Teppe Zagheh ( fa, تپه زاغه) is an early urban settlement located near

Qazvin Qazvin (; fa, قزوین, , also Romanization, Romanized as ''Qazvīn'', ''Qazwin'', ''Kazvin'', ''Kasvin'', ''Caspin'', ''Casbin'', ''Casbeen'', or ''Ghazvin'') is the largest city and capital of the Qazvin Province, Province of Qazvin in Iran. ...

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 ...

. In Persian, ''teppe'' means " tell, hill".

Settlement

The settlement has been dated to have been built in 6500 BCE. After the re-excavation of Zagheh in 2001, new radiocarbon dates were obtained. They indicate that the site was settled c. 5370–5070 BC and abandoned c. 4460–4240 BC. Thus, it may belong to only a single historical period, Transitional

Chalcolithic The Copper Age, also called the Chalcolithic (; from grc-gre, χαλκός ''khalkós'', "copper" and ''líthos'', "stone") or (A)eneolithic (from Latin '' aeneus'' "of copper"), is an archaeological period characterized by regular ...

Yet there were also many small clay 'tokens', used as counting objects, that were found at Zagheh; these are variously-shaped, and are similar to such tokens at other Neolithic sites. These Zagheh tokens are dated typologically to 6500–5500 BC. Thus, there were probably two periods of occupation. ''Zagheh archaic painted ware'' (ca. 6000-5500 BC) was found in

Tepe Sialk Tepe Sialk ( fa, تپه سیلک) is a large ancient archeological site (a ''tepe'', "hill, tell") in a suburb of the city of Kashan, Isfahan Province, in central Iran, close to Fin Garden. The culture that inhabited this area has been linked t ...

I, sub-levels 1-2. This is the early painted ware, that was first excavated at Teppe Zagheh. Clay figurines found in

Mehrgarh Mehrgarh (; ur, ) is a Neolithic archaeological site (dated ) situated on the Kacchi Plain of Balochistan in Pakistan. It is located near the Bolan Pass, to the west of the Indus River and between the modern-day Pakistani cities of Quetta, ...

(Pakistan), an important precursor to the Indus Valley civilization, resemble those discovered at Teppe Zagheh, and at

Jeitun Jeitun (Djeitun) is an archaeological site of the Neolithic period in southern Turkmenistan, about 30 kilometers north of Ashgabat in the Kopet-Dag mountain range. The settlement was occupied from about 7200 to 4500 BC possibly with short interr ...

in Turkmenistan (6th millennium BCE).Jarrige C (2008) The figurines of the first farmers at Mehrgarh and their offshoots. Pragdhara 18: 155–166

Relative chronology

Notes

References

*''Sabk Shenasi Mi'mari Irani'' (Study of styles in Iranian architecture), M. Karim Pirnia. 2005. {{ISBN, 964-96113-2-0

Settlement

Relative chronology

Notes

References

See also