Tepe Sofalin

The appearance of animal images on the archaeological remains is always considered as an evidence to determine their natural living and their role in human's cultural and ritual life. Animal imagery is found in every medium of art in the Proto Elamite period include stone statuette, pottery, metalwork and finally seal impressions. The glyptic art and pottery through their diversity and the nature of their symbols provide the researchers with the basic information with which to piece together the iconography and the social and economy history of the Proto Elamite period. This paper examines serpent, turtle and feline imageries and related pastiches on two media at Tepe Sofalin, including seal impressions and pottery fragments.

This article introduces six examples out of a larger corpus of evidence for early administration and writing that has been recovered from the site of Tepe Sofalin, which lies on the Rey Plain of the north-central Iranian Plateau. These documents illustrate the transition from tokens and Bullae to numero-ideographic and ultimately early Proto Elamite tablets. The form and content of the corpus of evidence material that has so far been excavated at Tepe Sofalin is entirely consistent with that of late Uruk related/Susa II and early Proto Elamite administrative documents and tablets that have been found in different parts of Iran and are known to date from c. 3500 to 3000 B.C. Here, the site of Tepe Sofalin is introduced, one Bullae, four numerical tablets, and one early Proto-Elamite tablet are described, the chronology of the site is discussed and the broader import of these findings is outlined.