PRELIMINARY REPORT OF AN ARCHEOLOGICAL SURVEY IN SARBAZ COUNTY (CENTRAL AND PISHIN PARTS)

This paper is the result of the report of the Sarbaz Archaeological Survey (Central and Pishin parts), which has been done based on license No. 81/208/862 of the Archaeological Research Institute of the country and the support of the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism of Sistan and Baluchistan Province. Sarbaz County with an area of 4900 km2 is one of the newly established cities in Sistan and Baluchistan province. This county, next to the Sarbaz River, is one of the most important rivers in the Baluchistan region of Iran, which passes through the Makran Mountains of Iran and eventually flows into the Sea of Oman. During the study of the southern parts of Sarbaz, several sites have been identified, from the prehistoric era to the present. Studies in the southern parts of Sarbaz County showed that from the third millennium BC until now, two factors have been more effective than other factors in the formation and expansion of the area. First, it is the general factor of the natural environment that has acted as a deterrent in this region. In large parts of the Sarbaz River, especially in the central and southern parts, it has shown its impact on the area of the sites, the thickness of the ancient layers, and the quality of cultural materials on the surface of each site. The second factor is interregional trade in a large area of southeastern Iran, which during the third millennium as a dynamic factor in the whole region from Kerman to Sistan and Baluchistan has acted positively, and wherever there has been a relatively favorable natural environment, it has led to the creation and expansion of settlements in the region. On the southern bank of the Sarbaz River on the border between Iran and Pakistan, this factor has acted as an influential factor and has established relatively large sites. The diversity of cultural materials on the surface of some of them is remarkable. Recent studies in this area show that, during the third millennium, this area has been one of the dynamic areas in establishing prominent connections between the central regions of Baluchistan, Iran on the one hand and Makran Pakistan, and the southern margin of the Oman Sea and the Persian Gulf on the other. Currently, this region is on the transit route of goods from the very important port of Chabahar, located on the bank of the Makran Sea and it is trying to return to the important position and role of its economic and cultural relations as in the past. The above-mentioned archaeological study was performed with two important purposes First, to identify and specify the scattered sites in this county to prepare an archaeological map, which is one of the important policies of the Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts, and Tourism Organization. Second, identify and reconstruct the commercial role and regional and trans-regional cultural interactions based on archaeological evidence.