Chalcolithic Painted Pottery of the Sialk III Period: Quantifying Stylistic Continuities and Changes on the Northern Central Plateau

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the last two decades, the Varamin Plain to the southeast of Tehran has been the focus of intensified archaeological work, with surveys and excavations yielding new insights into the region’s settlement history. New material from the dynamic network of Chalcolithic sites on the Jajrud alluvial fan now offers a more solid basis to assess the links between the Varamin Plain and the site of Tappeh Sialk in the Kashan Plain, which still remains a reference point for this period. In this paper, we use painted pottery to examine the dating and relationships of the settlements of Ahmadabad-e Kuzehgaran and Chaltasian on the Varamin Plain to Tappeh Sialk. Based on an in-depth quantitative analysis of motif assemblages at the three sites, we evaluate contemporaneities as well as stylistic similarities and differences. We highlight both shared temporal trends and regional specificities.