Cheshmeh-Ali (

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

: چشمه‌علی; "

Spring Spring(s) may refer to: Common uses * Spring (season), a season of the year * Spring (device), a mechanical device that stores energy * Spring (hydrology), a natural source of water * Spring (mathematics), a geometric surface in the shape of a ...

of Ali") is an ancient recreational place, located in the south of

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

and north of Rey in the country of

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 spring is spot in the neighborhood of

Ebn-e Babooyeh Ibn Babawayh cemetery ( fa, گورستان ابن‌بابویه or ), also spelled as Ebn-e Babviyeh, Ebn-e Babooyeh, is located in Iran in the town of Rey (which is now inside Greater Tehran metropolitan area). About The cemetery is named af ...

Tughrul Tower Toghrol Tower (also transliterated ''Toghrul'', ''Tughrol'', or ''Tughrul'') is a 12th-century monument, located in the city of Rey, Iran. Tuğrul Tower is near Rashkan Castle. The brick tower is the tomb of Seljuk ruler Tughril, who died ...

, and below the Rashkan castle and next to

Rey Castle Rey Castle was an ancient castle or defensive wall, located in Cheshmeh-Ali, south of Tehran and north of Rey. The castle is located above the Fath Ali shah inscription and dates back to 4000 BC in the Medes empire. It is assumed that the ...

and Fath Ali shah inscription. In the past, carpet sellers and people used to wash their

carpets A carpet is a textile floor covering typically consisting of an upper layer of pile attached to a backing. The pile was traditionally made from wool, but since the 20th century synthetic fibers such as polypropylene, nylon, or polyester have ...

there, with their idea that the property of this spring water is good and clean for carpets and make them full lighter color by its

mineral water Mineral water is water from a mineral spring that contains various minerals, such as salts and sulfur compounds. Mineral water may usually be still or sparkling (carbonated/effervescent) according to the presence or absence of added gases. Tra ...

History

Relief Fath Ali Shah and his son by Eugène Flandin

The first signs of

civilization A civilization (or civilisation) is any complex society characterized by the development of a state, social stratification, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyond natural spoken language (namely, a writing system). Ci ...

in the Cheshmeh-Ali, including the ancient hills, towers and underground springs is related to the production of red

terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based ceramic glaze, unglazed or glazed ceramic where the pottery firing, fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, a ...

with black-dark brown signs and shapes on them.

Archaeology

Cheshmeh Ali is a small Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic settlement located within the suburbs of modern-day Tehran, south of the

Elburz mountains The Alborz ( fa, البرز) range, also spelled as Alburz, Elburz or Elborz, is a mountain range in northern Iran that stretches from the border of Azerbaijan along the western and entire southern coast of the Caspian Sea and finally runs nort ...

. It was excavated by Erich Schmidt in 1934-1936 for the University Museum in Philadelphia, also sponsored by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. At that time, the site was far from Tehran. When Schmidt died in 1964, his work remained mostly unpublished. Cheshmeh Ali presents some typological parallels with the middle layers of

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 ...

. Originally, Donald E. McCown offered three successive painted pottery traditions for northern Iran: the Sialk horizon, the Cheshmeh Ali horizon, and the Hissar horizon. The ceramic sequence at Cheshmeh Ali shows two millennia of occupation from the Late Neolithic through the Late Chalcolithic. The Cheshmeh Ali cultural complex generally defines a Transitional

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 ...

on the Iranian Central Plateau dating between 5500 and 4800 BC. ''Cheshmeh Ali ware'' is dated ca. 5500 BC. This painted pottery, also known as "Ismailabad ware", is found across northern Persia as far west as the area around

Kashan Kashan ( fa, ; Qashan; Cassan; also romanized as Kāshān) is a city in the northern part of Isfahan province, Iran. At the 2017 census, its population was 396,987 in 90,828 families. Some etymologists argue that the city name comes from ...

, near Isfahan, and

Qazvin Qazvin (; fa, قزوین, , also Romanized as ''Qazvīn'', ''Qazwin'', ''Kazvin'', ''Kasvin'', ''Caspin'', ''Casbin'', ''Casbeen'', or ''Ghazvin'') is the largest city and capital of the Province of Qazvin in Iran. Qazvin was a capital of the ...

to the north of there. Yet recent reexcavation of Cheshmeh Ali has also documented an earlier occupational phase. Chaff-tempered Neolithic soft-ware ceramics are also found here. These are usually decorated with painted geometric designs, and also have parallels to the early Sialk I material. Two examples of the so-called Cheshmeh Ali ware, dating to the 6th-5th millennium BCE. File:Prehistoric Painted Pottery Vessel LACMA M.76.174.156.jpg, Prehistoric Painted Pottery Vessel from Cheshmeh Ali. c. 5000-4500 BC -

LACMA The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 1961, ...

File:Pottery bowl, Cheshmeh Ali ware. Possibly from Cheshmeh Ali, northern Iran. 5500-4500 BCE.jpg, Pottery bowl, Cheshmeh Ali ware, 5500-4500 BC

References

Bibliography

*Coningham, R. A., Fazeli, N. H., Young, R. and Donahue, R. (2004) “Location, Location, Location: A pilot Survey of the Tehran plain in 2003” Iran 42: 1-12. *Fazeli, N. H., Coningham, R. A. E. and Batt, C. M. (2004) “Cheshmeh-Ali revisited: Towards an absolute dating of the Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic of Iran's Tehran Plain” Iran 42: 13-23. *Matney, T. (1995) “Re-excavating Cheshmeh Ali and Notes from the Field, 1934-1936” Expedition 37(2): 26-38. *Wong, E., C.A. Petrie, and H. Fazeli (2010) “Cheshmeh-Ali Ware: A Petrographic and Geochemical Study of Transitional Chalcolithic Period Ceramic Industry on the North Central Plateau of Iran” Iran 48: 11-26.

External links

Cheshmeh Ali - A late Neolithic and Chalcolithic Village in northern Iran
uakron.edu {{coord, 35, 36, 37, N, 51, 26, 59, E, region:IR_type:landmark_source:kolossus-hrwiki, display=title Springs of Iran Landforms of Tehran Province Cheshmeh-Ali complex Tourist attractions in Tehran Province Prehistoric Iran National works of Iran