The Chronology and Culture of Sé Girdan: Phase III

Abstract

In 1968 and 1970 six of eleven surveyed tumuli were excavated by the author at a site called Se Girdan, a few miles northeast of Dinkha Tepe and about 15 miles southwest of Hasanlu and Lake Urmia in northwestern Iran. The tumuli were in fact culturally and chronologically related to those of the Early Bronze Age of southern Russia, the northern Caucasus. Fundamental to the issues of chronology and culture under review, the authors presented examples of socketed axes from several Maikop period sites, Lechinkai and Pyatigorsk, that are obvious and relevant parallels to the Se Girdan examples, a bent butt and a blade with a curved base. Finally the chapter allows us to identify the Se Girdan tumuli as components of the Early Bronze/Maikop cultural period. Keywords:Dinkha Tepe; early Bronze period; Maikop cultural period; northwestern Iran; Se Girdan tumuli