The provenance and distribution of Early Bronze ceramics in the Kolyaei Plain, central Zagros, Iran

Abstract

Within Iran, there is little archaeological evidence for relationships between newly arrived Early Trans‐Caucasian (ETC) or Kura‐Araxes settlers and earlier inhabitants and contact with neighbouring cultures, or for their apparently abrupt end. Based on the evidence, the Iranian Kura‐Araxes was not a simple ‘copy' of the Caucasian Kura‐Araxes package. Ceramic traditions show local peculiarities, and all are elements suggesting that the Kura‐Araxes traditions went through processes of adaptation, change and re‐elaboration according to local tastes and technologies. In this study, an archaeometric approach to ceramics in the Kolyaei Plain of central Zagros contributes to the discussion of contact and exchange between indigenous communities and several cultural spheres of influence on the Early Bronze Age (beginning in the fourth millennium bce). Morphological data, as well as the mineralogical and chemical composition of ceramics, were applied to determine the major and trace elements of the pottery shards. Based on the trace element profiles, it can be suggested that all the pottery shards are in the same group and they strongly are local products. The ceramic provenance indicates the same patterns of material interactions during the ETC or Kura‐Araxes in all the sites within the Kolyaei Plain.