BEVELED RIM BOWLS OF THE EASTERN HALF OF THE IRANIAN PLATEAU: EXAMINATION AND ANALYSIS

The research argues that a plethora of economic, social, and technological alterations during the Uruk period were perceived by the archeologists to coincide with Susa II. One of the most significant advances of this era is producing a distinct type of pottery called the Beveled Rim Bowl (BRB). It is of paramount importance to the archeology of Southwest Asia owing to the wide range of distribution, abundance, and variety in shape and size. During this period, this type of pottery was discovered in the most important areas of southwestern Iran and the plains of Susiana, Deh Luran, and Ramhormoz from the beginning of the fourth millennium to the beginning of the third millennium BC. Cylindrical seals, clay tablets, counting systems, Banesh trays, tubular and nose handle jars, multicolored pottery, and BRB appeared first in the Southwest and then in other parts of the Iranian plateau. This evidence is among the important features of the analysis of trans-regional relations between Iran and Mesopotamia in the fourth and third millennia BC. The authors of the current research have sought to examine the general distribution of BRB on the eastern half of the Iranian plateau, the purpose of which would be to provide the answer to one fundamental research question, that is, the manner of and the reason for the current distribution of BRB in Tepe Yahya, Tal-i-Iblis, Shahr-i Sokhta, Tappeh Langar, Konar Sandal, and Kalleh Kub Sarayan regions, and the relationship between their production and distribution in this region, and their original production in southern Mesopotamia and south-western Iran. Although a vast range of scholars has employed a superficial approach to declare the cultural, economic, and commercial interactions between these areas and other parts of Iran, including the eastern and south-eastern regions, as the reason for the current distribution of this type of ceramic, specialized research on the temporal differences of the emergence of BRB in different parts of the Iranian plateau has remained elusive. It may be attributed to the fact that the cultural and social developments of Susa II, including the production of BRB in the eastern and south-eastern regions, have chronologically occurred later. This postponement may be explained by the decline in trade routes of the Central Plateau of Iran in the second half of the fourth millennium BC. From the end of the fourth millennium BC and especially from the beginning of the third millennium BC onward, the east, southeast, south, and southwest of Iran became the main corridor for the cultural and commercial interactions with Mesopotamia. Furthermore, the authors seek in this study to comparatively examine the BRB discovered from the areas of Susiana plains and the semi-eastern areas of the Iranian plateau and those of the original birthplace of Southern Mesopotamia in terms of shape, size, application, frequency, and chronology. The findings indicate that the bowls discovered in the mentioned areas have differences and similarities in shape, dimensions, volume, weight, frequency, and function.