Kushk-e Hezar: A Mushki/Jari Period Site in the Kur River Basin, Fars, Iran

Development of ceramic production in the Kur River Basin (Fars, Iran) during the Neolithic. A compositional and technological approach using X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy and thin section petrography

“…Additionally, important surveys were performed by Sumner in 1967Sumner in -1969 locating archaeological sites in the basin. In 2003, a survey of Kushk-e Hezar under the direction of Alden took place and in 2016, the site Tang-e Khiareh was surveyed by Zeidi and his team (Alden et al 2004;Sumner 1972;Zeidi et al 2016). Despite these excavations and surveys, no pottery kilns or evidence of production could be located so far.…”

“…This ceramic ware is a red slipped, burnished ware with a fine chaff-temper and dark painted decoration of geometrical motifs. The most common shape is the carinated bowl or jar that was decorated above the carination (Alden et al 2004;Sumner 1972;Vanden Berghe 1952). A total of 13 Mushki-related sites are known, including those outside the basin in the regions of Kazerun, Shiraz and Sarvestan.…”

“…The occurrence of this white slip increased over time. The most common shapes are the high-sided bowls or beakers with vertical to slightly flaring sides and the decoration was generally applied on the upper and middle part of the vessel (Fig.2) (Alden 2004;Bernbeck 2010;Nishiaki 2010;Sumner 1972;Vanden Berghe 1952;Weeks et al 2006;Potts et al 2009). From the Mushki to the Jari phase, socio-economic changes occurred that are visible in changes in faunal assemblages, flint industries, subsistence patterns and the occurrence of less non-local materials such as shells and obsidian (Fukai et al 1973;Mashkour et al 2006;Nishiaki 2010).…”

Challenges of the Fars Neolithic Chronology: An Appraisal

“…One of the reasons for such problems concerns the lack or limited number of 14 C dates from the Mushki or Jari B sites. In addition, from the Jari B excavation project, only a preliminary report has been published (Egami 1967), which has led to the presentation of a variety of chronology tables separating the Mushki and Jari phases into different time units (Fukai et al 1973;Hori 1989;Voigt and Dyson 1992;Alden et al 2004;Nishiaki 2010a); luckily, during the past few years, cultural materials from these regions were reassessed by Nishiaki, and several examples of absolute chronology from the regions were presented by him (Nishiaki 2010a(Nishiaki , 2010b. However, by the excavation of Tol-e Bashi, a new cultural phase by the name of Bashi, between the two phases of Mushki and Bashi, has been suggested (Bernbeck et al 2004;Pollock et al 2010), which leads to more complexity within the cultural/historical framework of this region.…”

“…How this pattern indicates the high capability of the pottery Neolithic period of Fars is not clear yet. Even though a definite path to the growth of indices of Neolithic settlement patterns in Fars during the 7th and 6th millennia BC has been recommended (Sumner 1990), which may indeed be true, for this period we cannot solely rely on the Kur River Basin (KRB) and its adjacent regions, but rather on the settlements that are also located in the valleys between mountains in Fars as well (Weeks et al 2006), even though most of the known pottery Neolithic sites are located in KRB (Sumner 1977(Sumner , 1990Alden et al 2004;Pollock et al 2010). Until now, most archaeological studies and research conducted in the Fars region had focused on the KRB and Marvdasht plain in particular.…”