An Archaeological look into simple pit burials at Tepe Qara Hasanlu, Namin, Ardabil

Abstract

Excavations at the historical mound of Qara Hasanlu, in the Namin County of Ardabil Province of northwestern Iran, brought to light several pit graves set on a massive mudbrick artificial platform. Cut into the uppermost courses of the mud bricks forming this platform, the graves were associated with scores of burial gifts of varied types such as arrowheads, daggers, scissors, mirrors, earrings, and necklaces. As a descriptive-analytical work drawing upon both field and library research, the present paper is set to characterize the recorded grave types and their relative chronology in quest of tenable answer to these questions: 1. What were the grave types and mortuary customs at Qara Hasanlu? 2. Where do they find parallels, and to which period do they belong to? Within the graves, the bodies were laid out in two supine and squatting positions. Based on the available circumstantial evidence, they were made sometime after the platform was constructed. The documented cultural material including sherd assemblages, the burial methods and the burial gifts suggested a date in the Parthian period for the site.