Tall-i Bakun or Tall-e Bakun (in modern Fars Province,

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 ...

) was a prehistoric site in the

Ancient Near East The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia (modern Iraq, southeast Turkey, southwest Iran and northeastern Syria), ancient Egypt, ancient Iran ( Elam, ...

about 3 km south of

Persepolis , native_name_lang = , alternate_name = , image = Gate of All Nations, Persepolis.jpg , image_size = , alt = , caption = Ruins of the Gate of All Nations, Persepolis. , map = , map_type ...

. It was inhabited around 4000-3500 BC.

Archaeology

The site consists of two mounds, A and B. In 1928, exploratory excavation was done by

Ernst Herzfeld Ernst Emil Herzfeld (23 July 1879 – 20 January 1948) was a German archaeologist and Iranologist. Life Herzfeld was born in Celle, Province of Hanover. He studied architecture in Munich and Berlin, while also taking classes in Assyriology, a ...

, of the

University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative ...

. Alexander Langsdorff and Donald McCown conducted full scale excavations in 1932. Additional work was done at the site in 1937 by Erich Schmidt leading the Persepolis Expedition of the Oriental Institute of the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

. Some limited work was done at Tall-i Bakun by a team from the

Tokyo University , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...

led by Namio Egami and Seiichi Masuda in 1956. The most recent excavations were by a joint team of the Oriental Institute and the Iranian Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organisation.

History

The site was active from circa 6th millennium BC to circa 4th millennium BC. Tall-i Bakun phase A was inhabited c. 4000-3500 BCE. Four layers can be distinguished. Layer III was the best preserved and shows a settlement in which the residential buildings were built close together with no roads or paths. Individual houses consisted of several rooms. Remains of mural paintings and of wooden columns suggest a once rich interior. Richly painted pottery was produced. There were also ceramic female figurines and those of animals. There were also cylinder seals, which indicates some type of administrative activities. Artifactual remains from the site include objects made of copper, pottery and stone.

The wealth and variety of material items at Bakun and the evidence of large workshop areas point to the existence of local industry and connection/trade with distant regions such as the Persian Gulf, the central plateau, Kerman, and northeastern Iran whence goods like shells, copper, steatite, lapis, and turquoise were procured. If my inferences are correct, we have a settlement that is spatially arranged according to its functional needs and socio-economic organization.

Kiln technology

Tall-i Bakun 'A' is the only site in the area providing a long sequence of ancient

kilns A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, that produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or chemical changes. Kilns have been used for millennia to turn objects made from clay in ...

. These double-chamber kilns have been in use for at least 300 years with no significant changes. A number of other kilns in the Near East share some elements of the Bakun kilns. There are close parallels with those of

Tepe Gawra Tepe Gawra (Kurdish for "Great Mound") is an ancient Mesopotamian settlement 15 miles NNE of Mosul in northwest Iraq that was occupied between 5000 and 1500 BC. It is roughly a mile from the site of Nineveh and 2 miles E of the site of Khors ...

of the same time period. Also there are parallels with those from the

Sinai Peninsula The Sinai Peninsula, or simply Sinai (now usually ) (, , cop, Ⲥⲓⲛⲁ), is a peninsula in Egypt, and the only part of the country located in Asia. It is between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the south, and is ...

of the Egyptian New Kingdom period. Similar designs are not found elsewhere in the Levant.

Bakun culture

The Bakun culture flourished in the Fars Province of Iran in the fifth and early fourth millenniums BC. It had a long duration and wide geographical distribution. Its pottery tradition was as sophisticated as that of Susa I. Nevertheless, it was mostly a nomadic culture, and its settlements were typically much smaller than those of Susa. Bakun pottery is known in the Fars region in the form of bowls and jugs with green, reddish brown or deep brown bands and stripes. Outside Fars this pottery has been found in northern Khuzestan, in the Bakhtiari mountains, and in the

Behbahan Behbahan ( fa, بهبهان, also romanized as Behbahān and Behbehān) is a city and capital of Behbahan County, Khuzestan Province, Iran. Etymology The origin of the name "Behbahan" may be from two words: "Beh" meaning good better, and "Baha ...

and Zuhreh regions. In the late fifth and early fourth millennia BC, Bakun A settlements were at once manufacturing sites and centres for the administration of production and trade. Their painted pottery featured some unusual specific motifs, such as large-horned mountain sheep and goats, that were rare or unique elsewhere. After the decline of Bakun, Lapui period followed. In recent publications, Bakun period is dated 4800-4100 BC, and the Lapui period is dated to 4100-3500 BC.Benjamin W. Roberts, Marc Vander Linden
''Investigating Archaeological Cultures: Material Culture, Variability, and Transmission.''
Springer Science & Business Media, 2011 p173

Gallery

Examples of pottery from Tall-e Bukan File:UC Oriental Institute early Persian 02.JPG , Various artifacts, Bakun culture, 4200-3800 BCE, Oriental Institute, Chicago File:UC Oriental Institute early Persian 07.JPG , Pottery, Bakun culture, Oriental Institute, Chicago File:Handmade pottery vessel. Painted. From Tall-i Bakun (Tall-e Bakun), southern Iran. 4500-4000 BCE.jpg, Handmade pottery vessel. Painted, 4500-4000 BCE, British Museum, London File:Handmade bowl painted with three standing or dancing figures. From Tall-i Bakun, southern Iran. About 4000 BCE.jpg, Handmade bowl painted with three standing or dancing figures, c. 4000 BCE. British Museum, London

Notes

References

* Alexander Langsdorff and Donald McCown, Socio-Economic Complexity in Southwestern Iran During the Fifth and Fourth Millennia BC: The Evidence from Tall-e Bakun A, Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies, IRAN, vol. 26, pp. 17–34, 1988

External links

{{commons category, Tall-e Bakun
Ernst Herzfeld Papers, Series 5: Drawings and Maps, Records of Tall-e Bakun
Collections Search Center, S.I.R.I.S., Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Site photograph from the Oriental InstituteBowl from Tall-i Bakun at the British Museum
Archaeological sites in Iran Buildings and structures in Fars Province National works of Iran