Natal (, also

Romanize In linguistics, romanization is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and transcription, ...

d as Nātal and Nātel) is a village in Natel Kenar-e Olya Rural District, in the Central District of

Nur County Nur County () is in Mazandaran Mazandaran Province (; ) is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. Its capital is the city of Sari, Iran, Sari. Located along the southern coast of the Caspian Sea and in the adjacent Central Alborz mountain ra ...

Mazandaran province Mazandaran Province (; ) is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. Its capital is the city of Sari. Located along the southern coast of the Caspian Sea and in the adjacent Central Alborz mountain range and Hyrcanian forests, it is bordered clockw ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. At the 2006 census, its population was 75, in 21 families. It is located about 6 km southwest of the city of Nur.

History and archaeology

At the time of the

Abbasid Caliphate The Abbasid Caliphate or Abbasid Empire (; ) was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566–653 CE), from whom the dynasty takes ...

, Natel was one of the major cities in

Tabaristan Tabaristan or Tabarestan (; ; from , ), was a mountainous region located on the Caspian coast of northern Iran. It corresponded to the present-day province of Mazandaran, which became the predominant name of the area from the 11th-century onward ...

and had a military garrison. It was known in medieval sources as ''Nātil'' or ''Nātilah''. Three archaeological excavations were conducted under Abdolreza Mohajerinejad in 2008, 2010, and 2016. Over 2,000 pieces of pottery were uncovered; most of them were dated to the 3rd through 6th centuries AH (roughly the 9th-12th centuries CE). Pottery samples dating from the

Ilkhanid The Ilkhanate or Il-khanate was a Mongol khanate founded in the southwestern territories of the Mongol Empire. It was ruled by the Il-Khans or Ilkhanids (), and known to the Mongols as ''Hülegü Ulus'' (). The Ilkhanid realm was officially known ...

and Timurid periods was much rarer. Hanie Hossein-Nia Amirkolaei et al. described the pottery samples found at Natel as having "relatively good production quality and strength, but a lower level in terms of manufacturing technique and diversity of motifs".

References

Populated places in Nur County {{Nur-geo-stub