
An overview of the settlement patterns of Susa III period in the Upper KhuzestanArchaeological survey in the western bank of the Karkheh river
Alireza Sardari et Samira Attarpour
From the Proto-Elamite to Shimashki: the third millennium BC at Tappeh Senjar, the Susiana PlainElnaz Rashidian
In search of cities in Elam. For a geoarchaeological approach to the toponym-hydronym interactionUrbanisation in Eastern Iran
Julie Bessenay-Prolonge et Régis Vallet
Tureng Tepe and its high terrace, a reassessmentAli A. Vahdati, Raffaele Biscione, Riccardo La Farina et al.
Preliminary report on the first season of excavations at Tepe ChalowNew GKC (BMAC) finds in the plain of Jajarm, NE Iran
Nasir Eskandari
Regional patterns of Early Bronze Age urbanization in the southeastern IranNew discoveries on the western fringe of Dasht‑e Lut
David M.P. Meier
A pyrotechnological installation from the “metallurgical workshop” at Shahdad and its next geographical and chronological comparisonsProduction and trade
Henri-Paul Francfort
Iran and Central AsiaThe Grand’Route of Khorasan (Great Khorasan Road) during the third millennium BC and the “dark stone” artefacts
Sedigheh Piran
Prestige objects in South East of Iran during the Bronze Age in the National Museum of IranMichèle Casanova
Exchanges and trade during the Bronze Age in IranBabak Rafiei-Alavi
The biography of a dagger typeThe diachronic transformation of the daggers with the crescent-shaped guard
The transition to Iron Age
Hamid Fahimi
The Bronze Age and the Iron Age on the Central Iranian PlateauTwo successive cultures or the appearance of a new culture?
Conclusion
Jan‑Waalke Meyer, Emmanuelle Vila, Régis Vallet et al.
The urbanisation of the Iranian Plateau and adjacent areas during the Bronze AgeConcluding thoughts
The book compiles a portion of the contributions presented during the symposium “Urbanisation, commerce, subsistence and production during the third millennium BC on the Iranian Plateau”, which took place at the Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée in Lyon, the 29-30 of April, 2014. The twenty papers assembled provide an overview of the recent archaeological research on this region of the Middle East during the Bronze Age. The socio-economic transformation from rural villages to towns and nations has prompted many questions into this evolution of urbanisation. What was the impact of interactions between cultures in the Iranian Plateau and the surrounding regions (Mesopotamia, the South Caucasus, Central Asia, Indus Valley)? What was the overall context during the Bronze Age on the Iranian Plateau? What was the extent and means of the expansion of the Kuro-Araxe culture? How did the Elamite Kingdom become established? What new knowledge has been contributed by the recent excavations and studies undertaken in the east of Iran? What was the influence of the Indus Valley culture, known as an epicentre of urbanisation in South Asia? What are the unique characteristics of the ancient cultures in Iran?
While the urbanisation of early Mesopotamia has been the subject of much debate for several decades, this topic has only recently been raised in respect to the Iranian Plateau. This volume is the product of an international community from Iranian, European, and American institutions, consisting of recognised specialists in the archaeology of the Iranian Bronze Age. It provides an overview of the latest research, including abundant results from current on-going excavations. The current state of archaeological research in Iran, comprising many dynamic questions and perspectives, is presented here in the form of original contributions on the first emergence of towns in the Near and Middle East.
L’ouvrage rassemble une partie des contributions présentées lors du colloque «Urbanisation, commerce, subsistance et production au iiie millénaire avant J.-C. sur le Plateau iranien» qui s’est tenu à la Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée à Lyon les 29 et 30 avril 2014. Les vingt articles réunis livrent un état récent de la recherche archéologique dans cette région du Moyen‑Orient pour l’âge du Bronze. Le développement socio-économique entre le mode de vie rural et la formation des villes et des états soulève de nombreuses interrogations sur le processus de l’urbanisation. Quel est l’impact des relations culturelles entre le Plateau iranien et les régions adjacentes (Mésopotamie, Sud-Caucase, Asie centrale, vallée de l’Indus) ? Quel est le contexte global de l’âge du Bronze sur le Plateau Iranien ? Comment s’opère l’expansion de la culture Kuro-Araxe à partir du Caucase ? Comment le royaume élamite se met en place ? Quel est l’apport des fouilles et travaux récents dans l’Est iranien ? Quelle est l’influence de la vallée de l’Indus, un centre d’urbanisation important en Asie ? Comment se manifestent les singularités du monde iranien ?
Alors que la thématique de l’urbanisation en Mésopotamie a été très débattue ces dernières décennies, cette question est abordée depuis peu pour le Plateau iranien. Le présent volume émane d’une communauté internationale d’archéologues d’institutions iraniennes, européennes et américaines, spécialistes reconnus de l’archéologie iranienne de l’âge du Bronze. Il dresse un panorama de l’état des recherches qui se nourrit amplement des travaux de terrain en cours. L’ouvrage rend compte de la dynamique actuelle de la recherche archéologique en Iran, riche de nouveaux questionnements et de nouvelles perspectives, et constitue un apport original à la réflexion sur l’émergence des villes au Moyen-Orient.
Jan-Waalke Meyer (dir.)
Jan-Waalke Meyer is Professor Emeritus of Oriental Archaeology at the Goethe University in Frankfurt. Specialist in the study of the interactions between societies and cultures of the Near and Middle East, he mainly focussed on documenting urbanisation, particularly in North Syria. He is the director of the archaeological missions of Tell Chuera (Oppenheim Stiftung) and Kharab Sajjar (Syrian-German mission) in Syria.
Emmanuelle Vila (dir.)
Emmanuelle Vila is a CNRS researcher (UMR 5133-Archéorient, Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée, Lyon). She works as an archaeozoologist on the livestock economy and animal exploitation in the Middle East and the Eastern Mediterranean. She is particularly interested in the establishment of economic and socio-cultural systems, associated with urbanisation, the rise of city-states and the emergence of empires.
Marjan Mashkour (dir.)
Marjan Mashkour is a member of the Archaeozoology, Archaeobotany research unit (UMR 7209) at the National Museum of Natural History of Paris. She works on the Archaeozoology of Iran and the adjacent areas. The biodiverstity of the Iranian Plateau, the evolution of subsistence economies, pastoralism and residential mobility, the development and spread of the Neolithic are at the core of her research.
Michèle Casanova (dir.)
Michèle Casanova teaches Oriental Archaeology at the University of Lumière Lyon 2. Her research covers mainly the study of Chalcolithic and Iron Age cultures in Iran and Caucasus. She currently heads the French archaeological mission of Lenkoran Valley in Azerbaijan.
Régis Vallet (dir.)
Régis Vallet is a CNRS researcher (UMR 7041-ArScAn, Nanterre). He headed the French Institute for the Near East (IFPO) in Erbil (Iraq) from 2017 to 2018. He is interested in the formation of complex societies and the socialisation of space, from domestic space to supra-regional scale. He is directing the archaeological mission of Larsa and Tell el-‘Oueli in southern Iraq.

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