Early Near Eastern Cultures

The city states of Sumer formed one of the first great civilisations in human history (see feature link). This Near Eastern civilisation emerged a little way ahead of that of Africa's ancient Egypt, and up to a millennium before that of the Indus Valley culture.

Southern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq and the western edge of Iran) was subjected to permanent settlement during the Pottery Neolithic, with a series of city states being formed by the late fourth millennium BC. By this time neighbouring regions were emerging as population centres in their own right. One of those, Elam, was located to the east of Sumer, with its own selection of city states at its core.

This region was located on an alluvial plan below the Zagros mountains, and its remoteness meant that it took some time for it to assimilate Sumer's groundbreaking social, agricultural, and administrative inventions. Culturally, Elamite states achieved less than their more advanced neighbours, and imported much of what they needed.

To the east of Elam was a series of small cities and regional states which emerged about the same time as did Elam. These stretched across the Iranian plateau which reached towards the modern Pakistan border, and northwards into central Iran. They also connected with similar advanced settlements on the southern coast of the Caspian Sea, such as at Tepe Hissar, and others which emerged to the north-east of that, such as those of the Oxus civilisation (or BMAC).

The Jiroft culture emerged to the immediate east of Elam, on the Iranian plateau (see feature link for reporting of its initial discovery). Its type site is the archaeological mound at Konar Sandal, with nearby Jiroft-influenced cities including Shahdad and Tepe Yahya. More distant cities such as Shahr-e Sokhta have more recently been classified as part of the Helmand culture.

The Jiroft is also referred to as the Halilrud culture as it flourished in Iran's Kerman and Sistan-Baluchestan provinces, approximately around 3000-2000 BC, centred in the fertile Halil river valley. Such a name for the culture would typically be ideal, but the use of 'Jiroft' had already taken off thanks to blanket coverage in press articles.

While the end date is pretty well set - it is part of a much wider regional decline - the start date is uncertain. Certainly the Jiroft/Halilrud flourished and reached a peak during this period, but the earlier date of 4000 BC has often been proposed as a starter for initial - and very poorly understood - progress towards that peak. The culture did not predate the emergence of Mesopotamian cultural sophistication. Instead it was part of an expanding chain of technological progression.

Some modern experts are reluctant to use the name 'Jiroft' as a cultural distinction. It is a relatively recent discovery, one which took place only following floods in the region in AD 2000, and the majority of 'finds' are in fact looted items which have appeared on the open market and which have mainly been taken from cemeteries within the Konar Sandal region.

Excavations at Konar Sandal were carried out between 2002-2008 by a team which was under the direction of Yousef Majidzadeh. Finds from the south mound included a decorated clay statue relief from the south site, with this area including an upper town which contains a medium-sized mudbrick building. The excavators named this as a citadel. It replaced an earlier administrative building which was demolished and in-filled in preparation for the citadel.

After a sixteen-year hiatus, excavations resumed at Konar Sandal under the leadership of the renowned archaeologist, Seyyed Mansour Seyyed Sajjadi, thanks to persistent efforts by Kerman province's cultural heritage department.

The Konar Sandal type site for the Jiroft culture has also been put forward as the potential capital city of the Marhashi polity of the late third millennium BC. During the twenty-third century BC, Marhashi was a major opponent of the Akkadian empire, and seems to have overrun Elam itself for a time to unite local efforts against the Akkadians.

A series of dark-greenish stone and bronze vessels which have been found through archaeology can be dated at least to the third millennium BC. These chlorite, bronze, and ceramic containers, vases, and other decorative items are covered in mythological scenes which depict snakes, eagles, and scorpions. They also display figures which have human bodies and bulls heads, along with other anthropomorphic figures.

Such vessels were widely distributed, across the Indus Valley to the Persian Gulf, and as far north as the Gonur Tepe site of the BMAC. Metallurgy was another speciality of this Bronze Age culture. Jiroft blacksmiths created bronze out of a type of alloy which can be positioned between copper and arsenic, similar to finds from nearby sites but different from the copper and tin mix which was largely being used elsewhere at this time.

Evidence of this industry has been discovered at Jiroft, but researchers still are not sure exactly how craftsmen would have worked with the toxic arsenic, which produces poisonous fumes when added to melted copper. Other Jiroft materials include bevel-rimmed bowls which typically are characteristic of Uruk, adding evidence to the international trade which passed through the region.

Near East Kingdoms

Early Cultures

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