Sapienza Università di Rom a 6th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East th Rome, 5-10th May 2008 Papers 6ICAANE PAPERS Abolfazl Aali Iranian Center for Archaeological Research NEW INVESTIGATIONS IN CHEHR ABAD SALT MINE NEAR ZANJAN , IRAN Fourteen years ago, mine workers of Chehr Abad salt mine during extraction activities found parts of a human body and several items associated with it. These remains were sent to the National Museum of Iran in Tehran and the body was soon known as Salt Man. At the same time studies were started on the Salt Man, which dated it to 1700 BC by 14C analysis. In Nov. 2004 during mine activities in the same mine another Salt Man, in a very bad state of preservation, was found. Immediately a team of archaeologists of the Iranian Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization from Zanjan Office began a salvage excavation in the mine. During the first season of excavation two other salt mummies were found. Specific environmental characteristic of the site has caused the conspicuous state of preservation of the bodies and of the other items associated with them. Salt Man number 4 is the best preserved among the Salt Men and is actually intact. His complete dress is nearly intact. In addition, the astonishing preservation of the body allows the see the soft tissues through his skin. Mummies no. 2 and 3 are fragmentary; one of them has been crushed by a large collapsed stone slab. There are several items associated with the Salt Men, including textiles, pieces of skin, working tools, and wooden items. Based on radio carbon dating the oldest mummies (numbers 3 and 4) date from around 350 BC, namely the Achaemenid period in Iran. In the second season we continued excavation and we found again a lot of organic material. Also we found other human remains in the second season. Yael Abadi-Reiss, Isaac Gilead Archaeological Division, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel THE TRANSITION NEOLITHIC-CHALCOLITHIC IN THE SOUTHERN LEVANT: RECENT RESEARCH OF CULTURAL ASSEMBLAGES FROM THE SITE OF QATIF The Qatifian entity existed in the southern regions of the Levant at the end of the 6th millennium and the beginning of the 5th millennium BC. This entity was defined two decades ago, by Gilead and Alon, on the basis of preliminary research of cultural assemblages from sites in the northern Negev. Currently, the cultural assemblages from the key site of Qatif Y3 are being analyzed by us. The ongoing analysis of the flint, pottery, stone and bone tools assemblages, and their comparison to Neolithic and Chalcolithic assemblages from the southern Levant, enables us to obtain a comprehensive view of the cultural characteristics of the Qatifian entity. This research will enable a more precise definition of the Qatifian entity, and its place among the archaeological entities of the southern Levant during the tra nsition between the sixth and the fifth millennia BC. Preliminary results of the analyses will be presented. Ghorban Ali Abbasi Islamic Azad University and Cultural Heritage Office of Golestan Province RESULT OF EXCAVATION OF NARGES TAPPEH IN GORGAN PLAIN, SOUTHEAST OF CASPIAN SEA Narges Tappeh is located at Gorgan-Airport Track and 7 km North of the town Gorgan 35 km East of the Caspian sea, 17 km West from Turang Tappeh and 6.5 km South from Shap Tappeh. The mound covers an area of about 17000 m2 and is 2300 m above the ground, but cultural deposits are ca. 8200 m deep. The first archaeological investigation (Survey) at Narges Tappeh was conducted by Japanese archaeologists from Hiroshima University in 1974. The first excavation started in 2004 by Rajab Mohammad Zaruri and continued 2006 by Ghorban Ali Abbasi from Iranian Heritage Culture, Tourism Organization of the Golestan Province. The major goal of the Research was Rescue Excavation because of the extension of Airport Track. During the two seasons a great variety of materials, ceramic, metals, burials, remains of architecture, small 1 6ICAANE PAPERS finds were brought to light. The site chronology for Narges Tapph is based on the combined evidence of stratigraphy, ceramics and radiocarbon (14C). During the excavation we distinguished four periods, Cheshmeh-Ali period (early Plateau period), Bronze Age, Iron Age and Islamic period well preserved in Turang Tappeh, ShahTappeh and Jorjan. M. Abdolahi a, A. Sardari b, M. Kalhor c a Dept. of Archaeology, Azad University of Dezful, Dezful, Iran b Islamic Azad University - Dezful Branch c Khouzestan Road and Transporting Organization ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEYS IN THE AZNA PLAIN, CENTRAL ZAGROS, IRAN The Azna district lies across the East of the Central Zagros in the Luristan Province. As a whole, it is the series of smaller intermountain valleys that include Gapelaq, Pachelak and Darband. Azna is tectonically active, being a continuation of the great plain of Silakhor (Borojerd) in the North-West. There are the high mountains of Oshtorankoh South of Azna springs and rivers begin which have created the Dez River in the Susiana plain. The Central Zagros is a connection bridge between central Iran and the lowlands of Mesopotamia and Susiana plains. Some investigation has been carried out in this area. But so far it no archaeological survey has been made East of Central Zagros. As a result, Azna is a suitable part for archaeological investigation. Main aims for surveying Azna have been to establish the pattern of settlement history from the Paleolithic period through to later historical phases and also to clarify previous chronology of Central Zagros. Surveys of Azna began in 2005 and continued in 2006. Sites were identified and measured and a total of 222 ancient sites were identified ranging various dates. These settlements include 33 sites from Late Neolithic and Early Chalcolithic, 29 sites of Middle and Late Chalcolithic, 17 of Bronze Age, 49 of Iron ΙΙΙ, 27 from the Achaemenian period, 56 of the Parthian period, 47 Sasanian and 40 of the Islamic period. Studies indicate that during the prehistoric age every region with good springs and rivers was settled. In the Parthian and Sasanian periods there was a sharp increase in the number of settlements and population that extended beyond the seasonal and perennial rivers. This increasing is usual on the whole of the regions in Iran. On the basis of these surveys, the primary settlement pattern includes a hierarchy of sites ranging mo re than 3 hectares, 3 to 1 hectares, 1 to 0.5 hectare and less than 0.5 hectare that includes the largest amount of the settlements. The reason for this intensive quantity in the small intermountain plain may be the dominant presence of nomadic pastoralist who have lasted to the present days. Consequently, we are going to continue a third season of survey and a first season of excavation on one or two sites in this year. Munther Ali Abdul Malik Archaeology Department, College of Arts - University of Baghdad THE EXCAVATION OF THE 24TH SEASON AT THE CITY OF SIPPAR 2001-2002 This paper deals with a new excavation in Sippar (Abu Habbah), in the 24th season (2001-2002). For the first part of this season we excavated in two squares (U/105 and V/105) which contain many units (C 3, 4, 5, B 3 and N 5, O 4, 5). In the second part, we unearthed the most part of these buildings and their rooms. Among them one (room no. 1) was interpreted as “tablets room”, because we unearthed in it more than 700 tablets, and unburied human skeleton (burial no. 13), whose right hand was destroyed by fire. This fire caused the death of that man, when the roof fell down accidentally and unexpectedly by fire on him. We see this human skeleton laying on the ground and two legs are diverging on his two sides and between them some tablets and slice of bones (maybe the materials of writing) and another tablets beside his left legs. Maybe this human skeleton belongs to the writer or the keeper of this archive. We can classify all these tablets as letters, omen, economic and others. Some of these tablets are published and we try to publish the others later. 2 6ICAANE PAPERS Khalid Abu Jayyab see Salam al Kuntar Giorgio Affanni a, Angelo Di Michele b a Dipartimento di Scienze Antropologiche, Archeologiche e Storico Territoriali, Università di Torino/ Dipartimento di Studi Linguistici e Orientali, Università di Bologna b Dipartimento di Studi Linguistici e Orientali, Università di Bologna THE DEVELOPMENT OF DEFENCE STRATEGIES AT TELL AFIS (SYRIA) FROM CHALCOLITHIC TO IRON AGE Excavations in Tell Afis have revealed significant archaeological evidence of defensive structures dating from late Chalcolithic to Iron Age. This paper will analyze the evolution of building technique, the different strategies of fortification of the site and will propose the reading of the data related to the defensive structures in the light of their urban context. Recent data from the excavations of Area N on the eastern slope of the acropolis will be presented. Zahra Afshar Teheran University BIOLOGICAL AFFINITIES AND CRANIOMETRIC STUDY OF ANCIENT BRONZE AND IRON AGE PEOPLE OF NORTH IRAN: TAPE HISSAR, GOHAR TAPE, SHAH TAPE, DILAMAN One of the challenging problems of Iranian archaeology has so far been the unexplained shift in archaeological record of the mid 2nd millennium BC in northern Iran. It has been suggested that there were some migrations from central Asia to northern Iran during 3rd and 2nd millennium BC. Accepting this hy pothesis, which has been strongly supported by the archaeological data, the significance of working on the origin of the people of ancient sites belonging to the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC (e.g.