mohammadamin mirghaderi

Elam is a well-known name for researchers as a cultural and political power in the Ancient Near East and a historical period full of ups and downs. The cultural remains of this historical period have been well identified in archaeological excavations. This evidence confirms the existence of the government and the land referred to in the Bible as "ʿElam". Centuries before archaeological excavations and translations of cuneiform texts, references to the land and rule of "ʿElam" were made in the Bible. Over the years, Iranian and non-Iranian researchers have done much research on this period, and several sites have been excavated. Despite the volume of studies related to this historical period, there is a point, and it is a theoretical difference that exists between Iranian scholars in the meaning, origin and form of writing the name of Elam, especially in writing it with "الف" / "ع". In this article, we will discuss why this is the case and provide suggestions on it;because it seems appropriate for researchers to use a single form in writing the name of this historical period.

The first season of the survey was conducted in April and May 2015. It is attempted to determine the studied region according to natural geographical range without considering new political borders. To this end, Bavanat River Basin which is located in two central and Mazayjan parts of this county was fully investigated. Archeological research was carried out in a survey and intensive way to identify all sites and relics that reflect the activities of past human societies in the region. In this research, in addition of using all the information of historical texts and environmental studies, it was tried to conduct a field study in the basin of Bavanat River and by analyzing movable and immovable surface findings, the relationship between cultural sites and settlement patterns are investigated and meanwhile by comparing with the adjacent regions, the relationship between these cultural sites in different periods with the environment and geography of the region is investigated. In general, the most important goals of this archaeological research in 2015 are as the following: identifying all cultural works of different periods of the region; preparing archaeological maps of the studied region in the alternation of different cultural periods, studying and investigating the process of settlement changes in different periods, presenting the sequence of relative chronology of the region based on surface findings, measuring the effect of environment on the formation of settlements, explaining the cultural position of the studied region in cultural areas of country, recognizing regional and trans-regional interactions based on surface findings. During the conducted researches, 200 sites that dated from the Neolithic Period to the late Islamic era were registered. These sites include hills and ancient sites, historical castles, historical places of worship, mosque, bridge, cemetery, mill, petroglyph, ancient mines, and slag site. The oldest signs of settlement in this region were related to the Neolithic that this type of pottery was already identified in Marvast Plain, known as Mushki.

Sar-e Pol-e Zahab region in the western of Central Zagros is located between Central Zagros highland and Mesopotamia and Khorasan high road as only western- eastern road passes from that. In other hand this road after passing Sar-e Pol-e Zahab enter to Qasr-e Shirin and Mesopotamia low lands. Therefore, this region is very important in archaeological studies of Central Zagros and Mesopotamia. However, unfortunately, a few archaeological researches have been done in this region. The present study aims in representing a perspective about the Sar-e Pol-e Zahab during the Akkadian period as well as reviewing the written documents regarding the mutual relations and Akkadian cylinder seals discovered in archeological excavations in order to help the interpretations about the presence of Akkadians in this region. In this paper we will discuss about the  Mountainous Passage of western Central Zagros and Khorasan High Road on the Akkadian Seals and will explain the loucation of Sar-e Pol-e Zahab on the Akkadian Seals.

The city of Sar Pol-e Zahab is located in the western part of Kermanshah province close to the Iraqi border. Due to its geographical location it has played an important role in the Iranian history since it has opened the gate entering the central Zagros and to the Iranian central plateau. There have been two bas reliefs remained from Anubanini and Idin-Sin, which are located near the Sar Pol-e Zahab city, both historically are of significant. On the inscriptions engraved on both reliefs, those are referred to a name as Batir. Batir is a single mountain has more likely portraited on the Anubanini reliefs. This mountain, as a defensive wall divided the Sar Pol-e Zahab plain into the eastern and western parts. It is important to cite here that the name of Batir is not limited to the name of the mountain in Sar Pol-e Zahab, but the name is also mentioned by some texts obtained from Tel al-Salimeh, that is located in 75 km west of Sarpol-e Zahab, and near the Hamrin Lake, There have been tablets representing the city’s name as “Batir or Batiri” along with a manifestation of a temple was given to the goddess of Batiritum. The presence of two names, could give rise to the question of what relation might be between these two places? Can these two names refer to a single place? Is it possible that Batir could be a holy Mesopotamian name? It seems that, because of the importance of the land of Ĥelman / Helman (Sar pol-e Zahab) for the Mesopotamians the name of Batir was given by them to a city located near the Batir Mountain. In this paper we tried to provide a clear interpretation of this ancient name based on the texts obtained from Tel al-Salimeh, Anubanini and Idin-Sin inscriptions as well as other Mesopotamian texts.

Fars Cultural sphere have different perspectives, including mountainous areas with a cold weather, central part with a temperate climate while the southern part which is limited by the northern Persian Gulf coasts; experiences warmer conditions. According to the archaeological importance of the region, the Bavanat River Basin was investigated aiming at (1) to identify all cultural monuments, (2) to provide the archaeological maps of the area, (3) to investigate the evolutionary process of settlements in different periods, and (4) to assess the environmental effects on the formation of settlements and to explain the cultural position of the study area. During the survey, 200 archaeological sites were identified to have been dated from the Neolithic period to the Late Islamic period. The oldest site is related to the Neolithic but until the Bakun era, there has been no settlement identified. Eight sites revealed Bakun painted potteries and seven sites showed potteries from Lapui period. Since from Banesh period there has been just one occupational site it seems that after Banesh the basin was abandoned until the Achaemenid period.

Central Zagros as one of the significant Iranian archeological perspectives has attracted the attention of many archeologists during the recent century and especially from the 1950s. It seems that the rugged lands of this near east region have been the cradle of many cultural evolutions during the history and the prehistoric periods. Although central Zagros due to its adjacency to the central Iranian plateau, Mesopotamian and southwest of Iran lowlands, and also the northwest mountains of Iran has been of concern mostly for the cultural remnants of the prehistoric societies, yet it has been a strategic and important region during the historical and even Islamic period. Among them we can mention the complex of Taq-e Bostan on the north of Kermanshah located on the ancient path of “The great Khorasan road”. This complex is on the hillsides of Parkuh and surrounded by thickets and a lake which cause it a particular situation throughout the history. This complex owes its fame to the Sassanid rock relief which has been visited by Abeh Pushan in 1792 for the first time. However, Herzfeld studies are the first scientific investigations on the historical complex of Taq-e Bostan. On the other hand, the conducted excavations by Mr.Kambakhshfard in 1969 led by the accidental discovery of some pithos graves by municipality workers, resulted in achieving the evidences of a Parthian cemetery with more than 50 pithos graves and also remains of a village related to Parthian period. According the archeological investigations and studies on the ancient paths of the western Iran, or the surveys have been done in the region and ninety years background of archeological studies about this area, no report regarding the prehistoric existence of this complex has been presented. Morad Hasel site is the closest prehistoric site to this complex which has been identified and surveyed by Mr. Hassan Rezvani and it is related to the chalcolithic and Bronze Age. During the surveys and visits of Ali Hozhabri in the summer of 2013, some evidences of a chalcolithic site have been identified in the western park of Taq-e Bostan complex. This site was surveyed and its surface findings were transferred to the C.H.H.T organization for filing and documenting. Regarding the nature of the findings which were collected during the field survey, the aim of the present study is to introduce this significant site and to present a relative history for the site’s artifacts. In the following, the overall image of cultural structure of this site is recon structed with an analytical view and with regard to the chronology and the location of this site.

Archaeological landscape of western Iran is representative of great and important socio-cultural changes in various periods of prehistory in Iran. The region that the Central Zagros range comprises its most parts has attracted many archaeologists’ attentions who have conducted many archaeological surveys and excavations in this region since the early 20th century. Despite its environmental characteristics، Sarfirouzabad Plain in southern Kermanshah has just been the subject of surface surveys and studies. To collected reliable data a systemic field survey by a team from Tehran University in 2009، was conducted in Sarfirouzabad Plain which yielded important results and added most to our limited knowledge of the history of the region. Among the various explored sites، there have been 24 sites of the Middle and Late Bronze Ages (Godin III). Distribution of such sites and their patterns in the plain has been connected to the environmental factors specially access to the water resources، while other factors presumably affecting the settlement formation were based on the cultural and political issues. The goal of this article is to improve the quality of techniques in the understanding of archaeology of the region as well as the regional and cultural systems of Bronze Age.