Jajarm ( fa, جاجرم, also
Romanize
Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, 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, a ...
d as Jājarm) is a city and capital of
Jajarm County
Jajarm County ( fa, شهرستان جاجرم) is located in North Khorasan province, 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 ...
, in
North Khorasan Province
North Khorasan Province ( fa, استان خراسان شمالی, ''Ostān-e Khorāsān-e Shomālī'') is a province located in northeastern Iran. Bojnord is the capital of the province. The counties of North Khorasan Province are Shirvan Cou ...
,
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 ...
.
Because of several historical and archeological sites, Jajarm is one of the most attractive cities in North Khorasan province. The city is placed on the border of
Central Desert of Iran and has a unique vegetation. Jajarm has also known for its wildlife refuge which
Iranian cheetah lives there. Jajarm has several
bauxite mines and a plant is producing Alumina from bauxite.
Historical sites
The region of north-eastern Iran has not been explored archaeologically until recently. But now a lot of work is being done. Archaeological fieldwork in North Khorassan has already shown the richness of prehistoric cultures in the region.
Tepe Pahlavan
Tepe Pahlavan (Tappeh Pahlavan) is a prehistoric site near Jajarm city. It is a large
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 ...
-Chalcolithic craft production site, located between the
Alborz Mountains in the north, and the vast desert of
Dasht-e Khavir in the south.
In 2014, an Iranian-German team carried out the first systematic excavations at Tappe Pahlavan.
The upper settlement horizon has been dated to the early sixth millennium BC. These are the earliest dates so far for the ceramic Neolithic period in Northeast Iran. The connections with the contemporary sites in Northeast Iran are evident, but also with the sites in
Kopet Dag
The Köpet Dag, Kopet Dagh, or Koppeh Dagh ( tk, Köpetdag; fa, کپهداغ), also known as the Turkmen-Khorasan Mountain Range, is a mountain range on the border between Turkmenistan and Iran that extends about along the border southeast o ...
, 200 km to the east.
The ceramics are similar to the
Cheshmeh Ali type. The Cheshmeh Ali cultural complex generally defines a Transitional Chalcolithic on the
Iranian Central Plateau dating between 5500 and 4800 BC. Yet the radiocarbon dates at Pahlavan precede this period by 500 years. So Cheshmeh Ali type ceramics here may be a unique early local development.
The
Jeitun ceramics, very common in Northeast Iran and southern Turkmenistan, are not found in Pahlavan. There is also very little evidence of agricultural activities here. Rather, this settlement seems to have been mostly occupied with bead production, processing the local semi-precious stone deposits.
Jorbat
Petroglyphic site of Jorbat (This area is locally known as Sang Neveshteh or the "inscribed stone") to the north of the plain of Jajarm is one of the largest rock-art complexes of Iran. Ranging from late Bronze Age to the ethnographic period, the rock art imagery of Jorbat has close parallels both in petroglyphic sites of the Central plateau of Iran and the Central Asian steppes.
[A.A. VAHDATI (2012)]
A Preliminary Report on a newly discovered Petroglyphic Complex near Jorbat, the Plain of Jajarm, North-eastern Iran.
Paléorient, vol. 37.2, p. 177-187 - academia.edu
References
Sources
*
* اطلس گیتاشناسی استانهای ایران
tlas Gitashenasi Ostanhai Iran(
Gitashenasi Province Atlas of Iran')
{{Authority control
Prehistoric Iran
Cities in North Khorasan Province
National works of Iran