During 2007 archaeological survey of Little Zab River in Sardasht district in NW Iran, 6 typical Uruk (Uruk Related) sites have been brought to light. One of the important one is Tepe Badamyar Rabat with typical Beveled Rim Bowl pottery that is considered as first Uruk evidence in NW Iran. In addition to Rabat, the Uruk materials found in Tepe Baghi, Tepe Waliv, Tepe Molla Yousef, Tepe Lavin and Tepe Goman would provide the opportunity for studying on one millennium gap between Hasanlu VIIIA (Pisdeli) and VIIC (Kura-Araxes) in southern parts of the Lake Urmia region. This gap is considered as main vague issue in archaeology of NW Iran. The Uruk evidence in the mentioned sites mainly belongs to Middle and Late Uruk periods (3600/3500-3100 BC). These new finding not only establish good opportunity for revising NW Iran chronological framework but provide good base for studying inter-regional relationship of NW Iran communities with south and northern Mesopotamian societies during  the 4th millennium BC. This article is trying to introduce fresh typical Uruk sites in southern part of the Lake Urmia with detailed emphasis on new pottery, lithic and special finds of Tepe Badamyar Rabat. Also the present paper is intended to deal with the Uruk cultural influences in NW Iran, proposing a chronological framework for the period concerned and to discuss interregional relationship with adjacent region.

Culture of Kora-Araxes in the middle of fourth millennium (about 3500 B.C) was expanded in Caucasian and region of Urumieh lake. People of culture of Kora-Araxes are introduced as pastoral semi migrant tribes who were also familiar with agriculture. Stratigraphical discussions, its origin, expansion, and the manner of economical and cultural interaction of societies of Kora-Araxes culture with other societies of near east in the age of old bronze has always preceded from its artistic discussion. Maybe in the first glance we cannot speak about Kora's art with classical and aesthetical criterions, but definition of art is just like the definition of beauty, and seeing that what is beautiful, is relative and diverse. Due to the same relativity, historical presence of Kora-Arakes people's art needs to be surveyed in order to recognize and classify its criterions; because in archaeological excavations are confronted with manifested forms which have distinct form, definite value and harmony and they have one thousand style and tradition. Archaeologists or art historian study about Kora-Araxes culture finds manipulations of people which have been the production of a creative activity and continuation of one thousand years tradition of its creation is a sign of its value and social acceptance before a very old society. In this article, artistic work of Kora –Araxes culture are surveyed and classified in four categories of pottery, manifested arts, architecture, and metal working in order to recognize its characteristics. 

Abstract With the expansion of the Kura-Aras culture in the late fourth millennium, and especially the third millennium BCE, a large portion of Northwestern Iran and Eastern Anatolia came under the domination of this culture. The exact nature of cultural communication and interaction between these two regions, especially in the third millennium BCE, has not been thoroughly investigated. With new archaeological excavations in recent years in both these regions, valuable data have become available for archaeologists to compare cultural materials from both these regions. Still, data on Kura-Aras culture in Northwestern Iran are mostly compared with sites in South Caucasus, which is known as this culture's homeland. This comparative study attempts to compare cultural materials obtained from Kura-Aras cultural sites in the northwest of Iran, especially pottery and architecture that are the main features of Kura-Aras culture, with data from Eastern Anatolia Because of its proximity to the Caucasian lands, Eastern Anatolia, especially its northern part, constitute some of the first areas subjected to the expansion of Kura-Aras culture. Accordingly, the main research question in this study is what are the similarities and differences between materials belonging to a similar culture (Kura-Aras) from two different geographic regions. The results indicate that although the similarities between the cultural materials from Eastern Anatolia and Northwestern Iran prior to the formation of the Kura-Aras culture is based on the spatial distribution of lesser-known pottery, known as " Chaff Faced Ware ", these similarities reach the highest point in the Early Bronze Age, coinciding with the expansion of Kura-Aras culture in both Northwest Iran and East Anatolia. On the other hand, despite the remarkable similarities between the cultural materials related to the Kura-Aras culture in all areas under the influence of this culture, there are still regional differences, for the instance in architecture, that call for close attention. Key Words: Northwest Iran, Eastern Anatolia, Kura-Araxes Culture, Interaction

Due to the long lasting durability of pottery, they remain unchanged and plays an important role in archaeological researches. Aside of its difference usage in archaeological research such as dating, artistic and subsistent and communications and exchanges among people of different regions, is used in technology level. Archaeological site of Tape Kelar Hill, situated near Hasankif city, in Kelardasht, is one of the most important prehistoric sites in southern coast of Caspian Sea, which includes cultural materials from the Late Chalcolithic from the fourth millennium B.C. to the Islamic era. The significance of this site has become twofold considering the previous views issued about prehistoric cultures in western Mazandaran and Gilan provinces. The Early Bronze Age potteries of this site are of Kura-Araxes. These are the most important finds of this site. The main research question of this article pertains to the structure of the pottery in this area in two periods and aims to see whether or not the initiation of Kura-Araxes pottery has resulted from external factors and there is difference between Early and Middle Bronze Ages? In this study, 15 pieces of pottery from Early and Middle Bronze ages were studied via petrography method in order to compare in terms of composition and mineral tissues. Research has shown that the pottery of this site, in spite of experiencing some changes in the tissues, is local production.

Seal and seal impression in the Kura-Araxes phenomena considered as a rare findings why only ten seals have been brought to light in the whole distribution areas of this culture from Iran in the east to Palestine in the west. First and second seasons of excavation in Kul Tepe Hadishahr brought to light one stamp and cylinder seals that are considered as the first evidence of seal and seal making in the Kura –Araxes culture. Between these seals, cylinder one contains special and unique design that known as the Double-Spiral or spiral horns in the shape of a ram’s horn or owl or human eye as a symbol of Kura-Araxes culture. As this design and symbol revealed in Kura-Araxes culture on different objects such as pottery, metal objects and other jewelry and ornaments, its appearance on the seal design proof of many changes in the Kura-Araxes culture economic and social organization .

The world's freshwater resources, including waterways, aquifers, lakes, and rivers, play a key role in the economic development and well-being of humanity and contribute to the world's biodiversity on a large scale. Many of these resources are shared between two or more countries and are linked by a complex network of environmental, political, economic, and security dependencies. With 286 common international basins, 151 countries comprise more than 2.8 billion people (about 42% of the world's population) in 62 million square kilometers (42% of the total land). They have to work together to exploit common water resources. There have always been differences between upstream and downstream governments in obtaining their rights to non-shipping uses of international joint water resources. Kora-Aras river basin is one of the main basins of the South Caucasus with an area of 110190 square kilometers, 65% of which is located in the South Caucasus countries: 31.5% in the Republic of Azerbaijan, 18.2% in Georgia, 15.7% in Armenia, 19.5% in Iran and 15.1% in Turkey, for the cooperation of two or more nations and countries. The purpose of this study is to identify the factors affecting the future status of hydro-political relations between the countries of the Kura-Aras catchment area and the extent to which it is possible to identify the main drivers and consider alternative futures in the short, short, medium and long term. This study investigates the importance of sensitive conditions in the hydro-political relations of the Kura-Aras catchment countries based on these key drivers. Therefore, in order to answer this question, what are the most important and key factors influencing the future of Kura-Aras hydro-political relations in this article?

The types of applied research and data collection methods are documentary, library method using the opinion of experts, data analysis method using Mick Mac futures research software, and cross-matrix analysis method.

Based on the Delphi method mentioned, 32 variables in 4 areas as factors affecting the future of explaining the hydro-political relations of the Kora-Aras catchment countries on Iran's environmental security were identified and then analyzed by interaction / structural effects with Mic Mac software to extract the main factors influencing the explanation. The hydro-political relations of the Kura-Aras catchment countries were studied and analyzed. According to the software results, the degree of filling of the matrix is 96.77734%, which shows that the selected factors have a large and scattered effect on each other. In fact, the system has been in a state of instability. Out of a total of 991 measurable relationships in this matrix of 33 relationships, their number was zero, meaning that the factors did not affect or were not affected by each other. For 249 relationships, the number was one, meaning they had little effect on each other; for 466 relationships, the number was 2, which means that they had a relatively strong effective relationship; for 276 relationships, the number 3, which means that the relationships of critical factors have been very high and have been very influential. On the other hand, the matrix based on statistical indicators with 2 times of data rotation has 100% usefulness and optimization, indicating the questionnaire's high validity and answers. Then, for the general analysis of the system environment, and finally, for identifying the drivers, the vital effective factors, the impact plan, and the variability of the variables were examined, as well as the ranking and displacement of the variables. Among the 32 factors studied in the study, 15 main factors were selected as critical factors to explain the hydro-political relations between the countries of Kora-Aras catchments on Iran's environmental security, which have a high impact and the least impact that these factors are shown in the table. Eventually, Mic Mac 11 software provided the main and key drivers for compiling and narrating the explanation of hydro-political relations between the countries of the Kura-Aras catchments, which included.

Water has always played an important role in the world system's geopolitics and countries' foreign policy as a key element in human life. The crisis caused by water scarcity and the lack of sustainable management of water resources, joint watersheds between countries, and political, economic, social, and environmental interdependence on water resources has given a special place to this vital substance in the relations of human communities. Based on Hafeznia's definition, water hydro-politics or geopolitics studies the role of water in the relations and conflicts of human communities and nations and governments, whether within or between countries or transnational, regional, global, and international dimensions. The common water resources in all five coastal countries of the Kora-Aras Basin are associated with shortcomings. Northwest of Iran is one of the most prosperous agricultural regions whose livestock and agricultural products seriously ensure food security. Therefore, the occurrence of any event that leads to the reduction of water resources, especially in the field of agriculture and environmental security, in general, in addition to regional and national security, threatens the events of the last decade and a half, such as climate change and increasing water needs. Intensification of tensions in hydro-political relations has led to the intensification of the Kura-Aras border rivers, which will be intensified according to the available data in the future if the scientific methods as well as solving legal problems using active diplomacy in foreign relations. It should not be done properly, and the water upstream in Turkey and Armenia should be used more than this. In the future, the northwestern provinces of Iran (West Azerbaijan, East Azerbaijan, Ardabil) and the provinces of Gilan, and especially the Caspian Sea, will be in severe hydro-politics straits. This issue directly impacts the security of these provinces, and as a cloud problem, national and regional problems will appear.

In the first season of archeological excavations of Tepe Zarnagh in 2013, many clay figurines of human and animal forms were discovered, which belonged to the Early Bronze Age. Contrary to most of the figurines found around the world, which are feminine fertility goddesses; Tepe Zarnaghs’figurines are male forms. Significant number of this type of male figurines reveals the special social structure of the respective society and the special religious status of this type of figurines in that society.
As most of the archeological studies in sites related to Kura-Araxs culture have focused on the architectures and potteries, no research has been done on the clay figurines. Hence, by studying Kura-Araxs figurines, in this paper we attempt to analyze and categorize statuettes of Tepe Zarnagh and identify the relationship between these artifacts and social and ideological factors and social structure of Kura-Araxs region in Early Bronze Age.

In the Bronze Age Archaeology of Northwestern Iran (plateau), the advent of various types of handmade gray-black ceramics shows the arrival of the so-called Kura-Araxian culture. The Urmia Ware, dating to the Late Bronze Age, on the other hand, represents the revival of the buff painted pottery tradition, following the decline of the Early Bronze Kura-Araxian culture. The present work attempted to examine the matrixes of samples of sherds in the Early Bronze gray-black pottery of Kura-Araxes, and a further samples of sherds in the Late Bronze buff-painted pottery of Urmian Ware, all collected during the surface surveys of Kul Tepe, Ajabshir County, through the petrographic technique and observing thin-sections by polarizing microscope, as well as XRD and FT-IR analysis. The main objective was to study the similarities in the structure of the Early Bronze (Kura-Araxian) and Late Bronze (Urmian Ware) ceramics. The primary focus was on examining the possibility of local production of these ceramics through the analysis of the prepared thin-sections and ascertaining their technology, structure and composition, as well as gathering data on such fields as compositions and resources of raw material. Since Kul Tepe contains both Early Bronze and Late Bronze deposits, it offers a good opportunity for studying Archaeometrically the problem of discontinuity in technological pottery traditions, and the fact that whether the Urmian Ware tradition represented a local or an imported phenomenon. Results of the polarization microscopy, as well as the XRD and FT-IR analyses and their comparison to the available regional petrographic indices, showed that the clay used in both samples was procured from a single source, and the Early Bronze Age sherds and the Late Bronze Age painted sherds were then both manufactured locally.

Northwest Iran, on the one hand, is linked to the regions of the Transcaucasus, Anatolia and Mesopotamia, and on the other hand has links with Central Plate and East Central Zagros. Therefore, this region is always the center of the intersection of different ethnic groups with different ethnic and cultural structures.In the 4th millennium BC and the early 3rd millennium BC, with the complexity of economic and social relations between societies, we face a different form of economic, political and cultural interactions in the Mesopotamia, Anatolia, the Caucasus and the Iranian plateau. At that time, along with the formation of the Uruk culture and the expansion of the influence of Mesopotamian communities in its main climbs, there were Transcaucasian cultures fluctuations in the highlands and mountainous areas of the north and east of the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates of the . At the same time, in the Uremia Lake basin, a cultural gap is between Hasanlu VIII / the late Chalcolitic period / Pisdeli (in horizon with Obaid and the early Uruk in Mesopotamia) and Hasanlu VII / the early Bronze Age (simultaneously with the culture of kura Arax II-III in the north of the Urmia lake, the culture of painted orange pottery/ POW is observed in the south of the Urmia Basin and the early dynasties and the Akad in Mesopotamia). Therefore, the transfer from Hasanlu VIII to Hasanlu VII is an important discussion in the prehistory of the region. On the other hand, according to relations Uruk culture, Kura Arax and orange painted pottery culture In some cases, the study of cultural distribution and interactions is important in this period. The importance of this research is for Not only for study the cultural relations of this people in the prehistory of this region, but also affects the status of the region in the cultural-economic exchanges between the Iranian plateau and the Caucasus and Mesopotamia

Regarding the population growth, industry expansion, rising public health and welfare, per capita renewable water resources are declining. Therefore, this commodity, like other economic commodities, is subject to scarcity. The scarcity and unreasonable use of water resources has created serious and significant problems for sustainable development and environmental protection. Lack of water resources poses a serious threat to human health, food security, industrial development and ecological systems. Because water issues are intertwined with the national history and identity of societies and are also part of the national security of governments; Therefore, strategic confrontation with water relations and conflicts will be an intertwined issue for policymakers in this field. Hence, the political, economic, and environmental actors and actors of the Kura-Aras River Basin in the South Caucasus are numerous and diverse on a regional and global scale. The main use of Kura-Aras water is in agricultural Georgia and in Armenia in agriculture-industry and in the Republic of Azerbaijan it is the primary source for drinking water supply; However, this basin is uncontrollably polluted. Due to the lack of monitoring of urban and industrial wastewater, agricultural recurrent flows and widespread use of pesticides, especially in the Republic of Azerbaijan and oil-related industries, metal extraction and smelting in Georgia and Armenia, the natural mechanism of this basin is facing serious challenges.

Actor analysis or stakeholder analysis is the process by which individuals or groups are identified that have the greatest influence on an issue, issue, activity, strategy, or decision. Various methods of actor analysis are widely used in management, policy-making, marketing and futures research. Actor analysis is widely used in environmental management because the issues in this field are very complex and require the involvement of different individuals, groups and organizations. Accordingly, the word actor or beneficiary is used to refer to each of these different beings. The second goal is to identify the position of each actor in relation to goals, priorities or key issues, and to achieve this goal, a two-part matrix is used. Actor analysis using this method consists of 5 interconnected and related steps: defining actors and their main strategies or goals. When using the module methods, the initial inputs required for the analysis must be provided separately. Therefore, defining the main issues and topics (structural analysis), although it is one of the activities that is done in a complete futures research project in the previous stages, but when using the module, this stage is also added to the research stages. It can also be pointed out that the identification of actors (goals, motives, limitations and tools of their action) as well as the identification of the main strategies and goals of each actor can be considered as two separate stages, but because these two stages actually include gathering two sets of data and forming elements of two separate matrices, in this paper, these two activities are considered in one step.

Experts participating in the panel of experts in this study completed interaction matrices in two stages. In strategic foresight, it is more important than identifying future variables to identify the relationships between them; Because in the real world, these variables affect each other and none of them can be analyzed independently. Identifying interactions paves the way for the use of networked and systemic approaches, including the parsing method. To identify the interactions, experts need to know how to fill in the matrix elements and the meaning of each of the positive and negative numbers. This issue was identified by the researchers as a facilitator for experts, and finally the one-part matrix of actor-actor and the two-part matrix of actor-goal were completed. First, the interaction matrix was scored among the actors, which is an indicator of the relative power or influence of the actors on each other. Interactions between actors are asymptomatic matrices (positive or negative) that determine the intensity of the effect of row elements on columnar elements. of the actors on each other is also obtained. Also in the second stage is the actor-target matrix (tasks).In terms of hydropolitical relations between the countries of Kura-Aras catchment, Turkey, Armenia and Georgia had the most influence in this basin, and among them, Turkey had the most influence and Georgia had the least influence, and Iran and Azerbaijan had very high influence and very low influence. Countries upstream of the Kora-Aras catchment. It is important to note that the role of these two actors in the future of the Kora-Aras catchment area is considered to be very important, considering that Turkey and Armenia are simultaneously highly influential and influential. Assessing the power of actors among the actors shows that Turkey and Armenia are the most influential countries in the Aras-Kora catchment area and Iran and Azerbaijan are the most influential countries.

The crisis of water scarcity and its increasing consequences due to increasing consumption, has caused water to play a more fundamental role in directing the socio-political relations of political-spatial units and human structures, especially in arid regions of the world. In such a way that today the issue of water has affected the security and relations of political-space units. A trend that will be more widespread in the countries located in the desert strip of the world with a view to change the pattern of precipitation and reducing rainfall and increasing water consumption in the future. The reflection of the current situation in many common watersheds has led to changes in the hydropolitical relations of political-space units and has strengthened the confrontational and hydro-hegemonic approaches of political-space units. The habitat of this catchment area of Turkey and Armenia has been through improper dam construction, dumping of sewage from power plants and industrial factories, and among these, the Islamic Republic of Iran has the highest environmental impact (human and natural) and the role of Turkey. And Armenia as the main players in the future have the Kora-Aras catchment.