Fieldwork in Highland South-West Iran: the Mamasani Archaeological Project
Lloyd Weeks
Funded by: (among others) the Australian Research Council, the Iranian Centre for Archaeological Research, and the New Lecturer's Fund at University of Nottingham.
Image: A view over the Dasht-e Rostam-e Do, Mamasani District, Fars Province.
Image: The Fahliyan River, view from the rock relief at Kurangun, Dash-e Rostam-e Yek, Mamasani District, Fars Province.
The Mamasani Archaeological Project is a collaborative fieldwork expedition directed by Professor D.T. Potts (University of Sydney), Mr. K. Roustaei (2003-2005, Iranian Centre for Archaeological Research), and Mr. Alireza Asgari Chaverdi (2006-present, ICAR). The project is investigating the Mamasani district in the highlands of Fars in southwest Iran. Mamasani lies strategically on the route between the ancient highland and lowland capitals of successive early states that existed in the region, notably Elam and Persia, and is critical in understanding their origins and development. The Mamasani Archaeological Project developed from a wider survey in SW Iran undertaken by D.T. Potts, K. Roustaei, Dr. C.A Petrie (Cambridge University) and Dr. Lloyd Weeks in November 2002.
I participate in the Mamasani Archaeological Project, as co-field director of excavations at the large settlement site of Tol-e Nurabad. During three seasons from 2003-2004, our team excavated two soundings at Tol-e Nurabad and demonstrated that the site has a 6000 year archaeological sequence beginning in the Neolithic period (ca. 6000 BC) and extending to the post-Achaemenid period in the 1st millennium BC (Weeks et al. 2006a, 2006b). A monograph on Stage 1 of our research in Mamasani appeared in 2006 (Potts and Roustaei 2006), and we are continuing and expanding our fieldwork in the region. Topics of interest for Stage 2 of our project include: the origin and development of Neolithic communities in the region; the rise of complex urban societies in the 4th-3rd millennia BC, the integration of the Elamite state, and developments in the Achaemenid period.
Image: Tol-e Nurabad as seen from the north.
Image: Excavating at Tol-e Nurabad using a scaffolding.
As part of our research into prehistoric occupation in the region, we have begun a programme of lake coring in the region in order to reconstruct Holocene climatic conditions and variation in highland SW Iran, in collaboration with Dr. Matthew Jones and Prof. Sarah Metcalfe from University of Nottingham's School of Geography. Preliminary radiocarbon analyses suggest that the material from our five sample sites should cover much of the Holocene climatic record of the region.
Image: Tol-e Nurabad Trench A, the base of excavations.
Image: Some of the Tol-e Nurbad team (l-r): Kourosh Alamdari, Lloyd Weeks, Lily Niakan, and Karim Alizadeh.
Image: Assorted Neolithic painted pottery sherds from Tol-e Nurabad.
Image gallery
Publications
Weeks, L.R., Petrie, C.A., and Potts, D.T. In press. 'Ubaid-related-related? The "black-on-buff" ceramic traditions of highland southwest Iran. Paper submitted for the proceedings of the conference The Ubaid Expansion? Cultural Meaning, Identity and Integration in the Lead-up to Urbanism, Department of Archaeology, University of Durham, 2006.
Weeks, L.R., K.S. Alizadeh, L. Niakan, K. Alamdari, M Zaidee, and A. Khosrowzadeh. 2006. Excavations at Tol-e Nurabad. In D.T. Potts and K. Roustaei (eds.), The Mamasani Archaeological Project Stage 1: A report on the first two seasons of the ICAR- University of Sydney expedition to the Mamasani District, Fars Province, Iran: 31-88. Tehran: Iranian Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organisation.
Weeks, L.R., K. Alizadeh, L. Niakan, K. Alamdari, A Khosrowzadeh, B. McCall, and M. Zeidi. 2006. The Neolithic Settlement of Highland SW Iran: New Evidence from the Mamasani District, Iran 44: 1-31.
Potts, D.T., Roustaei, K., Alamdari, K., Alizadeh, K., Asgari Chaverdi, A., Khosrowzadeh, A., Niakan, L., Petrie, C.A., Seyedin, M., Weeks, L.R., McCall, B., and Zaidi, M. 2006. Eight thousand years of history in Fars Province, Iran. Near Eastern Archaeology 68/3: 84-92.