Absolute Dating and Intra-Regional Diversity of Dalma Ceramic Tradition Based on Analysis of the Painted Monochrome Ware

Like most of the prehistoric cultures of the Iranian Plateau, the Dalma Culture has been understood mostly by its ceramic assemblages. After being introduced for the first time in Dalma Tepe, the Dalma Ceramic tradition was characterized by ceramic collections from Mound B at Seh Gabi and Godin (Trench XYZ) in Central Western Zagros. The most striking aspect of Dalma pottery is its homogeneity throughout the Central and Northern Zagros, which indicates cultural ties between the communities of these parts during the 5th Millennium BC. During the last two decades several fieldworks have been conducted on Dalma period sites in the Zagros which, on one hand, emphasizes the general ceramic homogeneity among these sites, and, one other hand can be handled with scrutiny to define several cultural sub-regions in the Dalma sphere. Excavations at Nadali Beig provided more evidence on intra-regional differences and similarities amongst the Dalma collections in the Zagros. The importance of Nadali Beig is in the fact that based on seven 14C dates available for the excavated sequence, we may provide for the first time an absolute chronology for different types of the Dalma ceramics. Based on these dates we may suggest the time of appearance and disappearance of certain types of Dalma pottery which can be anchored to define the approximate date of similar collections in the Zagros. Based on our analysis of Dalma Painted Monochrome, we could identify and define four sub-regions in the Central and Northern Zagros: South of Lake Urmia, Kurdestan, Bijar and Kangavar. Moreover, based on the absolute chronological column of Nadali Beig we have proposed the time-range of Dalma Painted Monochrome in these sub-regions.