New Evidence from Neolithic to Achaemenid Periods in North-Western Iran: Excavations at Kul Tepe (Hadishahr), Second Preliminary Report (۲۰۱۳)

The site of Kul Tepe is located near the city of Hadishahr, in Eastern Azerbaijan Province. It is an ancient multi-period mound, having an extension of about ۶ hectares and rising ۱۹ meters above the surrounding land. The second season of archeological excavations at the site, carried out in ۲۰۱۳, aimed at clarifying its chronology and its settlement organization. In the meantime it aimed at elucidating fundamental questions concerning the transition process from Late Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age, at identifying different cultural horizons (including Proto-Kura-Araxes and Kura-Araxes I periods) and also at outlining cultural conditions of the region during prehistoric and historic periods. The present paper exposes briefly the main stratigraphic, architectural and material data from the site. On the basis of the results from the first and the second seasons of excavation, it is argued that Kul Tepe possessed cultural material pertaining to Late Neolithic/Early Chalcolithic (Dalma), Late Chalcolithic (Pisdeli=LC۱; LC۲ and LC۳=Chaff-faced Ware), Proto-Kura-Araxes and Kura-Araxes I, Early, Middle, Late Bronze Age, Iron III, Urartian and Achaemenid periods.

کلیدواژه ها:

Kul Tepe ، Northwestern Iran ، Radiocarbon dating ، Prehistoric period ، Historical period