Identifying the Newfound Sites in the Southern District of the Qazvin Plain, and Its Implications for Understanding How the Region Transformed in the Iron Age Volume 2 - Issue 5

Hossein Tahan*

• Science and Research Branch (SRBIAU), The Islamic Azad University, Iran

Received: August 26, 2020   Published: September 10, 2020

Corresponding author: Hossein Tahan, Archeology PhD, and Qazvin cultural heritage expert, Science and Research Branch (SRBIAU), The Islamic Azad University, Iran

DOI: 10.32474/JAAS.2020.02.000146

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Abstract

The Qazvin Plain, located in the Central Iranian Plateau, is ripe with historical artifacts, and significant investigations and excavations have been conducted there. Those efforts are notable for revealing pre-historic sites with cultural continuity, dispersed across the southern district of the Qazvin Plain and dating back from the Paleolithic Period to the Historic Period. However, some questions and ambiguities regarding the Iron Age sites still remained that led me to explore the region. The results of this investigation include identifying and introducing several sites from the Iron Age and the transitional era to the Historic Period, which shows that there are far more Iron Age sites in the region. Moreover, the identification of vast sites in that region suggests that centers of culture may have moved in the Iron Age. It also implies that as the Iron Age transitioned into the Historic Period and governments formed in the Central Iranian Plateau, the ways of communication between the settlements changed, and the communities expanded along a straight line and became of importance.

Keywords:Qazvin Plain; Bronze Age; Iron Age; Settlement Pattern

Abstract| Introduction| Identifying and introducing newfound Iron Age sites| The state of the region from the late Iron Age to the Historic Period| Conclusions from the evidence of settlement in the southern district of the Qazvin Plain| References|