277-288

• Khazaie Kouhpar, Mostafa
• Aarab, Ali
• Khak, Parasto Masjedi
• Panahi, Abbas
• Vajargah, Hassan Kohansal

Kul Tepe of Jolfa is located at Hadishahr, East Azerbaijan province, northwestern Iran. Kul Tepe is situated near the border of Iran with Azerbaijan and Armenia and, thereby, it assumes particular importance in terms of the study of communications with these areas. This site is among the few prehistoric areas of East Azerbaijan province, which has witnessed continuous chronology since the 5th millennium BC until the start of historic when it experienced systematic archaeological excavations. During two seasons of archaeological excavation, evidences such as pottery, architecture, stone tools and etc., relating to late Chalcolithic age and early Transcaucasia culture were found. Due to the complex issues on the expansion method of this culture in Near East, the potteries of this area withhold significant importance to be studied. The availability of absolute dating from Kul Tepe and also the absence of any gap between these two periods added to the significance of present work. Therefore, ten characteristic potsherds from Late Chalcolithic and ten potsherds from Early Transcaucasia culture (Kura-Araxes) were studied by thin section microscopic (petrographic) method. These potsherds had been obtained during the excavations on Kul Tepe. It has been revealed that the combination of them is consistent with the soil of the area and, thereby, the potsherds of Kul Tepe have been locally produced although they show some differences in terms of technical issues and temper.

• History and Archaeology

• Archaeology and history

late Chalcolithic age, early Bronze age, Kul Tepe, petrography, East Azerbaijan

Corresponding author: mkhazaeek@yahoo.com

1. Abay, E. (2005) The Expansion of Early Transcaucasian Culture: cultural interaction or migration? Altoriental. Forsch. 32: 115-131.Abedi, Akbar, Hamid Khatib Shahidi, Christine Chataigner, Kamaladin Niknami, Nasir Eskandari, Mehdi Kazempour, Alireza Pirmohammadi, Javad Hosseinzadeh and Ghader Ebrahimi. (2014) Excavation at Kul Tepe (Hadishahr), North-Western Iran. 2010. First Preliminary Report. ANES, 51: 33-165.Abedi, Akbar. (2015) Late Chalcolithic/Early Bronze Age Transitional process and Kura-Araxes Culture progress and expansion in North-Western Iran. Ph.D. Thesis, Department of Archaeology, Univer-sity of Tehran (Unpublished Report, In Persian).Ajorloo, Bahram. (2004) Art of Kura-Araxes. Journal of Payame-Bastanshenas. Vol 1, Issue 2: 43-60.Alizadeh, K. Masoud Azarnoush. (2003) Systematic survey of Baruj Tepe: cultural relationship between the south and north of the Araxes River. Iranian journal of Archaeology and History. 34: 3-21. In (Persian).Batiuk, Stephen. (2013) The fruits of migration: Understanding the ‘longue duree’ and the socio-economic relations of the Early Transcaucasian Culture. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 32: 449–477.Batiuk, S. (2005) Migration Theory and the Distribution of the Early Transcaucasian Culture. Ph.D. disserta-tion. Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto.Batiuk, S., M. S. Rothman. (2007) Early Trascaucasian culture and their neighbours. Expedition, Vol 49: No 1. 7-17.Burney , C.A. (1962) The excavation at Yanik Tepe, Azerbaijan 1961: second preliminary report’. Iraq, 24: 134-152.Burney, C.A. (1964) The excavation at Yanik Tepe, Azerbaijan 1962: third preliminary report’. Iraq, 26: 54-61.Burney, C. A. (1975) Excavations at Haftavan Tepe 1973: Fourth Preliminary Report. Iran 13: 149-164.Burney, C,. M, Lang. (2006) The People of the Hills, Ancient Ararat and Caucasus.Translated to Persian by Hoshang Sadeghi. Negah Publication. Tehran.Burton Brown, T. (1951) Excavations in Azarbaijan, 1948. John Murray. London.Christian K. Piller. (2012) Neue Erkenntnisse zur Verbreitung der Kura-Araxes-Kultur in Nord- und Zentra-liran. In Stories of long ago. Festschrift für Michael D. Roaf. Herausgegeben von Heather Baker, Kai Kaniuth und Adelheid Otto (edit).pp441-458.De Miroschedji, P. (2000) An Early Bronze Age III pottery sequence for southern Israel. In Philip, G. and Baird, D. (eds) ceramic and change in the early Bronze Age of Southern Levant. Sheffield: 315-346.Fahimi, Hamid (2005) Kura-Araxes Type Pottery from Gilan and the Eastern Extension of the Early Trans-caucasian Culture, Archdologische Mitteilungen aus Iran und Turan 37: 123-32.Fazeli, H., Bahram Ajorloo. (2004) An introduction to Kura Araxes expansion at fourth millennium in Qazvin Palin. Proceedings of the International symposium on Iranian Archaeology: Northwestern Region. Edited by M. Azarnoush. Iranian center for Archaeological research. Tehran. Iran. 181-192.Howell, R. (1979) Survey of the Malayer Plain. Iran 17: 156-157.Jaimoukha, Amjad. (2005) The Chechens. Routledge. London and New York.Khaksar, Ali. (2006) Final report of stratigraphy Excavations at ancient mound of Gourab (Malayer), Hame-dan cultural, handicraft and Tourism organization. (Unpublished report, In Persian).Khatib Shahidi, Hamid., Akbar Abedi. (2011) Excavation at Kul Tepe of Jolfa. Unpublished Report Prepared for ICHHTO. (Unpublished, in Persian).Khazaie Kouhpar, Mostafa. (2011) Full coverage survey of archaeological sites of central part of Kojour re-gion. M.A. thesis, Department of archaeology, Tarbiat Modares University (Unpublished, In Per-sian)Kohl, P. (2009) Origins, homelands and migrations: situating the Kura-Araxes Early Transcaucasian Culture within the history of Eurasia. Tel Aviv 36. pp 241-265.Mason, R.B and L. Cooper. (1999) Grog Petrography and Early Trans – Caucasian at Godin tepe, Iran 37. PP. 25 – 31.Maziar, S. (2010) Excavations at Kohne Pasgah Tepesi, the Araxes valley, northwest Ira: First Prelimiiary Re-port. ANES 47, 165-193.Motarjem, Abbas. (2008) Study and analysis of settlement Pattern Of Early Bronze Age at Plains around Al-vand Mount- Hamedan. Ph. D. thesis, Department of Archaeology, University of Tehran (Un-published, In Persian).Mousavi Kouhpar S. M., Abbas Nezhad R. (2007) Report on archaeological excavations at Tappe Kelar, Ke-lardasht. First season. Iranian Cultural Heritage and Handicraft organization. Tehran (Un-published).Mousavi Kouhpar, Seyed Mehdi. (2008) Report on archaeological excavations at Tappe Kelar, Kelardasht. Second season. Iranian Cultural Heritage and Handicraft organization. Tehran (Unpublished).Rothman, M. S. (2003) Ripples in the Stream: Transcaucasia-Anatolian Interaction in the Murat/Euphrates Basin at the Beginning of the Third Millennium B.C. in Archaeology in the Borderlands: Investigations in Caucasia and Beyond. A. Smith and K. Rubinson, eds. pp. 94-109. Los Angeles: Cotsen: Institute of Archaeology, UCLA.Sagona, Antonio. (1984) The Caucasian Region in the Bronze Age, BAR, Series 214.Sagona, Antonio., Paul Zimansky. (2009) Ancient Turkey. Routledge, London and New York.Young, T. C. Jr. (1969) Excavations at Godin Tepe: First Progress Report, Occasional Paper no 17, Royal On-tario Museum.