Chogha Bonut ( Persian ''Choghā bonut'') is an archaeological site in south-western

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 ...

, located in the

Khuzistan Khuzestan Province (also spelled Xuzestan; fa, استان خوزستان ''Ostān-e Xūzestān'') is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. It is in the southwest of the country, bordering Iraq and the Persian Gulf. Its capital is Ahvaz and it covers ...

Province. The site is about 20km southeast of

Dezful Dezful ( fa, دزفول, pronounced , Dezfuli dialect: Desfil, pronounced ) also Romanized as Dezfūl and Dezfool; also known as Dīzfūl and Ab I Diz is a city and capital of Dezful County, Khuzestan Province, Iran. At the 2011 census, its popu ...

, and 5km west of

Chogha Mish Tappeh-ye Choghā Mīsh (Persian language; چغامیش ''čoġā mīš'') dating back to 6800 BC, is the site of a Chalcolithic settlement in Western Iran, located in the Khuzistan Province on the Susiana Plain. It was occupied at the beginn ...

, another ancient site. It is believed that the site was settled as early as 7200 BCE, making it the oldest lowland village in south-western Iran. This settlement on the Susiana Plain played a big role in the early

Elam Elam (; Linear Elamite: ''hatamti''; Cuneiform Elamite: ; Sumerian: ; Akkadian: ; he, עֵילָם ''ʿēlām''; peo, 𐎢𐎺𐎩 ''hūja'') was an ancient civilization centered in the far west and southwest of modern-day Iran, stretc ...

civilization. Later, this area became dominated by

Susa Susa ( ; Middle elx, 𒀸𒋗𒊺𒂗, translit=Šušen; Middle and Neo- elx, 𒋢𒋢𒌦, translit=Šušun; Neo- Elamite and Achaemenid elx, 𒀸𒋗𒐼𒀭, translit=Šušán; Achaemenid elx, 𒀸𒋗𒐼, translit=Šušá; fa, شوش ...

. The site is important because it preserves a record of preceramic period settlement in Iran.

Archaeology

The site has an area about 50 meters in diameter and about 5 meters in height. It was accidentally discovered in 1976 when the mound was being leveled for

agribusiness Agribusiness is the industry, enterprises, and the field of study of value chains in agriculture and in the bio-economy, in which case it is also called bio-business or bio-enterprise. The primary goal of agribusiness is to maximize profit w ...

development. Helene Kantor, then working at

nearby, hurried to the site and received a permit to investigate it. Kantor remained for two seasons (1976/77 and 1977/78), but was unable to return in 1979 due to the

Iranian Revolution The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dyna ...

.
lizadeh, Abbas., "EXCAVATIONS AT CHOGHA BONUT: THE EARLIEST VILLAGE IN SUSIANA, IRAN", The Oriental Institute News and Notes, No. 153, Spring 1997

Abbas Alizadeh Abbas Alizadeh (born 1951) is an Iranologist and Persian archaeologist. Alizadeh is a senior research associate at the Oriental Institute of The University of Chicago, who works with the Iranian Prehistoric Project. He has supervised foreign teams ...

continued investigations at the site in 1996. His findings were published in 2003. It is one of the few

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several pa ...

sites excavated since the Iranian revolution. Among the finds were 41 clay tokens.

Settlement

Five phases of occupation are documented at the site: # the Aceramic phase, # the Formative Ceramic phase, (Film Painted Ware) # the Archaic Susiana 0 phase (includes the Early Susiana period, ca. 5900 BCE), # the Late Middle Susiana phase (ca. 5200 BCE) # the Late Susiana 2 phase. (ca. 4400-4000 BCE)Abbas Alizadeh, "Excavations at Chogha Bonut, an Aceramic Neolithic Site in Lowland Susiana, Southwestern Iran", Neo-Lithics: A Newsletter of Southwest Asian Lithics Research, 1997

References

{{coord, 32.222, N, 48.505, E, display=title Archaeological sites in Iran Former populated places in Iran Populated places established in the 8th millennium BC History of Khuzestan Province Buildings and structures in Khuzestan Province Elam Prehistoric Iran

Archaeology

Settlement

See also

References