year 11, Issue 2 (2025)
JRA 2025, 11(2): 0-0 |
Back to browse issues page
Download citation:
BibTeX | RIS | EndNote | Medlars | ProCite | Reference Manager | RefWorks
Send citation to:
BibTeX | RIS | EndNote | Medlars | ProCite | Reference Manager | RefWorks
Send citation to:
Eskandari N. (2025). Provenance of Obsidian Artifacts from Tal-I Iblis, Kerman: Assessing the Role of Proto-Elamite Societies in the Obsidian trade Networks of Southeastern Iran during the Late Fourth Millennium BCE. JRA. 11(2), : 4 doi:10.66224/jra.2025.11.204
URL: http://jra-tabriziau.ir/article-1-463-en.html
URL: http://jra-tabriziau.ir/article-1-463-en.html
Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran , Nasir.eskandari@ut.ac.ir
Abstract: (539 Views)
Obsidian is widely recognized as one of the earliest commodities involved in long-distance exchange networks in prehistoric societies. Due to its distinctive geochemical composition and restricted geological distribution, obsidian has long served as a key material for reconstructing ancient trade routes and in-teraction spheres. Although provenance studies of obsidian artifacts have been extensively conducted across Western Asia, Europe, and the Caucasus, research focusing on the Iranian Plateau_particularly southeastern Iran_remains limited. This study presents the first systematic chemical characterization of obsidian artifacts recovered from the Proto-Elamite settlement of Tal-i Iblis, located in the Bardsir region of Kerman Province, dating to the late fourth millennium BCE. Using portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) spectroscopy, a series of obsidian artifacts were analyzed to identify their elemental composition and potential geological sources. The analytical results indicate strong compositional affinities between the Tal-i Iblis obsidian assemblage and obsidian sources located in the Nemrut Dağ region north of Lake Van in southeastern Anatolia. These findings provide direct evidence for long-distance procurement of obsidian and suggest the active involvement of Proto-Elamite communities in interregional exchange networks linking southeastern Iran with Anatolia. The results contribute to broader discussions on mobility, material circulation, and the economic foundations of Proto-Elamite societies during the late fourth millennium BCE.
Article number: 4
Technical Note: Original Research |
Subject:
Archaeometry
Received: 2025/05/1 | Accepted: 2025/11/8 | Published: 2025/12/30 | ePublished: 2025/12/30
Received: 2025/05/1 | Accepted: 2025/11/8 | Published: 2025/12/30 | ePublished: 2025/12/30
References
1. Eslami M. (2015). The Application of Portable XRF in Archaeometry and Cultural-Historical Materials, Journal of Research on Archaeometry, P. 87-101. [in Persian] [DOI:10.29252/jra.1.1.87]
2. Eskandari, N, Azizi Kharanaghi M. H. (2022). Tal-i Iblis Revisited, Proccedings of 20th annual Symposium on Archaeology of Iran, p.63-68. [in Persian]
3. Abedi A. (2015). A review of obsidian studies in Iran, provenance the source and prehistoric obsidian artifacts, researches and questions. Journal of Research on Archaeometry. P. 55-85. [in Persian] [DOI:10.29252/jra.1.1.55]
4. Aitchison, J. (1986). The Statistical analysis of compositional data. Monographs on statistics and applied probability: Chapman and Hall, London. [DOI:10.1007/978-94-009-4109-0]
5. Alden, J.R. (1982). Trade and Politics in Proto-Elamite Iran. Current Anthropology, 23: 613-640 [DOI:10.1086/202914]
6. Caldwell, J. R. (1967). Investigations at Tal-i-Iblis. Preliminary reports no. 9. Springfield, IL: Illinois State Museum Society.
7. Caldwell, J. R., & Shahmirzadi, S. M. (1966). Tal-i-Iblis: The Kerman range and the beginnings of smelting. Preliminary reports no. 7. Springfield, IL: Illinois State Museum Society.
8. Chataigner, C., J. Poidevin and N. Arnaud. Turkish Occurrences of Obsidian and Use by Prehistoric Peoples in the Near East from 14,000 to 6000 BP. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Re-search; 1998. 85(1-4):517-537. [DOI:10.1016/S0377-0273(98)00069-9]
9. Dahl, J. L. (2013). Early writing in Iran, in: D. T. Potts (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Iran. Oxford/New York, p. 233-262. [DOI:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199733309.013.0054]
10. Dixon, J., Cann, J. and Renfrew, C. (1968). Obsidian and the Origins of Trade. Scientific American; 218(3): 38-46. [DOI:10.1038/scientificamerican0368-38]
11. Gourgaud, A. (1998). Géologie de L'obsidienne. In L'obsidienne au Proche et Moyen- Orient: Du Volcan à l'Outil, In Cauvin, M. C., Gourgaud, A., Gratauze, B., Arnaud, N., Poupeau, G., Poidevin, J. L. and Chataigner, C. (Eds.). British Archaeological Reports;p. 15-29.
12. Lamberg-Karlovsky, C.C. (1971). The Proto-Elamite Settlement at Tepe Yahya. Iran 9: 87-95. [DOI:10.2307/4300440]
13. Matthews, R and H. Fazeli Nashli. (2022). The Archaeology of Iran from the Paleolithic to the Achaemenid Empire, Routledge. [DOI:10.4324/9781003224129]
14. Marie Orange, Akbar Abedi, François-Xavier Le Bourdonnec, Bahram Vosough, Ghader Ebrahimi, et al.. Consuming local: The new ob-sidian source of Ideloo (Northwestern Iran) and first evidence of use by neighbouring prehistoric communities. (2021a). Geoarchaeology: An International Journal, 36 (2), pp.266-282. ⟨10.1002/gea.21829⟩. ⟨hal-03005557⟩ [DOI:10.1002/gea.21829]
15. Orange, M., F. X. Le Bourdoneex, R. Berthon, D. Mouralis, B. Gratuze, J. Thomalsky, A. Abedi and C. Maro. (2021b). Extending the scale of obsidian studies: Towards a high-resolution investigation of ob-sidian prehistoric circulation patterns in the southern Caucasus and north-western Iran, Archaeometry, 63 (5), 923-940. [DOI:10.1111/arcm.12660]
16. Renfrew, C., Dixon, J., and Cann, J. (1966). Obsidian and Early Cultural Contact in the Near East. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society; p. 2: 30-72. [DOI:10.1017/S0079497X0001433X]
17. Renfrew, C, Bahn, P. (2018). Archaeology Essentials: Theories, Methods, and Practice, Fourth Edition, Thames & Hudson.
18. Robin, A.-K., Mouralis, D., Akköprü, E., Gratuze, B., Kuzucuoğlu, C., Nomade, S., Pereira, A., Doğu, A. F., Erturaç, K. M., and Khalidi, L. (2016). Identification and characterization of two new obsidian sub-sources in the Nemrut volcano (eastern Anatolia, Turkey): The Sıcaksu and Kayacık obsidian, Journal of Archaeo-logical Science: Reports, 9, 705-717. [DOI:10.1016/j.jasrep.2016.08.048]
19. Stein, Sir Aurel. (1937). Archaeological Reconnaissance in North-Western India and South Eastern Iran, London.
20. Thornton, P. C. (2009). The Emergence of Complex Metallurgy on the Iranian Plateau: Escaping the Levantine Paradigm, Journal of World Prehistory, Vol 22: 301-327. [DOI:10.1007/s10963-009-9019-1]
| Rights and permissions | |
 |
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. |
