Pottery of Sistan

Kooh-e Khajeh (Kajeh Mountain), with 120m height and 2-2.5km in diameter, is located at Hamoon Lake like an island. Since the archaic era, due to its specific geopolitical location, religious sacredness, and the natural beauty especially at the times of water-richness at Hamoon, this place caused the formation of settlements. Based on an intensive archaeological survey conducted in this region, seventeen sites have been identified of which thirteen possess earthenware. Through typological and chronological studies of potteries found at surface level, two era of settlement have been identified in this Mount: one refers to the pre-Islam era beginning from 3rd century B.C. until the end of Sassanians; the second belongs to the Islamic era particularly on the basis of glazed potteries scattered on the surface as well as some structures built during 6th and 8th century Hegira. The buildings and structures related to the pre-Islam era include palaces, defensive forts and citadels, and temples, whereas; the buildings of the Islamic era are exclusively related to some religious places such as shrines, mausoleums and cemeteries.

Kuh-e Khajeh in Sistan, a mesa 120m height in respect of Sistan plain flat, is located 20 Km south-west of Zabol. This is one of most important historical area in Sistan. In account of its religious and political importance, a series remarkable of structures were built on its flat surface and eastern slight slopes since very ancient times. Despite of the studies of archaeologists and scholars, there have been provided no certain chronology about it and a few studies which have been done are merely based on the architecture of this site. In this research, based on the pottery data it is tried to make a relative chronology on palace of Kuh-e Khajeh. In doing so, the required data was gathered under systematic survey method in the castle’s area. Considering that the recognizing the potteries’ specifications is an important task in the archaeological studies, therefore, the study of potteries’ specifications was given a specific priority. And in doing so, the collected remarkable potteries from the site were classified and typologically studied, accordingly. According to the results obtained from the typology of potteries, Kuh-e Khajeh palace has had three different settlement phases: the first was Parthians, the second was Sassanids and the third was known to be the Islamic phase (6-8 AH centuries), respectively.