North-Western Iran: Bronze Age to Iron Age

Abstract

This chapter separates the issues of archaeological cultures from that of linguistic theories concerning the language spoken in the north, issues not clearly articulated by Medvedskaya. Medvedskaya is convinced that she has succeeded in demonstrating that there was no cultural break from the Bronze to the Iron Age in North-western Iran, that there was a continuity in the culture. Bronze Age burials did exist below the Iron Age burials but Medvedskaya neglects to report that the Bronze Age burials were associated with architecture. They were intramural burials and thereby markedly of a different nature from the overlying burials in a cemetery dug into trash debris. The chapter concludes that Medvedskaya has not demonstrated that the EWGW/Iron I period of North-western Iran did not represent a new culture in the area. Keywords:Bronze Age; Iron Age; Medvedskaya; North-western Iran