Southeastern Iran

Archaeologically, the Roudbar plain is one of the richest and most outstanding regions in the south east of Iran. Tomb-e Kharg, is the largest site in this region. The site is a multi-period one, but based on the surface material, the main settlement belongs to the historical period. Some things remain unknown about these periods in south-eastern Iran and lack of any reference to them in the authentic authorities, makes this region necessary to be aimed of a particularly urgent archeological research as an underlying and reliable reference. To do this, a topographic map of the mound, as well as the grid map was laid out, in which the region was divided into 10×10m 2 regions. By means of simple random sampling method, 10% of the squares were then sampled. In the light of the study on the collected cultural material, the main settlement dates back to periods ranging from the first millennium BC up to the 8 th or 9 th AD centuries. Moreover, there are some items of painted grey ware, suggesting that this mound leads back to 3 th millennium BC.

In the second half of the fourth millennium BCE, a settlement was established at Shahr-i Sokhta in Sistan​​. Simultaneously, during this period, the Porto-Elamite horizon emerged in a large zone of the Near East, especially on the eastern part of the Iranian Plateau. During the first quarter of the third millennium BCE and the early urbanization phase, Shahr-i Sokhta, an early urban center, expanded largely, and many satellite sites developed around it. To obtain some information on the economic and cultural interactions between Shahr-i Sokhta and these peripheral settlements, Tepe Talebkhan has been chosen for excavations and further detailed studies. In the article, by using the materials found during the fifth season of excavations at Tepe Talebkhan, the focus was to shed more light on the main cultural characteristics of the site and its mutual ties with Shahr-i Sokhta. Ceramic data indicates that the settlement was founded at the end of Shahr-i Sokhta III period and continued through the entire posterior period i.e. Shahr-i Sokhta IV. The carbon 14 results also provided an absolute date for the settlement sequence between 2500 and 2300 BCE.