Shir Ashian Tepe (Shir-e Shian, Šir-āšiān) is a prehistoric archaeological site in the
Semnan Province 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 ...
, situated in
Shir Ashian, about 15 kilometres southwest 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 ...
.
Occupation appears to have been restricted to a relatively short period during the mid-5th century
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 ...
.
Excavation
The site was discovered by
Erich Schmidt (1897–1964) in 1931 in a survey of the Damghan region. It was excavated in July 1932. Despite the presence of
pottery fragments, excavation failed to find any remains of buildings. Two explanations have been suggested. One, by Schmidt, posits that the site was merely a temporary encampment; the other suggests that the site has been eroded, removing any constructions but leaving the surface pottery and shallow graves.
Transitional period
The sherds from Shir-e Shian are comparable to sherds found in north-central Iran (late
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 ...
II phase) and in southern Turkmenistan (
Anau Anau may refer to:
* Anau, Bora Bora, commune in Bora Bora
* Anau, Turkmenistan
Anau (also spelled Annau, tk, Änew) is a city in Turkmenistan. Until 20 December 2022 it was the capital of Ahal Province. It is situated 8 km southeast of ...
IA phase), dating to the mid-fifth millennium BCE. Thus Shir-e Shian may represent the transitional period between Sialk II and Sialk III periods in north-central Iran, preceding the beginning of
Tepe Hissar IA period. And also, it can be seen as transitional between the
Cheshmeh-Ali and Hissar IA periods.
[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
The important site of Tepe Hissar is located about 20 km from Shir Ashian Tepe.
Notes
References
* 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.
* E. F. Schmidt, Excavations at Tepe Hissar: Damghan, Philadelphia, 1937.
* K. M. Trinkhaus, “Survey of the Damghan Plain,” in R. H. Dyson Jr. and S. M. Howard, eds., Tappeh Hesar: Reports of the Restudy Project, 1976, Florence, 1989, pp. 135–41.
External links
Shir-e Shian- Encyclopedia Iranica
{{coord, 36, 05, 26, N, 54, 11, 29, E, region:IR, display=title
Tells (archaeology)
Archaeological sites in Iran
Former populated places in Iran
Prehistoric Iran
National works of Iran