Results 1:Siyalk
First I will try to tell what was found at Siyalk in order, because eventhough mentioning different layers and what were found in them may sound too complicated, but for me it was really interesting. In a very simple way you will see the evolvement of mankind through these layers.
"The Iranian plateau has certainly been inhabited since the fifth millennium" (B.C). Ghirshman identified one of the oldest human settlements at Siyalk( near Kashan, western Iran). They are divided into three groups ( I believe this means 3 tepes , but I am not sure): Siyalk I, Sialk II and Sialk III. Sialk I is the oldest. "The inhabitants of Siyalk I may have practiced some form of agriculture and stock-breeding, since a few teeth of cattle and sheep were found there, together with sickles made of animal ribs combined with flint." Also the evidence shows that hunting must have played an important role in that era. In layer I.1 no architectural remains were found( probably the houses were built out of branches and mud....). Layers I.2 to I.5 contained fragments of unbaked clay, which were nevertheless as hard as stone. Sialk I 's pottery is red with black painted designs (the designs were abstract and remainings of baskets were left in the clay). As mentioned before these works belong to 5000 B.C. The pottery was made with hands and there were no ovens or potter's wheels in that era, so the base was usually very unstable and the forms were really simple. "Tools were in stone, though copper began to creep in towards the end of the period...Ornaments start to appear at level I.4." ( bracelet's, necklaces and cosmetic boxes...).
A very intersting point for me was the arrangement of tombs: dead were buried under the floors of houses, they were laid on their side and at Siyalk I the bones are reddish. There seems to be two theories behind this: 1. Corpses may have been painted red , 2. As a custom they were sprinkled with iron oxide.
At Siyalk II evidence of a more advanced era was found. (Siyalk II represents cheshmeh Ali period). Bricks were used in this period, (Siyalk II.2 the whole walls were made out of brick). Another interesting finding is related to Siyalk II, and that is several pieces of shells which are from the shores of Persian Gulf!!!! Well what do you think this means? Beginning of Trading! So people were not living in isolated groups any more!
"The ue of metal was still at the experimental stage." and eventhough objects were made out of copper they were mainly simple and made by hammering.
As for pottery, they are more delicate, but still red with black paintings, through the end of this period oven was used for baking them. Its from this period that highly stylized animal drawings appear on pottery.
The art of the pottery continued evolving through Siyalk III. More complicated ovens were used, and they had started using turn tables. Now drawings were even more complicated : animals like birds, snakes, leopards, ibex(kind of a wild goat with long , curved horns; this is probably what we have seen many times, in fact leopards and ibex were commonly used in drawings, an interesting point is that many times the horns were drawn disproportionately). The surface of the clays were buff colored or even greenish but the designs were still in black. Here we find Man's silhouette more and more often, "a slender silhouette, broad shouldered, the head shown in profile in a stylized manner."
It is at Siyalk III that at last the wonder of casting melted copper into moulds happens.
Ref: Huot, J.L, "Archaeologia Mundi :Persia I",Nagel publishers (geneva), 1965.
"The Iranian plateau has certainly been inhabited since the fifth millennium" (B.C). Ghirshman identified one of the oldest human settlements at Siyalk( near Kashan, western Iran). They are divided into three groups ( I believe this means 3 tepes , but I am not sure): Siyalk I, Sialk II and Sialk III. Sialk I is the oldest. "The inhabitants of Siyalk I may have practiced some form of agriculture and stock-breeding, since a few teeth of cattle and sheep were found there, together with sickles made of animal ribs combined with flint." Also the evidence shows that hunting must have played an important role in that era. In layer I.1 no architectural remains were found( probably the houses were built out of branches and mud....). Layers I.2 to I.5 contained fragments of unbaked clay, which were nevertheless as hard as stone. Sialk I 's pottery is red with black painted designs (the designs were abstract and remainings of baskets were left in the clay). As mentioned before these works belong to 5000 B.C. The pottery was made with hands and there were no ovens or potter's wheels in that era, so the base was usually very unstable and the forms were really simple. "Tools were in stone, though copper began to creep in towards the end of the period...Ornaments start to appear at level I.4." ( bracelet's, necklaces and cosmetic boxes...).
A very intersting point for me was the arrangement of tombs: dead were buried under the floors of houses, they were laid on their side and at Siyalk I the bones are reddish. There seems to be two theories behind this: 1. Corpses may have been painted red , 2. As a custom they were sprinkled with iron oxide.
At Siyalk II evidence of a more advanced era was found. (Siyalk II represents cheshmeh Ali period). Bricks were used in this period, (Siyalk II.2 the whole walls were made out of brick). Another interesting finding is related to Siyalk II, and that is several pieces of shells which are from the shores of Persian Gulf!!!! Well what do you think this means? Beginning of Trading! So people were not living in isolated groups any more!
"The ue of metal was still at the experimental stage." and eventhough objects were made out of copper they were mainly simple and made by hammering.
As for pottery, they are more delicate, but still red with black paintings, through the end of this period oven was used for baking them. Its from this period that highly stylized animal drawings appear on pottery.
The art of the pottery continued evolving through Siyalk III. More complicated ovens were used, and they had started using turn tables. Now drawings were even more complicated : animals like birds, snakes, leopards, ibex(kind of a wild goat with long , curved horns; this is probably what we have seen many times, in fact leopards and ibex were commonly used in drawings, an interesting point is that many times the horns were drawn disproportionately). The surface of the clays were buff colored or even greenish but the designs were still in black. Here we find Man's silhouette more and more often, "a slender silhouette, broad shouldered, the head shown in profile in a stylized manner."
It is at Siyalk III that at last the wonder of casting melted copper into moulds happens.
Ref: Huot, J.L, "Archaeologia Mundi :Persia I",Nagel publishers (geneva), 1965.
posted by soudabeh at 2:27 PM
2 Comments:
Soudabeh, I enjoyed reading your descriptions of the artifacts found at the different levels of Siyalk. May I suggest that you add some more approximate dates to distinguish the different levels?
It is interesting to me also that the dead were buried under the floors of their houses. This is very similar to the practice of the mound building culture of Native Americans known as "Mississippian". I grew up mostly in the State of Alabama in the southern U.S. Near my city was a small town called Moundville. It was named for the hundreds of giant earthen mounds that had been constructed near a river. This civilization flourished from about 500 C.E. to 1500 C.E. It is thought that the civilization may have collapsed from diseases introduced by the early Spanish explorers who came to America. Anyway, these people had a similar practice of buring their dead beneath the floors of their houses on top of the mounds. They too had very ornately decorated fired pottery and copper tools. It is very interesting to me how civilizations separated by half a world and thousands of years in time can evolve in similar ways!
David yes what you said about Mississipians and Moundville is really interesting. you know that somehow is like what happens to theories and ideas, the only big difference is the time interval (theories and ideas happen in the same time frame but at different locations and in a way independentally in my opinion)...as for your suggestion, I'll do that, you know sometimes I am afraid that adding too many details to the post would make it too complicated for the reader( But I'll look for those dates). Thanks.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home