Tepe Hissar (also spelled Tappeh Hesār) is a prehistoric site located in the village Heydarabad just south of
Damghan
Damghan ( fa, دامغان, translit=Dāmghān) is the capital of Damghan County, Semnan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 57,331, in 15,849 families. It is situated east of Tehran on the high-road to Mashad, at an elevatio ...
in
Semnan Province in northeastern
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
.
The site is notable for its uninterrupted occupational history from the 5th to the 2nd millennium
BCE
Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the or ...
. The quantity and elaborateness of its excavated artifacts and funerary customs position the site prominently as a cultural bridge between
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...
and
Central Asia
Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...
.
Archaeology
The overall site covers 200 hectares including multiple mounds and several middle Islamic fortresses. The main tell has an extent of 12 hectares.
The site was firstly discovered in 1877 by
Albert Houtum-Schindler
General Sir Albert Houtum-Schindler (born 24 September 1846, the Netherlands or Germany; died 15 June 1916, Fenstanton, England) was a scholar of Persia and an employee of the Persian government.
Career
Educated in engineering at Leipzig Univ ...
and then investigated in 1931 and 1932 by
Erich Schmidt, on behalf of the
University of Pennsylvania Museum
The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology—commonly known as the Penn Museum—is an archaeology and anthropology museum at the University of Pennsylvania. It is located on Penn's campus in the University City neighb ...
(Schmidt 1933). A surface survey was carried out in 1972, while in 1976 a re-study project was performed, utilizing modern methods of stratigraphic assessments, ceramic typological analysis and radiocarbon dating, by the
University of Pennsylvania Museum
The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology—commonly known as the Penn Museum—is an archaeology and anthropology museum at the University of Pennsylvania. It is located on Penn's campus in the University City neighb ...
, the
University of Turin
The University of Turin (Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Torino'', UNITO) is a public research university in the city of Turin, in the Piedmont region of Italy. It is one of the oldest universities in Europe and continues to play an impo ...
and Iran Center for Archaeological Research. In 1995, a rescue excavation, due to a rail line being run through the center of the site, was conducted by Esmaiil Yaghmaii, followed by areal soundings in 2006.
Periodisation
The human occupation has been divided into three major periods (I, II and III).
Chalcolithic
The earliest dating is uncertain but established as after 5000
BCE
Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the or ...
in the
Chalcolithic
The Copper Age, also called the Chalcolithic (; from grc-gre, χαλκός ''khalkós'', "copper" and ''líthos'', "stone") or (A)eneolithic (from Latin '' aeneus'' "of copper"), is an archaeological period characterized by regular ...
period. This period (Hissar IA and IB) is characterized by mud-bricks buildings and hand-made (IA) and fine wheel-made (IB) ware, decorated with geometric, plant and animal patterns. The most widespread shapes are represented by small cups, bowls and vases.
Early Bronze
In the second period (Hissar IIA and IIB), dated to the 4th millennium BC and the beginning of the 3rd, the burnished grey ware becomes predominant and the large number of
lapis
Lapis lazuli (; ), or lapis for short, is a deep-blue metamorphic rock used as a semi-precious stone that has been prized since antiquity for its intense color.
As early as the 7th millennium BC, lapis lazuli was mined in the Sar-i Sang mines ...
lazuli beads and
alabaster
Alabaster is a mineral or rock that is soft, often used for carving, and is processed for plaster powder. Archaeologists and the stone processing industry use the word differently from geologists. The former use it in a wider sense that includes ...
finds, as well as the evidence of large-scale production of copper-based alloys and lead-silver, suggests that the site was playing a very important role in the trade and export of metal artifacts and semi-precious stones from the Middle Asia quarries to Mesopotamia and Egypt.
Early Bronze-Middle Bronze
The third period of development (Hissar IIIA, IIIB and IIIC, chronologically attributed to the second half of the 3rd millennium BC and the beginning of the 2nd (
Bronze
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...
Age), can be described as a proto-urban phase, mainly characterized by increased wealth, demographic concentration, mass production of plain ware and the construction of large public and ceremonial buildings. The finding of mass burials and individuals showing signs of violence have been interpreted as either due to warfare or interpersonal violence.
There is considerable cultural continuity from the early
Cheshmeh Ali-period settlements in Iran, and into the later Hissar period.
"Traditionally, the early ceramic sequence of
north-eastern Iran begins with Neolithic Soft Wares (c.
6000 BC), then Djeitun
Jeitun (Djeitun) is an archaeological site of the Neolithic period in southern Turkmenistan, about 30 kilometers north of Ashgabat in the Kopet-Dag mountain range. The settlement was occupied from about 7200 to 4500 BC possibly with short interr ...
wares (sixth millennium BC),
Cheshmeh Ali “clinky” wares (c. 5300–4300? BC),
and finally Hissar IA wares."[R. H. Dyson Jr. and C. P. Thornton]
“Shir-i Shian and the fifth millennium sequence of Northern Iran,”
Iran 47, 2009, pp. 1–22
Burned Building
In the Hissar IIIB period, the Burned Building is worth mentioning. It has been variously interpreted due to the richness of its contents and the presence of burned human bodies and flint arrowheads. Firstly interpreted as a fortification, the discovery of a small fire altar suggests that it may be a shrine (Dyson and Remsen 1989).
Significant changes happened at the end of the 3rd millennium BC. The well-planned architecture of period Hissar IIIB was abandoned and replaced by the poorly organized structures of the Hissar IIIC period, laid out without regard to the plan of the earlier settlement. Moreover, we can mention the first appearance of truly elite burials, such as those of the so-called “Warriors”, the “Priest” and the “Little Girl” (Schmidt 1933), some of them contained
BMAC items such as grooved stone columns.
Agriculture
![Painted Redware from Tepe Hissar in modern day Iran 4000 BCE Ceramic](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/Painted_Redware_from_Tepe_Hissar_in_modern_day_Iran_4000_BCE_Ceramic.jpg)
The subsistence economy was based on agriculture. From Hissar II onward plant remains indicate “''an agricultural system based on cereals''
lume and free-threshing wheats, naked and hulled barley''and the utilization of local fruit''
live, grapevine''plant resources''” (Costantini and Dyson, p. 66). Lentil seeds, peas and legumes were also present. Animal (cattle, goat and sheep) figurines indicate herding activities.
In 1931-32 E.F. Schmidt recorded about eight hundred burials, of which only some have been fully described and published: 33 for the period Hissar I, 24 for Hissar II and 38 for Hissar III. Most of the graves are represented by individual burial in simple pits, with the skeleton laying on its side, in a flexed position and the skull oriented towards east and north-east. Some collective graves are attested and four rich graves of the Hissar IIIC period were found in 1931.
Metal production
The presence of full-time specialists seems to be attested already in the first Chalcolithic period.
[Christopher P.Thornton and Thilo Rehren, "A truly refractory crucible from fourth millennium Tepe Hissar, Northeast Iran", Journal of Archaeological Science, vol. 36, iss. 12, pp. 2700-2712, December 2009] Regarding the metal production, already in Hissar I period, both weapons (daggers, knife blades, arrowheads) and other tools (pins, tacks, points and needles) were made.
In Hissar II and III copper artifacts increase in quality and variety and include personal ornaments (earrings, pendants, bracelets, bands), tools and weapons (bidents, lances, mattocks, chisels, mace heads), and luxury items (vessels, mirrors, boxes and intricately cast pins and rods).
The important site of
Tureng Tepe
Tureng Tepe ( fa, تورنگ تپه, "Hill of the Pheasants"; alternatively spelled in English as Turang Tappe/Tape/Tappa/Tappeh) is a Neolithic and Chalcolithic archaeological site in northeastern Iran, in the Gorgan plain, approximately 17  ...
is located in the same area of Iran, and has some parallels to Hissar.
A related site of
Shir Ashian Tepe
Shir Ashian Tepe (Shir-e Shian, Šir-āšiān) is a prehistoric archaeological site in the Semnan Province of Iran, situated in Shir Ashian, about 15 kilometres southwest of Damghan.
Occupation appears to have been restricted to a relatively sho ...
is located about 20 km southwest of Hissar; it helped to clarify the chronology of Hissar.
Gallery
File:Final-1.jpg
File:تپهحصار2.jpg
File:تپهحصار.jpg
File:TEPPE HISAR DAMGHAN.jpg
File:TAPPE HESAR DAMGHAN.jpg
File:Tepe hissar.jpg
File:Tappeh hesar.jpg
See also
*
Cities of the ancient Near East
The earliest cities in history were in the ancient Near East, an area covering roughly that of the modern Middle East: its history began in the 4th millennium BC and ended, depending on the interpretation of the term, either with the conquest by ...
*
Tepe Sialk
Tepe Sialk ( fa, تپه سیلک) is a large ancient archeological site (a ''tepe'', "hill, tell (archaeology), tell") in a suburb of the city of Kashan, Isfahan Province, in central Iran, close to Fin Garden. The culture that inhabited this area ...
References
Bibliography
* L. Costantini and R.H. Dyson Jr., “The Ancient Agriculture of the Damghan Plain: The Archaeological Evidence from Tepe Hissar,” in N.F. Miller, ed.,''Economy and Settlement in the Near East: Analyses of Ancient Sites and Materials'', MASCA, Research Papers in Science and Archaeology 7, Suppl., Philadelphia, 1990, pp. 46–68.
* R.H. Dyson Jr. and W. C. S. Remsen, “Observations on Architecture and Stratigraphy at Tappeh Hesar,” in R.H. Dyson Jr. and S. Howard, eds., pp. 69–109.
*Gürsan-Salzmann, Ayşe, The New Chronology of the Bronze Age Settlement of Tepe Hissar, Iran, University of Pennsylvania Press for the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2016
* E.F. Schmidt, “The Tepe Hissar Excavations 1931,” ''Museum Journal of Philadelphia'' 23/4, 1933, pp 322–485.
External links
E Schmidt 1931 excavtion video at Archive.org*Robert H. Dyson, "TEPE HISSAR (Tappa Ḥeṣār)"
Encyclopaedia Iranica
{{Authority control
Tells (archaeology)
Former populated places in Iran
Archaeological sites in Iran
Buildings and structures in Semnan Province
Neolithic sites of Asia