Tall-i Bakun or Tall-e Bakun (in modern Fars province, Iran) was a prehistoric site in the Ancient Near East about 3 kilometers south of Persepolis in the Kor River basin. It was inhabited during bakun period of pre 5500–4100 BC and followed with Lapuid period around 4100–3500 BC in its second fade.
Archaeology
The site consists of two mounds, A (about 2 hectares in area) and B. In 1928, exploratory excavation was done by
Ernst Herzfeld, of the University of Berlin.
[Herzfeld, E., "Prehistoric Persia I, a Neolithic Settlement at
Perspolis", Illustrated London News 25, pp. 892-93, 1929][Herzfeld, E., "Iranische Denkmaler I A", Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin, 1932] Alexander Langsdorff and Donald McCown conducted full scale excavations in 1932.
[[1] Alexander Langsdorff and Donald E. McCown, Tall-i Bakun A, A Season of 1932, Oriental Institute Publication 59, 1942] Additional work was done at the site in 1937 by Erich Schmidt leading the Persepolis Expedition of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.
[Erich F. Schmidt, "Tol-e-Bakun: Prehistoric Mound near Persepolis", University of Pennsylvania Museum Bulletin, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 27-28, 1939][[2] Abbas Alizadeh, Abbas Alizadeh, "The Origins of State Organizations in Prehistoric Highland Fars, Southern Iran: Excavations at Tall-e Bakun", Oriental Institute Publication 128, 2006] Some limited work, a single trench, was done at Tall-i Bakun by a team from the
Tokyo University led by Namio Egami and Seiichi Masuda in 1956.
[Namio Egami and Seiichi Masuda, "Marv-Dasht: I: the excavation at Tall-i-Bakun 1956 and 1959", The Institute for Oriental Culture the University of Tokyo, 1962][Namio Egami Seiichi Masuda, "Marv-Dasht: the excavation at Tall-I-Bakun 1959 (report 3)", The Institute for Oriental Culture the University of Tokyo, 1962] The most recent excavations, 3 small trenches, were by a joint team of the Oriental Institute and the Iranian Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization in 2004.
[Alizadeh, A., N. Kouchoukos, T.J. Wilkinson, A.M. Bauer, and M. Mashkour, "Human-Environment Interactions on the Upper Khuzestan Plains, Southwest Iran: Recent Investigations", Paléorient, vol. 30, pp. 69-88, 2004][[3] Alizadeh, A., "TALL-E BAKUN", Oriental Institute Annual Report, pp. 26-33, 1991-1992]
History
The site was active from circa 6th millennium BC to circa 4th millennium BC.
Tall-i Bakun phase A was inhabited c. 4000–3500 BC. Four layers can be distinguished. Layer III was the best preserved and shows a settlement in which the residential buildings were built close together with no roads or paths. Individual houses consisted of several rooms. Remains of mural paintings and of wooden columns suggest a once rich interior. Richly painted pottery was produced. There were also ceramic female figurines and those of animals. Artifactual remains from the site include objects made of copper, pottery and stone.
Around 140 fired clay sealings were found in various buildings, the majority being from use as door seals. They were created using stamp seals.[Fraser, James A., "An Alternate View Of Complexity At Tall-e Bakun A", Iran, vol. 46, pp. 1–19, 2008]
The wealth and variety of material items at Bakun and the evidence of large workshop areas point to the existence of local industry and connection/trade with distant regions such as the Persian Gulf, the central plateau, Kerman, and northeastern Iran whence goods like shells, copper, steatite, lapis, and turquoise were procured. If my inferences are correct, we have a settlement that is spatially arranged according to its functional needs and socio-economic organization.[Abbas Alizadeh (1988), Socio-Economic Complexity in Southwestern Iran during the Fifth and Fourth Millennia B.C.: The Evidence from Tall-i Bakun A (PDF); text file is available here]
Four other nearby Bakun period sites Tall-i jaleyan Tappeh Rahmatabad, Tol-e Nurabad, and Tol-e Pir were three times larger than the 'A' layer of excavation from Tall-i Bakun site [Potts, D.T. and Roustaei, K. (eds.), "The Mamasani Archaeological Project Stage One: A Report on the First two Seasons of the ICAR-University of Sydney Expedition to the Mamasani District, Fars Province, Iran", Iranian Center for Archaeological Research, Tehran, 2006]
Kiln technology
Tall-i Bakun 'A' is the only site in the area providing a long sequence of ancient
kilns. These double-chamber kilns were in use for at least 300 years with no significant changes.
[Majidzadeh, Yousef, "The Development of the Pottery Kiln in Iran from Prehistoric to Historical Periods", Paléorient, vol. 3, pp. 207–21, 1975]
A number of other kilns in the Near East share some elements of the Bakun kilns. There are close parallels with those of Tepe Gawra of the same time period. Also there are parallels with those from the Sinai Peninsula of the Egyptian New Kingdom period. Similar designs are not found elsewhere in the Levant.[[6] Abbas Alizadeh, "A Protoliterate Pottery Kiln from Chogha Mish", Iran, 23:39, January 1985 DOI: 10.2307/4299752]
Bakun culture
The Bakun culture flourished in the
Fars province of Iran in the late fifth and fourth millenniums BC. It had a long duration and wide geographical distribution which Its pottery tradition was extremely sophisticated and influential to the surrounding regions which the pottery from Susa in much later durations showed the same cultural and traditional refinement and antiquity.
Bakun pottery (Bakun-ware) is known in the Fars region in the form of bowls and jugs with green, reddish brown or deep brown bands and stripes.[[7] Mohammad Hossein Rezaei et. al, "The Dehdaran mound: a Bakun settlement in Kazeroon, Iran", Antiquity, Vol 82, Issue 316, June 2008]
Outside Fars this pottery has been found in northern and eastern Khuzestan, and in the Behbahan and Zuhreh regions as well.
In the late fifth and early fourth millennia BC, Bakun A settlements were at once manufacturing sites and centres for the administration of production and trade. Their painted pottery featured some unusual specific motifs, such as large-horned mountain
sheep and goats, that were rare or unique elsewhere.
After the decline of Bakun, Lapui period followed. In recent publications, Bakun period is dated 5400-4100 BC, and the Lapui period is dated 4100–3500 BC.[Benjamin W. Roberts, Marc Vander Linden, Investigating Archaeological Cultures: Material Culture, Variability, and Transmission. Springer Science & Business Media, 2011 p173]
Gallery
Examples of pottery from Tall-e Bukan
File:UC Oriental Institute early Persian 02.JPG |Various artifacts, Bakun culture, 4200-3800 BCE, Oriental Institute, Chicago
File:UC Oriental Institute early Persian 07.JPG |Pottery, Bakun culture, Oriental Institute, Chicago
File:Handmade pottery vessel. Painted. From Tall-i Bakun (Tall-e Bakun), southern Iran. 4500-4000 BCE.jpg|Handmade pottery vessel. Painted, 4500-4000 BCE, British Museum, London
File:Handmade bowl painted with three standing or dancing figures. From Tall-i Bakun, southern Iran. About 4000 BCE.jpg|Handmade bowl painted with three standing or dancing figures, c. 4000 BCE. British Museum, London
See also
Notes
Further reading
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[9] Abbasnejad Seresti, Rahmat, Marziyeh Alimohammay, and Mohammad Ghamari Fatideh, "Analysis of Production Organization and Standardization in a Prehistoric Society: An Approach to Ceramic Decoration of Tal-e-Bakun A", Journal of Historical Sociology 12.2, pp. 365–388, 2021
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Alexander Langsdorff and Donald McCown, "Socio-Economic Complexity in Southwestern Iran During the Fifth and Fourth Millennia BC: The Evidence from Tall-e Bakun A", Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies, Iran, vol. 26, pp. 17–34, 1988
External links
