Tepe Ghabristan

Tepe Ghabristan
Bronze Age pottery bowl, ca. 4000-3700 BC, from Tappeh Qabrestan, Qazvin
Tepe Ghabristan
Shown within Iran
Alternative nameTepe Qabrestan
LocationQazvin province, Iran
Coordinates35°48′59″N 49°56′51″E / 35.81640°N 49.94745°E / 35.81640; 49.94745
Area10 hectares
History
PeriodsChalcolithic and Bronze Age
Site notes
Excavation dates1970-1974, 2002
ArchaeologistsYousef Majidzadeh, Armin Schmidt, Hassan Fazeli Nashli
Conditionburied under alluvium

Tepe Ghabristan (also Tepe Ghabrestan and Tepe Qabrestan) is an important late Chalcolithic tell in Iran's Qazvin province in the northwest of the country, about 130 kilometers west of modern Tehran. It is a four hectare (possibly reaching 10 hectares at its peak) low-lying site on Qazvin Plain.

Tepe Ghabristan is important for understanding early metallurgy (copper workshops, crucibles), settlement patterns, and environmental shifts. It was buried under alluvium during its early history.[1] It is a part of the Sagzabad Cluster research project in Iran, involving teams from the University of Tehran and international collaborators.[2] More recent information is found in Maghsoudi (2014).[3]

Location

Sagzabad Cluster of archaeological sites on the Qazvin Plain of Iran includes three major tells that stretch approximately 2.5km east to west. Tepe Ghabristan is on the western side, and Teppe Zagheh is on the eastern side. In the middle there is the largest tell that is labelled as Sagzabad (or Tepe Sagzabad) by Maghsoudi (2014), who also describes the geological morphology of the area.[3] The same information is also found in Mona Bagheri Ghaleh (2025).[4] The same tell is also labelled as Qareh Tape (also known as Ghare Tappeh) by Dehpahlavan (2022),[5] and other scholars.

A 6th and 5th millennium BC settlement of Zagheh (Zaghe) is about 1.5 hectares in size.

The 2nd millennium BC, and Iron Age settlement of Sagzabad (also known as Segzabad) is 14 hectares in size.[6]

The small modern town of Sagezabad is located about 4km south of Tepe Ghabristan.

Description

Tepe Ghabristan was occupied in the 4th millennium BC though many Iron Age graves, mostly destroyed by looting, were found at the top level. Geophysical surveys of the site reveal hidden features like irrigation channels and structures, highlighting a slowdown in sediment deposition. Its cultural connections also reveal broader Near Eastern trends, and links with prehistoric Uruk, as demonstrated by pottery.

It was also a very early metalworking hub, as demonstrated by extensive copper workshops with crucibles, molds, furnaces, and large amounts of copper, suggesting significant production.

The 4th millennium BC settlement was destroyed in a violent conflagration with many sling bullets being found.[7][8][9]

Excavations

The site was excavated from 1970 until 1974, led by Yousef Majidzadeh. While most of the remains were of subsistence agriculture, metalworking, and pottery production, there was one well built monumental complex at the top of the mound. Its walls were preserved up to a height of one meter, and it was interpreted as a temple or administrative center. The complex covered 170 square meters with ten rooms, one thought to be a courtyard.[10][11][12][13][14]

Excavations resumed in 2002 and 2003 by a University of Tehran and Iranian Cultural Heritage Organisation team led by Fazeli Nashli.[15][16][17] More recently the site periodization has been changed slightly:[18][19][20]

Periodization

  • Ghabristan I - Early Chalcolithic 4300–4000 BC
  • Ghabristan II/III - Middle Chalcolithic 4000–3700 BC
  • Ghabristan III/IV - Late Chalcolithic 3700–3000 BC

Pottery

Beveled rim bowls, diagnostic pottery for the Uruk Culture, were found (layer IV.I-3) at the site as well as conical cups.[21][22]

Uruk Grey Ware

The appearance of Grey Ware at Tepe Ghabristan and the related site of Tepe Sialk in Isfahan province around 3700 BCE is generally interpreted as representing a break in the local cultural sequence. This is a handmade, chaff tempered and Chaff-Faced Ware, that is also reported from many Chalcolithic period sites in Western Iran, upper Mesopotamia, as well as in Syria, Iraq (such as Girdi Qala and Logardan), and the south-east of Turkey.

This type of pottery suggests a widespread, transient cultural phenomenon across western Iran, potentially linked to the Uruk expansion in southwest Asia.[23]

Two kinds of kilns were found, square and horseshoe shape (interpreted as pottery kilns).[24] A large decorated pottery fragment was found which the excavator described as an "oldest pictorial expression".[25][26][27] Excavators found a coppersmith workshop with "crucibles, open molds (bar ingots), tuyeres, slag, 20 kilograms of copper ore (malachite), 2 silver buttons from Level 9; at lower Level 10 were found a shaft hole ax, hammers, and picks".[28][29] It has since been suggested that the tuyeres were actually mould fragments.[30]

The remains of dromedary camel were found at the site.[31]

See also

References

  1. ^ Schmidt, Armin, and Hassan Fazeli, "Tepe Ghabristan: a Chalcolithic tell buried in alluvium", Archaeological Prospection 14.1, pp. 38-46, 2007
  2. ^ E. 0. Negahban, "Preliminary Report of Qazvin Expedition: Excavation of Zaghe, Qabrestan, Sagzabad, 1971-1972", Marlik 2. Journal of the Institute and Department of Archaeology. Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Teheran, 1977, pp. 26-44, fig. 45-64, 1977
  3. ^ a b Maghsoudi, Mehran; Simpson, Ian A.; Kourampas, Nikos; Nashli, Hassan Fazeli (2014). "Archaeological sediments from settlement mounds of the Sagzabad Cluster, central Iran: Human-induced deposition on an arid alluvial plain". Quaternary International. 324: 67–83. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2013.10.057. Retrieved 2025-12-16.
  4. ^ Ghaleh, Mona Bagheri; Eftekhari, Negar; Pahlavan, Mostafa Deh; Vaccaro, Carmela (2025). "Exploring Early Distillation Hypotheses: Investigating Unique Pottery from Tepe Sagzabad on the Central Iranian Plateau (Iron Age)". Archaeological Discovery. 13 (01): 26–47. ISSN 2331-1959.
  5. ^ Dehpahlavan, Mostafa; Alinezhad, Zahra (2024-07-02). "The Cylinder Seals of Qareh Tepe in Sagzabad, Iron Age II and III". Iran. 62 (2): 194–208. doi:10.1080/05786967.2022.2058409. ISSN 0578-6967. Retrieved 2025-12-20.
  6. ^ E. 0. Negahban, "Preliminary Report of Qazvin Expedition: Excavation of Zaghe, Qabrestan, Sagzabad, 1971-1972", Marlik 2. Journal of the Institute and Department of Archaeology. Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Teheran, 1977, pp. 26-44, fig. 45-64, 1977
  7. ^ Alibaigi, Sajjad, and Sirvan Mohammadi Qasrian, "Who Burned the Prehistoric Village of Ghabristan in Fourth Millennium BC?", Archaeology Journal 4.1, pp. 39-58, 2024
  8. ^ Vidale, Massimo, Hassan Fazeli-Nashli, and François Desset, The late prehistory of the northern Iranian Central Plateau (c. 6000–3000 BC): growth and collapse of decentralised networks. Surplus without the state, political forms in prehistory, 10th archaeological conference of Central Germany, October 19-21, 2017 in Halle (Saale), 2018
  9. ^ Fazeli Nashli, H. & A. S. Naghshineh, "Iron Age Burials of Tepe Ghabrestan", in H. Fazeli Nashli (ed.), The Archaeology of the Qazvin from the Sixth to the First Millennium BC. Tehran: University of Tehran Press, pp, 121-148, 2006 (in Persian)
  10. ^ [1]Majidzadeh, Y. "An early industrial proto-urban center on the Central Plateau of Iran: Tepe Ghabristan." Essays in Ancient Civilization Presented to Helene J. Kantor. Vol. 47. Chicago: Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, pp. 157-174, 1989
  11. ^ Y. Majikzadeh, "Excavations in Tepe Qabrestan: The first two Seasons, 1970 and 1971", Marlik 2. Journal of the Institute and Department of Archaeology. Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Teheran, pp. 45-61, pl. 66-96, 1977
  12. ^ F. Malekzadeh, "A Preliminary Report on the Excavation of Trench E, Qabrestan third Season, 1972", Marlik 2. Journal of the Institute and Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Teheran, 1977, pp. 63-66, pl. 97-127, 1977
  13. ^ E. 0. Negahban, "Preliminary Report of Qazvin Expedition: Excavation of Zaghe, Qabrestan, Sagzabad, 1971-1972", Marlik 2. Journal of the Institute and Department of Archaeology. Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Teheran, 1977, pp. 26-44, fig. 45-64, 1977
  14. ^ Y. Majidzadeh, "Correction of the Internal Chronology for the Siyalk III Period on the Basis of the Pottery Sequence at Tepe Ghabristan", Iran, vol. XVI, pp. 93-101, 1978
  15. ^ Fazeli, H., "Socioeconomic Transformation on the Qazvin Plain: Excavation of Tepe Ghabristan Report 2006, Season Three", Iranian Center for Archaeological Research, Tehran, 2007
  16. ^ Majidzadeh, Yousef. "Excavations at Tepe Ghabristan", Iran, Rome: Instituto Italiano, 2008
  17. ^ [2]Fazeli Nashli, Hassan, and Armin Schmidt, "Tepe Ghabristan: Geophysical Survey Report", The International Journal of Humanities 13.3, pp. 31-50, 2006
  18. ^ Fazeli, Hasan, Edna H. Wong, and Daniel T. Potts, "The Qazvin Plain Revisited: A Reappraisal of the Chronology of the Northwestern Central Plateau, Iran, in the 6 th to 4 th Millennium BC", Ancient Near Eastern Studies 42, pp. 3-82, 2005
  19. ^ Pollard, A. Marc, et al., "A new radiocarbon chronology for the North Central Plateau of Iran from the Late Neolithic to the Iron Age", Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Iran und Turan 45, pp. 27-50, 2013
  20. ^ Fazeli Nashli, H. & R. Abbasnezhad Sereshti, "Prehistoric Chronology of Tepe Ghabrestan", in H. Fazeli Nashli (ed.), The Archaeology of the Qazvin from the Sixth to the First Millennium BC. Tehran: University of Tehran Press, pp. 79-120, 2006 (in Persian)
  21. ^ Potts, Daniel, "Bevel-rim bowls and bakeries: evidence and explanations from Iran and the Indo-Iranian borderlands", Journal of Cuneiform Studies 61.1, pp. 1-23, 2009
  22. ^ [3]Abbasnejad Seresti, Rahmat, and Roghayyeh Sattari Galoogahi, "Beveled rim bowls of the eastern half of the iranian plateau: examination and analysis", Journal of Sistan and Baluchistan Studies 2.2, pp. 25-34, 2022
  23. ^ Sirvan Mohammadi Qasrian 2020, Uruk Grey Ware in Western Iran.
  24. ^ Alizadeh, Abbas, "A protoliterate pottery kiln from Chogha Mish", Iran 23.1, pp. 39-50, 1985
  25. ^ Majidzadeh, Yousef, "Sialk III and the pottery sequence at Tepe Ghabristan: the coherence of the cultures of the Central Iranian Plateau", Iran 19.1, pp. 141-146, 1981
  26. ^ [4]Haghighat, Ali, et al., "A Fabulous Narrative of a Semi-Anonymous Myth of Pre-Historic Era in the Iranian Plateau", The International Journal of Humanities 19.3, pp. 21-36, 2012
  27. ^ Majidzadeh, Y., "The oldest narrative pictoral phrase on a pottery vessel from Tappeh Qabrestan", Alizadeh. A., and Majidzadeh. Y., and Malek Shahmirzadi S (eds.), The Iranian World, Essay on Iranian art and archaeology, presented to Ezat O. Negahban, pp. 80-84, 1999
  28. ^ Yener, K. A., "The Rise of Complex Metal Industries in Anatolia, Ancient Turkey: The Domestication of Metals", Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2000
  29. ^ Y. Malekzadeh, "An Early Prehistoric Coppersmith Workshop at Tepe Ghabristan", Akten des VII. Internationalen Kongresses fur lranische Kunst und Archaologie, Munchen, 7.-10. September 1976, Archaologische Mitteilungen aus Iran, Erganzungsband 6, Berlin, pp. 82-92, 1979
  30. ^ Pigott V.C., "A heartland of metallurgy", in HAUPTMANN A. et al. (eds), The Beginnings of Metallurgy. Der Anschnitt Beiheft 9, pp. 107-120, Bochum: Deutsches Bergbau Museum, 1999
  31. ^ D. T. Potts, "Camel Hybridization and the Role of Camelus Bactrianus in the Ancient Near East", Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 47(2), pp. 143-165, 2004
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