Landscape Archaeology South of the Caspian Sea: Some New Insights

Landscape archaeoLogy south of the caspian sea: some new insights christian Konrad piLLer abstract The area under consideration consists of Northern Iran and the adjacent territories of Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. Due to the natural barrier formed by the Alborz Mountains, factors such as the climatic conditions, the vegetation and the traditional architecture of the Caspian littoral and the northern lanks of the mountains differ in many respects from those of the Iranian Highlands. The importance of this region for long-distance communication between Central Asia, the Near East and the Southern Caucasus has long been underestimated. Only recently, the importance of the northern east-west connection from Central Asia to the Caucasus and Anatolia along the Caspian Coast has been recognised as one of the ‘arterial’ roads of the Bronze and Iron Age trade networks in the Middle East. introduction the southern caspian region consists of northern iran and the adjacent territories of turkmenistan and azerbaijan (fig. 1). in this paper, the term northern iran describes the coastal plains of the present iranian provinces of gilan, mazandaran and golestan and the adjoining ranges of the alborz mountains. south-west of the caspian sea, the talesh mountains form the extension of the alborz range and separate the coastal lowlands from the high plateau of eastern azerbaijan. geographically, the western lanks of the Talesh Mountains, which are now a part of Ardabil Province, also belong to northern iran. after the treaty of turkmenchay in 1828, the northern parts of the talesh mountains and the contiguous Lenkoran Lowlands belonged to the russian empire, later to the soviet union and since 1991 to the republic of azerbaijan. to the south-east, the meshed-misrian plain and the sumbar Valley in turkmenistan are also part of the region under consideration. the southern caspian region: a definition the described area differs in many respects from the inlands of these countries. due to the nearness of the caspian sea and the high annual precipitation in the form of 120 christian Konrad piller orographic rainfall (Fig. 2), the northern lanks of the mountains are covered with subtropical forests and have a rich fauna and lora (Ehlers 1980: 321-335). Not only are the vegetation and wildlife different from the highland with its continental climate, but also the use of these abundant resources by the local human population. numerous streams provide an ample water supply for the coastal plains (Fig. 3), which are extensively used for agriculture, especially for the cultivation of rice. in the large plains south-east of the caspian sea, the climate is moderate and humid, but more arid than in the other parts of the southern caspian region. Large streams such as the gorgan, atrek and sumbar rivers create the precondition for agricultural use of the area. the alborz and talesh mountains form not only a geographical and climatic barrier between the southern caspian region and the interior, but also a cultural one. for example, nomadism in the true sense of the word is a lifestyle that has never been present in this area. Typically, the inhabitants of this region are farmers or ishermen while animal husbandry plays a less distinct role than in the highlands. only in the talesh mountains were the upper elevations above the tree line used for seasonal animal husbandry. up to the 1960s, rice straw and timber were the main building materials. in the wetlands of the coastal plains, the houses were founded on wooden beams or posts to protect them from loods and the wet ground conditions (Fig. 4). normally, the walls were constructed of a timber framework or wattle-and-daub. Rice straw was predominantly used for rooing the traditional houses in the coastal area, while in the high valleys where rice cultivation was not practicable, the roofs were covered with wooden shingles. due to the high annual rainfall, the houses were normally built with steep gabled roofs. This marks a stark contrast to the lat-roofed mud brick buildings of the interior. until recently, the herders of the talesh region built long huts with a semicircular roof and simple stone foundations in their summer camps above the tree line. these special climatic and environmental conditions also have a great impact on archaeological research in the area, especially concerning settlement archaeology. tells or tepes are mostly present in the coastal plains, most notably in the vicinity of gorgan and in eastern mazandaran, while within the alborz mountains, only a few larger settlement mounds are known. minor ancient settlement activities in the region are hard to detect, because large parts of the mountains and the lowlands are densely forested and/or extensively used for agriculture or recent settlement building. furthermore, the aforementioned traditional architecture is highly susceptible to the humid environmental conditions, and the seasonal constructions which were used in the higher elevations of the mountains vanish almost without trace after some time. archaeological investigations of large settlement mounds such as tappeh Kelar, gohar tappeh and Qal’eh pey tappeh have just begun and therefore are restricted to a few soundings, while the results of the older excavations at shah tappeh and turang tappeh near gorgan are poorly published (mahfroozi and piller 2009: 179180). by contrast, a large number of bronze and iron age cemeteries are known from Landscape archaeology south of the caspian sea 121 the southern caspian region. cemeteries and graves have been excavated in southern azerbaijan (uzuntepe), as well as in the talesh region, in southern gilan (marlik, Kaluraz, djamshidabad, ghalekuti), mazandaran (Kelar dasht, Qal’eh Kash, gohar tappeh), the gorgan plain (tureng tappeh, shah tappeh) and in the sumbar valley of Turkmenistan (Sumbar, Parkhai). At irst sight, this comprehensive list of excavated burial sites is indeed impressive, but nonetheless we have to be aware of the fact that they can only provide a limited insight into ancient settlement pattern, land use and regional as well as trans-regional communication routes. until the 20th century, communication between the southern caspian region and the iranian highlands was only possible through a few natural passes. actually, these are mostly valleys or erosion gullies that provide easier access into the mountains, the most important one being the valley of the Seid Rud River. Other natural connections such as the high mountain passes of Kandevan (which connects Karadj and chalus) and firuzkuh (which leads directly to the coastal plain of eastern mazandaran) provided good alternatives to travel from the iranian plateau to central asia, but were not accessible year-round. The main route from Central Asia to the west followed the southern lanks of the alborz mountains along the northern extensions of the central iranian desert to the area of modern tehran. from there, it was possible to turn south to the persian gulf, southwest through the valleys of the Zagros mountains to mesopotamia and the mediterranean or northwest to azerbaijan, the southern caucasus and the black sea. this is the route that later became known as the ‘silk road’. in fact, there is also another way from central asia to the caucasus and anatolia. It appears to be easier to follow the northern lanks of the Kopet Dagh Mountains in turkmenistan along the valleys of the sumbar and atrek rivers to the plain of gorgan to reach the south-eastern corner of the caspian sea. from there, it is possible to enter the lowland plains between the northern foot of the alborz and talesh mountains and the coastline and to travel on alongside the littoral of the caspian sea to the courses of the Kura and aras (ancient araxes) rivers. these riverbeds provide easy access to the southern caucasus and further on to the black sea or the anatolian highland. this route offers quite a few advantages to the traveller. first, it is not necessary to cross even a single high mountain pass on the whole distance from central asia to the black sea. second, the way along the caspian coast remains free of snow and frost and can easily be used year-round, while the communications routes in the highlands are often blocked in wintertime. third, the territories of western mazandaran, gilan and talesh in particular were not usually affected by uncertain circumstances such as wars or population shifts in the hinterland and therefore offered a safe alternative to the main road from central asia to the west. however, the wet and often muddy conditions of the ground in the coastal plains of mazandaran and gilan certainly had a negative impact on the quality of this route. this is impressively documented by a number of european travellers who passed through that marshland between the 17th and 19th centuries (mahfroozi and piller christian Konrad piller 122 2009: 177, footnote 2). in the case of a high sea level of the caspian sea, parts of the area might have even become impassable. obviously, such a case happened during the reign of Shah Abbas I. (1587-1629) and prompted him to build a plank road along the caspian lowlands from mazandaran to gilan to facilitate this important route. by contrast, communication in the whole region was far easier at times when the sea level was lower. a prolonged regression of the caspian sea occurred between the 5th and the 14th centuries ad and made the passage in the coastal area of the caspian sea even easier. excavations at the islamic site of Kyzykkala in Kazakhstan proved the existence of a direct trading route between central asia and the Volga delta at the times when the sea level was low. today, this route is drowned under the northeastern corner of the caspian sea (see http://www.sciness.de/inc/artikel). it is highly probable that similar events caused by climatic changes or other reasons also had a strong impact on the importance of the southern caspian region in prehistoric times. chronoLogicaL surVey recent research suggests that an initial communication system between the different parts of the southern caspian region already existed in neolithic times. this is indicated by comparisons between the pottery inds from Kamiltepe in the MilKarabakh-steppe in azerbaijan with a number of neolithic sites in northern iran and Turkmenistan (Aliyev and Helwing 2009: 42). Furthermore, sites such as Togh tappeh and Komishan in eastern mazandaran or tappeh narges and turang tappeh in golestan obviously represent an important contact zone between the cheshmeh ali horizon on the iranian plateau and the dzejtun complex of southern turkmenistan. only recently, a few neolithic sites were discovered within the alborz mountains. on the western banks of the Seid Rud, a joint Iranian-Japanese expedition discovered the irst Neolithic site in Gilan (Fig. 5) at Arg-e Dasht (Nokandeh 2005). In Mazandaran, layers containing painted neolithic and chalcolithic pottery were excavated in a deep sounding at tappeh Kelar, while comparable material was also found in Qal’eh pey tappeh in the high valley of Kiyasar south of sari (personal communication from the excavators S.M. Mousavi and A. Mahfroozi). Unfortunately, the inds and contexts are still unpublished. In the 4th millennium bc, the far-reaching neolithic connections are replaced by a painted pottery tradition (fig. 6) that is limited to the south-eastern corner of the Caspian Sea (Mahfroozi and Piller 2009: 203). Around this time, also burnished Grey Ware makes its irst appearance in this part of the Caspian area. This pottery tradition represents the main element of the material culture in this region up to its disappearance in the course of the early 2nd millennium bc. The Early Bronze Age (basically the 3rd millennium bc) is characterized by a further segmentation of the southern caspian area into two parts: the south-west and the south-east. due to recent research and a re-evaluation of older investigations, it Landscape archaeology south of the caspian sea 123 now becomes clear that during this period parts of azerbaijan, gilan and western mazandaran were part of the Kura araxes cultural complex. so far, excavations and surveys in the talesh region have shown no sign of Kura-arax-pottery there, but a kurgan with related metal inds dating to the later 3rd millennium bc was excavated in telman Kend near astara in azerbaijan. a limited number of diagnostic sherds were already found by a Japanese expedition at Diarjan (36°52’55”N; 50°00’16”E) in the high valley of dailaman during the early 1960s, but remained unpublished until recently (Fahimi 2005). Unfortunately, the exact context of these survey inds could not be reconstructed after such a long time important information on the Kura araxes culture in northern iran comes from the new Iranian excavations at Tappeh Kelar (36°31’07”N; 51°12’01”E) in western mazandaran (fig. 7). during the bronze age, this large mound was certainly the main site of the high plain of Kelar dasht. Kura araxes ware appears regularly all over the site, suggesting intensive settlement activity of considerable duration (mousavi et al. 2007). in view of the similarities with the material from godin iV and other sites in central western iran, a similar date is highly probable. it is clear that this represents an intrusive element to the southern caspian area. nevertheless, we still do not know if and how long the Kura araxes culture is representative or if it is only a sideway to the local tradition. Recent inds of Kura Araxes Ware at Tappeh Ostur in the Shahryar Plain and at Qoli darvish near Qom indicate that this pottery tradition also reached the region of tehran and the western edge of the central iranian desert. this new evidence is in stark contrast with the conventional distribution patterns of Kura araxes ware in iran. Therefore, a reassessment of the regional distribution and the cultural signiicance of this ware type and its relationship to the local traditions in the southern caspian region and its adjacent areas is deeply needed. moreover, it also remains unclear what happened in gilan during the following Middle Bronze Age (roughly the irst half of the 2nd millennium bc). so far, not a single archaeological site which could belong to this period has been detected. nevertheless, we can assume that, according to the present state of research, gilan was not part of the middle bronze age painted pottery traditions of the iranian highland. it is more likely that burnished monochrome ware was produced during this period. the early and middle bronze age south-east of the caspian is characterised by the so-called gurgan grey ware, which represents a regional variant of the eastern Grey Ware. During the 1930s and 1960s to 1970s, a number of important sites in the vicinity of gorgan such as shah tappeh, yarim tappeh and tureng tappeh were partly investigated and used to provide a chronological scheme for this region. transregional connections are attested by good comparisons of the newly discovered bronze hoard of tappeh bazgir (nokandeh, rakavandi and abbasi 2006) with the metalwork of tappeh hesar (fig. 8) and the occurrence of early bronze age sumbar pottery in some burials at tureng tappeh (martinez 1990: pl. 61-62). furthermore, an important settlement and burial site with a long lasting sequence ranging from the 4th to the 1st 124 christian Konrad piller millennium bc was recently investigated by iranian archaeologists at tappeh narges (36°54’24”N; 54°24’28”E) near Gorgan. It is to be hoped that these well documented rescue excavations will be fully published in the near future to provide additional information on the bronze and iron age of the gorgan plain (for a preliminary report, see abbasi 2007). in the neighbouring province of mazandaran, our state of research has improved considerably over the last decade. between 2000 and 2002, the cultural heritage organisation of mazandaran conducted an intensive survey in the coastal plain east of Sari (Mahfroozi 2003). These investigations revealed a massive prehistoric settlement usage of this area. bronze age sites are distributed all over the coastal plain up to the present shoreline. this indicates that the caspian sea might have been lower during this time. Most probably, a number of sites is now situated below the sea level. In 2003, excavations were started at the large site of Gohar Tappeh (36°40’43”N; 53°24’01”E) near behshahr, which were continued as a joint research project with the university of munich since spring 2009 (mahfroozi and piller 2009). gohar tappeh is situated immediately on the northern edge of the alborz mountains. today, the road between gorgan and sari touches the southernmost limits of the site. this was most probably one of the main connection routes between central asia and the west. the importance of the site is indicated by the discovery of a massive mud brick structure with stone foundations which was identiied by the excavator as an Early Bronze Age city wall. we can expect that further investigations at gohar tappeh will provide valuable information on the structure of this important bronze age settlement. one result of the 2009 campaign is that the settlement area had already decreased in the course of the second half of the 3rd millennium bc. this is indicated by burials containing typical early hesar iii material which had been dug into the former structures (mahfroozi and Piller 2009: 191, 203). so far, the early hesar iii horizon in eastern mazandaran is solely known from excavated burials at Gohar Tappeh and Qal’eh Kash (36°28’22”N; 52°27’48”E) in the vicinity of amol1. these burials show a remarkable uniformity concerning their inventories. usually, the pottery grave goods consist of a beaker and a so called bottlepitcher of grey ware. personal ornaments such as ear-rings and sheet metal headgear are mostly made of silver (mahfroozi and piller 2009: 181, 190-191). in some cases, tanged bronze spearheads were found lying on the arms of the deceased. additional research in the high valley of Kiyasar south of sari proved that the dense prehistoric settlement of eastern mazandaran was not limited to the coastal plain. the environmental conditions in this high valley are suitable for perennial use. soundings at the large mound of Qal’eh Pey Tappeh (36°10’29”N; 53°17’19”E) revealed a continuous sequence from the neolithic to the iron age (personal communication by the excavator a. mahfroozi). again, we have to await a detailed publication of these 1 the author wishes to thank r. amirkolaee, head of the excavations at Qal’eh Kash, for the personal communication concerning this site. Landscape archaeology south of the caspian sea 125 investigations in order to get a better understanding of these early periods within the mountains. particularly important for the prehistory of northern iran is the discovery of a comprehensive Late bronze age burial horizon at gohar tappeh. according to our current assessment, this horizon covers the greater part of the 2nd millennium bc. typological parallels exist both to the Late bronze age burials of the sumbar valley and the recently deined early stage of the Marlik culture in Gilan (Piller 2008: 237238, 242-243; Mahfroozi and Piller 2009: 191-195). Thus, it is highly probable that the often assumed hiatus between the Late bronze age and the early iron age may not exist at all in eastern mazandaran. the pottery is still monochrome burnished, but now, a wide range of colours from dark grey to brownish, buff and even brick red appears. often, parts of the vessels are decorated with pattern burnishing (fig. 9). new shapes such as spouted vessels, jars with vertical handles, wide bottles and the so-called ‘incense-burners’ appear (Azarnoush and Helwing 2005: 232; Mahfroozi and Piller 2009: 183). Apart from the pattern burnishing, the best typological parallels can be found in the Late bronze age cemeteries of the sumbar valley. similar surface treatment and vessel shapes also occur in well-known sites in western mazandaran and gilan such as tappeh Kelar, Lasulkan, ghalekuti, and marlik. recently, a number of Late bronze age burials were excavated by Iranian archaeologists at Djamshidabad west of the Seid Rud River (Fallahiyan 2004) and in the Talesh region (Khalatbari 2004). This clearly shows that there is an important but hitherto scarcely known Late bronze age culture which covers large parts of the southern caspian area. the rich early iron age culture of southern gilan which is represented in the elite necropolis of marlik emerges without a break from this Late bronze age horizon. nearly identical inventories of warrior burials from the iron age i occur at marlik and gohar tappeh, indicating a close contact between these regions. during the early 1st millennium bc, the so called orange ware (fig. 10) is present in talesh, gilan and mazandaran, while in the gorgan plain and the adjacent regions of turkmenistan, the ancient dahestan culture emerges. this segmentation of the southern caspian region also exists in the following achaemenid period, when the area south-east of the caspian sea – now known as hyrcania - becomes an integrated part of the persian empire, while the mountainous areas of gilan are hard to control and remain almost half-independent. summary to sum up, some of the previous assumptions have to be re-evaluated in the light of recent discoveries. first of all, the often cited opinion that there was virtually no human presence in larger parts of northern iran before the later 2nd millennium bc can no longer be upheld. not only the fertile alluvial plains along the coastline, but christian Konrad piller 126 also the high valleys inside the alborz mountains were densely populated at least as early as the neolithic. it is also not correct that there are no tepes or tells within the mountains. in fact, in most of the high valleys, there is at least one larger central site with a considerable stratigraphy such as tappeh Kelar or Qal’eh pey tappeh. mostly, these sites are situated along the south-north link roads between the two main routes that connect Central Asia with the west along the northern and southern lanks of the alborz mountains. of particular interest is the appearance of Kura araxes ware in course of the early bronze age and the massive Late bronze age horizon in eastern mazandaran that could ill the gap between the Bronze and Iron Ages. taking it all together, we have to assume that our current state of research for the Southern Caspian Region is still insuficient. It is to be hoped that in the near future, further studies can be carried out in this highly interesting area. Bibliography abbasi g. 2007 narges tappeh, dasht-e gorgan: in Archaeological Reports 7, 2, pp. 247– 261. aliyev t., helwing b. 2009 Kamiltepe in der milebene. archäologische untersuchungen 2009: in Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Iran und Turan 41, pp. 23-45. azarnoush, m., helwing, b. 2005 Recent Archaeological Research in iran - prehistory to iron age: in Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Iran und Turan 37, pp. 189-246. ehlers, e. 1980 Iran. Grundzüge einer geographischen Landeskunde, darmstadt. fahimi, h. 2005 Kura-Araxes type pottery from Gilan and the eastern extension of the Early transcaucasian culture: in Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Iran und Turan 37, pp. 123-132. fallahiyan, y. 2004 Tajali-ye farhang-e asr-e ahan dar gorestan-e tariki-ye Jamshidabad Gilan: in Archaeological Reports 2, pp. 217-237. Khalatbari, m.r. 2004 Archaeological Investigations in Talesh, Gilan 1. Excavations at Toul-e Gilan, tehran. Landscape archaeology south of the caspian sea 127 mahfroozi, a. 2003 A preliminary report on archaeological surveys excavation in east of mazandaran province: in Archaeological Reports 2, pp. 263–278. mahfroozi a., piller c.K. 2009 first preliminary report on the joint iranian-german excavations at gohar tappe, mazandaran, iran: in Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Iran und Turan 41, pp. 177-209. martinez, L.-a. 1990 Les inhumations de l’age du bronze de Tureng Tepe, Iran. unpublished m.a. thesis, paris. mousavi s.m., abbasnejad r., heydarian m. 2007 gosaresh-e moghadammati-ye kavosha-haye bastanshenasti dar tappeh Kelar, Kelar Dasht. Fasl-e Awal, 1385: in Archaeological Reports 7, 1, pp. 473-509. Nokandeh, J. 2005 Arg-e Dasht, the irst Neolithic discovered Region in Gilan Province: in T. Ohtsu, J. Nokandeh, K. Yamauchi (eds), Preliminary Report of the Iran Japan Joint Archaeological Expedition to Gilan, Fourth Season, tehran and Tokio, 50-56. Nokandeh J., Rakavandi G., Abbasi G. 2006 preliminary report of discovery of the bazgir hoard in gorgan plain, 2001: in Archaeological Reports 4, pp. 113-129. piller, c.K. 2008 Untersuchungen zur relativen Chronologie der Nekropole von Marlik, dissertation Lmu münchen, fakultät für Kulturwissenschaften, http://edoc.ub.uni-muenchen.de/8907/, münchen. 128 christian Konrad piller fig. 1: archaeological sites in northern iran. Landscape archaeology south of the caspian sea fig. 2: schematic representation of orographic rainfall and rainshadow in the southern caspian region. Fig. 3: Landscape in the fertile coastal plain of eastern Mazandaran. View from gohar tappeh to the south-east. (photo by c. piller) 129 130 christian Konrad piller Fig. 4: Traditional house of the alluvial plain of Gilan. (photo by c. piller) Fig. 5: Neolithic pottery from Arg-e Dasht, Gilan. (After Nokandeh 2005: Fig. 1) Landscape archaeology south of the caspian sea fig. 6: painted chalcolithic pottery from tappeh narges, golestan. (After Abbasi 2007: 265, Fig. 1) fig. 7: Kura araxes pottery from tappeh Kelar, mazandaran. (after mousavi et al. 2007: 505, Fig. 5) 131 132 christian Konrad piller fig. 8: metal objects from the bazgir hoard, golestan. (after nokandeh et al. 2006: 121-123, Fig. 1-7) fig. 9: pattern burnished Late bronze age pottery from tappeh Kelar, mazandaran. (Survey find in the collection of the DAI, Tehran; drawing by C. Wolff) Landscape archaeology south of the caspian sea fig. 10: middle iron age orange ware from pil’eh Qal’eh near marlik, gilan. (Survey collection of the DAI Tehran; drawings by C. Wolff) 133