Iranian-French Archaeological Mission in Bam, Kerman: Summary of Field-seasons 2016-2017

In this article we present the scientific objectives and results of the first two field-seasons in 2016 and 2017 of the Bam Archaeological Mission (BAM), a new Iranian-French joint field research project in the Bam-Narmashir Region, Kerman. During these two field-seasons, we surveyed this region and recorded about 250 sites mostly dating from the Palaeolithic period to the Iron Age. One of the most significant results from this survey is the discovery of two substantial settlements, one dating to the Neolithic period and the other one relating to the fourth millennium BCE Aliabad archaeological culture. These settlements are probably among the highest concentrations of sites dating to these periods reported so far from the south-eastern Iranian Plateau. In 2017, we also resumed excavation at the Neolithic site of Tell-e Atashi. We opened test-trenches at various locations at this site as well as a new stratigraphic trench near the excavation that had been opened in 2008. With new radiocarbon dates, we were able to confirm that at least a large part of the occupation levels at Tell-e Atashi dates to between the second half of the sixth and the middle of the fifth millennia BCE. This fieldwork also made it clear that this site is aceramic, a configuration that stands in contrast to the typical sixth and fifth millennia BCE archaeological sites in Iran. The aggregate of this fieldwork produced new data which have confirmed the unique nature of Tell-e Atashi and the Bam-Narmashir Region as well as their significance for the understanding of the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods in the Indo-Iranian Borderlands.