Ismeo activities 1975

Residential Area, and the continuation of the excavations at the graveyard. The members of the team were Dr Marcello Piperno, Dr Maurizio Tosi and Dr Sandro 'Salvatori, field directors; Mr M.A. Bayani and Mr S.M. Sajjadi from the Iranian Centre for ArchaeologicalResearch; Prof.

Giovanni De Marco, geobotanist and palaeoecologist; Prof. E. Pardini, physical anthropologist, assisted by Mr Ali Sururi Negahban from the University of Tehran; Dr Bruno Compagnoni, zoologist, assisted by Misses Farideh Meschi and Zara Asadi from the Department of Environmental Conservation.

the possibility of widening the excavation area and leave the answer to future investigation.

The emptying of the wells gave us a series of noteworthy indications (figs. 9-14). In particular, pottery of fine, fair1y pure ware, yellowish-green in colour with a thick surface and tiny burnished striations.

It belongs for the most part to small, pot-bellied jugs with a flat base or to ovoid jugs with an undecorated flat or disk base (figs. 9, 13), some clear1y derived from metal prototypes (fig. lO).

This pottery is completely lacking in the Period I levels, Le. in the levels which we believe to be late Sassanian and of the very first years of the Hegira.

This ware probably carne into use at Isfahan between the end of the 8th and the beginning .of the 9th centuries, in which period the wells were alI systematically filled in and closed.

We must note that the pottery from the welIs and from all the pre-mosque levels is made up almost exclusively of unglazed ware, with very few exceptions which come from a welI containing the fragments of a plate and a bowl of Mesopotamiantype white-glazed ware (fig. 12) and the fragments of a jug of green-glazed ware with . barbotine decoration (fig. 11).

The substantial lack of glazed pottery in alI of the pre-mosque levels, 'not only in the earlier ones which we maintain to be late Sassanian, but also in the proto-Islamic levels, with the aforesaid exceptions, makes us think that the hypostyle mosque of Arab type. which can still be appreciated must have reached its present extent no later than the mid9th century.

It is quite possible that it must be recognized as the mosque which, according to Abii Nu.aym and al-Mafarriibi, was rebuilt in 226 H./840-841 A.D., during the caliphate of al-Mu.tasim, in pIace of the old, probably smaller one founded by the Arab§ of llran in 156 H./772-773 A.D. Upon thecompletion of our work,~having performed the appropriate linking-up operations between the foundations of the pillars, it was decided that a part of the area already explored (fig. 7), Le. that corresponding to the eastern part ofthe north portico, shou1d be filled in with sand, in order to facilitate possible investigations

in the future.

The settlement and its environment.

The ground survey of Shahr-i Sokhta carried out by Dr Tosi and Mr Sajjadi in December, 1974, was completed in the first two weeks of the campaign.

It has been established that the site of Shahr-i Sokhta extends over a surface of approximately 151 hectares of which 21.30 should be ascribed to the graveyard, which extends across the total east-west length of the settlement.

Both settlement and graveyard were sited on top of a Pliocene terrace. The task of the geographer has been to establish the position of this terrace within the generaI system of terracing established by German geographèrs five years ago in Afghanistan.

As a result it appears that the town developed on top of ihe Ram Riid terrace; which represents the second stage of rejuvenation for the Hilmand delta and that farming activity was concentrated to the east of the site in an extensive areareached by the terminal branches of the proto-historic deltaic system. This area is characterized, nowadays, by a flat clay plain on which survive boat-shaped, wind-eroded hilIocks technicalIy termed yardangs.

These "represent the remains of the subsequent terracing after Ram Riid and are termed Nimruz.

-In other words, the settlement of Shahr-i Sokhta was established between the ~Ram Riid stage and the ... Nimruz one. In the 3rd millennium B.e.

the delta was flowing at the level of the Nimruz yardangs,and to avoid flood erosion or occupation of arable land settlements were primarily established on top of the surviving Ram Riid flats, which must have risen approximately 7 m. above the flat plain of the time. The combined action of unidirectional winds and a surface per'colating water have eroded the Niriiruz terraces, lèavingthe yardangsas the,only remnants. Severa! 'very small sites,mostly contemporary wit& the 3rd-millenniùm. phases at Shahr-i Sokhtahave been recovered by sectioning thé top of the yardangs. This emphasizesthe importance of such a preliminary geologicalinvestigatiòn for all future research on settlement pattern and distributiòn.

.

Shahr-i Sokhta The seventh campaign of excavations at Shahr-i ,

Sokhta was~carri~d but underthe'leadérship'Of

, Prof. Umberto Scerrato -from' Septeniber 2 to Deceriiber 1, 1975. The primary aims of -the campaign were the complete survey of the'sitewith a first outline of its geological history, and the environmental set-up, the extensive stratigraphical testing of the earliest period at the Eastern

540

"

of the totaI. This would mean that over 50% of the meat eaten by the ancient Shahr-i Sokhtarians came from cattle. The excavations this year in area XDV have shown that cattle bones in the earliest levels of the city are welI over 50%, cattle meat representing most of the proteins consumed.

Erosion was certainly very strong at the time at Shahr-i Sokhta too.

Due to the uniformity and strength of the northwestern winds the whole terrace was shaped with a rising . surface from west to east. A cross-section was therefore obtained with the help of manual drills) bulIdozer trenthes, side sections and previous excavations.

The natural terrace underlying the anthropie deposits is made of approximately 2 cm. of compact gravel intermixed with sands or sandy clays. A remarkable achievement of the geologicaI survey is the demonstration that the compact salt crust found alI over the site and often responsible for the excellent preservation already existed at the time of the city. Excavations at the graveyard in area HRY have shown that some graves, particularly 501, were excavated within the salt crust and made use of the compact deposit for vaulting the burial shafts. Wind action predominated in the erosion af the western part of the site, whereas water gulIeys, mostly southeast oriented, predominated in the Eastern Residential Area. As a result the eastern part of the site rises approximately 8 m. above the rest. A second important reason is due to the nature of the anthropic deposits in this area. It is in fact only on the eastern edge over an area of approximately 15 hectares that we have remains, mostly dwellings of phase 7 (2750-2650 B.C.), which appearto have been destroyed in an extensive fire and left intact.

AlI archaeological, geo-morphological, zoological and paIeobotanical evidence shows that Shahr-i Sokhta was founded and expanded through most of the 3rd millennium B.C., as the centre for the exploitation of a very broad spectrum of' available resources. The exploration of this economie system and its technologieal level remains the primaiy

task of our research program, due both to . the very unusual preservation of the site and to tlĂŹe conditions of isolation, productivity and' instability so typicaI of all the CentraI Asian land-locked basins, Sistan among them.

The explorations of the settlement were carried out in two different excavations. In area XDVXDW a deep test trench was dug into the levels of Period I, phases 8, 9, lO, which were exposed to ground level by surface erosion.

A second extensive excavation was opened by Dr S. Salvatori 250 m. to the west of the Eastern Residential Area in a flat area where the analysis of aerial photographs had shown the existence of a very large architectural complex. The trench in XDVXDW measured at its beginning 250 sq. m. whereasat the bottom it was restricted to 40 sq. m. The folIowing points were documented primarily (fig. 15):

The geobotanical survey has had the task of reconstructing, through the dynamical series of vegetation, the possible plant environment in the 3rd milIennium B.e.

This method has been previously tested in other parts of the Near East and is based on a strict combination of geological, climatic, and pedologieal data within the ecology of each plant population.

It appears to be extremely successful in arid land, where conditions of growth and population of each plant species falI within a very narrow spectrum. As a result Prof. De Marco has been able to confirm previous hypotheses which would have put Shahr-i Sokhta between a deltaic farming environment to the east and a lacustrine one highly favourable for bird hunting and cattle keeping to the west. This is particularly important to understand the' reason for the locaIization of Shahr-i Sokhta which might have been an economical one, since the site primarily functioned as a coordination and redistribution centre of the extensive resources available in Sistan.

The importance of cattle in Sistan history can hardly be emphasized too much since aIl available written records and present evidence refer to it as a major resource and something like a socio-economie land mark for the area. Zooarchaeological research has shown that cattle bones at Shahr-i Sokhta account for slightly over 20%

1 - The settlement was founded in around 3200 B.C. in phase lO, of which we excavated a group of three rooms.

The materiaI culture is characterized by painted pottery with characteristic stereometrie chessboard patterns of southern Turkmenian tradition, more restricted types of shaIlow. stripe-painted bowls, and a few sherds of trumpet rims of black burnished ware known to be characteristie of Yahya IV C. Certainly the most impressive and noteworthy find within phase lO was a proto-Elamite tablet found at the northeastern corner of room CCXCIII in the filling lO cm. above the floor of the room, which represents the earliest structural level found so far at Shahr-i Sokhta. The tablet is plano-convex in section, rectangular in shape and has a line of script composed of two pictograms and a numeraI. It. is seaIed with cylinders on both faces. The find is remarkable not only because it represents the easternmost tablet of any kind found, but also because the related cuIturaI association is very different from what has been found in other known proto-Elamite settlements such asTepe Yahya, Sialk IV, MaIyiin or Godin Tepe. Apart from a few dozen sealings bearing

541

area. Erosion later attacked the phase 4 structures, leaving in some cases just their foundations, which as a rule were built across the phase 5 rooms to increase basaI stability of the buildings.

impressions of pictographic cylinder seals the rest of the materiaI culture, primarily the pottery, does not show any of the typical "proto-Elamite" traits such as bevel-rimmed bowls and solid-footed goblets. The pottery remains typicaIly representative of the Geoskjur horizon as known in southern Turkmenia, southwestern Afghanistan, the Quetta Valley and Waziristan as..far east as the Indus. What is remarkable then is that the most characteristic feature of the proto-urban stage in the Iranian plateau, proto-Elamite script, comes within a CentraI Asian, proto-Indian cultural texture. To emphasize furthermore these connections with the East in the earliest levels of Shahr-i Sokhta we must also point out the discovery of three sherds of distinctive polychromejars identicaI in decoration, technique and shape to the materials from the Niil cemetery in JhaIawan, southern Pakistani Baluchistan (fig. 17).

-

2 The area XDV became after the end of phase 10 an open space and a lane between two blocks of buildings and apparently maintained this function for over 500 years to the end of phase 6 (2500 B.C.). The southern section of the square has shown repetitive cuts in the microstratified external deposits corresponding to phases 9, 8 and 7. A major building, probably a house, was positioned in the northern section of the square XDV and in most of XDW. This complex dates to both phases 8 and 9 with slight changes in plano Part of it became an open courtyard where we have the facing of the narrow street no. 1, one of the east-west cardinal communication lines in the Eastern Residential Area. The material culture in phases 9 and 8 underwent some slight but important changes. In the whole of the sequence in fact, we face a steady development towards type articulation and functional specialization of the pottery vessels. InternaI anaIysis shows these changes were very slight but significant in the space of one or two centuries (fig. 18).

3 - Phase 7 is one of the best preserved in the Eastern Residential Area. Buildings were burned both to the north and to the south of street no. 1.

Thepreservation is due to the fact that most of the destroyed buildings were not levelled to make way for new ones. The whole of the ceiling and the floor of the terrace had sunk into room XCIX, excavated this season. Five roof beams were still intact (fig. 16). The same happened in the northern part of the area where a whole architectural complex was burned and left intact. The phase 6 dwellings were set on a side of the destruction hillock, cutting only part of the buildings and leaving all the rest as open spaces. In phase 5 all these areas were covered with artificial pottery fills, which have increased preservation all through the 542

4 - The end of occupation in the Eastern Residential Area occurred much earlier than in the rest of the site. Meanwhile, human occupation in Sistan and at Shahr-i Sokhta seems to have reached its quantitative peak in phases 4 and 3 (2400-2ĂŒOO B.C.). The Eastern Residential Area was simply used as a cattle corral, as shown this season by test trenches in the surviving top layers across squares XHJ and XHl. Thinly superimposed layers of cattle dung and clay layers occupy extensive areas between the buildings of phase 4.

As a result we have evidence that most of our research in the previous campaigns had been chronologically more limited than we thought. In past reports we had emphasized the importance of the settlement in Period II, phases 7-5; meanwhile the surface investigation with aeriaI photographs and SaIvatori's work this season point out that the most extensive settlement in the history of human occupation at Shahr-i Sokhta occurred in Period Ill. The exploration of extensive building localized in the centraI part of the site was conducted by Dr SaIvatori by laying a 50 x 20 m. trench in the southeastern corner of the building, as delimited on the aeriaI photograph. Rere appeared a regular network of walls. The excavations unfortunately had to be interrupted on October 30 because of a sudden illness of Dr Salvatori, who had to return to ItaIy. But we can state preliminarily that the regular network of walls corresponded to the foundation system of a square building extending for over 500 sq. m. built in phase 4 and used into phase 3 on top of structures datable to phase 5. Erosion had cut into these structures levelling them practically everywhere to underneath the floor leve!. Moreover, the system used to set the building was not much different from the one employed in the Eastern Residential Area in phase 6 on the burned structures of phase 7.

Erosion had then aIready shaped the ruins of phase 5 into a mound form, and the new building was stabilized by setting it on the southern side of the erosion mound. As a result, the phase 5 sherds started sliding on top of the later buildings as soon as the erosion had graded them to the same leve!. We had, therefore, the earlier sherds on top of the more recent buildings. The problem was faced by setting long north-south sections across the buildings and following the distribution of levels and structures by descending just a few centimeters at a time over extensive areas. A second test trench 20 x 10m. was set across the

surrounded by empty spaces. AIso, the recurrence' of certain pottery types, particularIy decorative patterns or specific objects are useful as common denominators for the localization of clusters. This is the case of the so-called.group of Nal, a cluster of 6 graves in area IR and visibly isolated from the surrounding burials. They are categorized by the presence in two graves of the typicaĂŒ cylinder jars of Nat. We have a similar concentration in area IW where a new type of bichrome decorated small jars, sofar undocumented at Shahr-i Sokhta, appears in three different furnishings, always in association with pottery of phases 5 and 6 (figs.

21, 22).

western wall of this large enclosure seen on the aerial photograph.

The area is in square NXU and has shown that the enclosure should probably be dated to phase 5. Quite noteworthy for this trench was the excavation of a series of layers made of daily household waste very rich in perishable. organic materials.

The whole deposit was sieved and floated, providing a very large collection of wood, seeds and textiles.

The graveyard. The third campaign of excavations at Shahr-i Sokhta graveyard was carried out between September lO and November 6, 1975.

The choice of the area to open. for excavation was partly based on random numbers, established on a lO x lO m. ,grid laid over the presumed area of extension of the graveyard. Its extreme uniformity and size would have made impossible either the choice of preferential areas or tbe availabiIity of a sizable percentage of the ancient population without sampling.

This selection on a random number series has led us to the excavation of areas HRY and HNE respectively to the south and west of the trenches previously excavated.

Outside these new areas the earlier excavations were also enlarged, both in squares IPW INC and in IRX; out of the 66 graves discovered in the course of the campaign 64 have been excavated, 7 of which were empty shafts bothof simple and bipartite types (fig. 19). The other 57 contained from 1 to a maximum of 8 skeletons.

In two cases, HTW 410 and HNE 609 we had an intentional deposition of isolated skulls without directly related post-cranial parts, set according to a ritual stilI very little documented either in Iran or Central Asia. As previously stated the excavations of this year have clearIy indicated tbat from a stratigraphic point of view some of the deepest graves were cut into the thick layer of salt which covers the total area of the graveyard in a variable thickness.

The few graves in the gravel whose shafts are visible in the sections are shown to have been opened a very short distance below the present ground level by sharply cutting the layer of salt and gravel, which is often over 40 cm. thick.

In sectors IP & IN we have, properIy speaking, two levels of deposition above and below the salt level, often independently of their chronological dating; graves of the earliest phases documented in the area (phases 9,8,7) are sometimes to be found at the same depth of later graves (phases 3,2).

The result of the new distribution of the graves seems to indicate that the development of the graveyard took pIace in successive clusters.

These clusters can be localized by some significant concentrations of graves in rather limited areas

'

Another recurrent element in tbe burial ritual at Shahr-i Sokhta seems to have been the sacrifice of a kid, which was generally placed beside the head of the dead (fig. 23). In the six cases of such sacrifices reported this season aII are associated with graves of the earIy '. phases 7, 8 and 9, but the persistence of the ritual in later phases is documented by the excavations of the previous seasons. In the case of grave HTW 410, where the last deposition had been surrounded later by the skuIIs of the earlier inhumations, a smaII kid was placed inside a shallow bowl located, possibly as a post-burial ritual, to the south of the repartition waII. The same careful placing of sets of skuIIs was observed in the grave HNE 609 where 8 skuIIs were used to make a circle around the careless assemblage of other human bones. Tbe grave had no pottery and cannot be dated. One of the richest graves, HYM 413, could be attributed to phase lO, probably contemporary with the tablet leve!. In it was an adult between 50 and 55 years of age buried in a catacomb grave with a furnishing of 12 vessels, 9 of pottery, 3 of calcite, 2 spindle whorIs and a necklace of calcite beads near the neck (fig. 20).

-

Of particular interest for the reconstruction of lithic technology in the 3rd milIennium B.C.,as weII as for the analysis of the role played by certain categories of craftsmen in the social. fabric of Shahr-i Sokhta is grave IWD 77, where a male of 25 years was buried with a whole kit of tools necessary for the working of chalcedony and the production of chlorite stamp seals. Beside a large rectangular smoother made of sandstone we found a convex' scraper made out of the first flake of a pebble, several chert cores partiaIIy utiIized and 8 blocks of chalcedony at different stages of working,tbe last one being represented by a large bead shaped by fIĂ king over the entiresurface but neither smoothed nor drilIed. Tbe kit was completed by 5 quartzite drilI heads, of which one is totaIIy unutiIized, 2 are lacking the bottom for shafting, and 2 are intact but already levigated.

If we compare this association with one recovered

543

in grave G12 during the campaign of 1972, which was probably representative of a lapis lazuli cutter, we have direct evidence of the sharp differentiation existing even within the stone cutting of two production processes with totally different technologies.

Archaeological Mission in Afghanistan

The Italian ArchaeologicalMission in Afghanistan carried out its research work in the Ghazni area in September

- October

1975. It was composed

of the archaeologistsProf. Maurizio Taddei (field director) and Dr Giovanni Verardi, by the excavation assistant Mr Manlio Valentini and by the draughtsman Nicola Labianca. The Ministry of Information and Culture of the Republic of Afghanistan sent Mr Fazlur Rahman Mujaddidi and Mr Habibullah Samani, both members of the Afghan Institute of Archaeology, as assistants.

The post of foreman and supervisor was covered

by Mr Ghulam Naqshband Rajabi.

Mission activity consisted of resuming excavation work at Tapa Sardar, which had been interrupted after the 1972 campaign, and of preparing a systematicreconnaissanceof the region lying between the upper valley of the Argandab, the Nawor swampland, the Gagatii of Ghazni and the Gagatii of Wardak.

During the month of October the osteological study of the human remains of Shahr-i Sokhta, initiated in the 1973 campaign, continued. A rather high number of skeletons has been brought to light (80) but the poor state of preservation of a great part of them has largely limited the recovery and study of osteological remains. Excluding children, which are not useful for a proper definition of an anthropologicaI group, because of the instability of their somatic characters, the adults useful for metric and morphometricaI studies were approximately 20, equally divided between the two sexes.

The average age of the adults is rather low; 25-30 years for the males, 20-25 for the femaIes and extremely low for the children, 2-3 years.

We observed as recurrent phenomena: l) cases of exostasis, presumably of arthritic origin on vertebrae especially in the cervix-lumbar section; 2) extreme erosion on the crown of the molar teeth in the transverse oblique direction, the so-called shaboloid direction: this phenomenon can hardly be justified by the age of the subject but seems to indicate that the masticatory apparatus was used also for functions unrelated to the nutritional process; 3) deterioration of the alveolar process due to dental abcess; exostatis from trauma tic origin as well as dental caries appear to have been extremely rare.

Excavation at Tapa Sardar The main efforts during this campaign were directed towards clarifying the plan of the complcx of structures lying behind the row of chapels lining the south side of the Great Stiipa. This objective was not reached in a number of rooms, although the aspect of room 75 is already becoming quite clear: it was square in plan and had a clay image in each corner (fig. 24), as in room 36 (EW, XIX, 1969, p. 545, fig. 9) but was smaller than the latter. Two of the four images remain standing in the north and south corl1ers. The one in the west comer has fallen face downwards and it is hoped that most of it can be recovered. The one in the east comer has yet to be reached by the excavation work.

Notwithstanding the restricted number of subjects examined and the variability of the characteristics found, we are giving here a very tentative and preliminary description of the average physical type.

CraniotypicaIly the type of individuaI can be defined: a) dolicho-meso cranial (long head); b) meso-acro cranial (medium-high head); c) bròad or thin zygomatic arches; d) medium-long face; e) medium-high orbits; f) quite long nose, often also broad (mesoleptinear); g) straight facial profile with cases of prognathism of the aIveolar arch; h) the stature is decidedly great in maIes (above 170 cm.) and proportionately much smaIler in the femaIes (158 cm.).

The corporaI proportions follow preferably the leptomorphic canon with often long forearms and legs.

The limited numbers of shapes and characteristics seen, but primarily the lack of statistical elaboration af the data gathered so far, does not allow at the moment any proper anthropological classification of the inhumed bodies of Shahr-i Sokhta within the morphologicaI context of proto-historic populations in Iran and CentraI Asia.

The centre of the complex was apparently the large room 49, with a cross-vaulted roof and surrounded by a corridor providing access to the other rooms, e.g. 36, 41 and 75. Communication between this complex and the row of chapels along the south side of the Great Stiipa was ensured by relatively small vaulted passageways leading directly into chapel 74, the last of the row going eastwards.

A few triaIs carried out in the masonry enabled a number of technicaI characteristics to be ascertained, the most significant of which is that very often the lower part of the wall is made of pa~sii while bricks are used from the base pIane of the vault upwards.

544

Baluchistan») and Dr Grazia M. Bulgarelli (<< The

found in layers assignable to the middle and late phases of Period V (fig. 32). In late-phase Period V layers. also stone slabs with two holes in them have been found, again on the floors (figs. 31, 33, 34). They probably had some cultural-religious function.

Lithic Industry of Shahr-i Sokhta: Analysis of a Proto-Urban Assemblage »), who are members of the Mission tQ Iran. Other contributions concerning the excavations at Shahr-i Sokhta were read by Dr Enrica Fiandra (E. Fiandra, S. Tusa, «Stamp. seals and Functional Analysis of their Sealings at Shahr-i Sokhta II-III (2700-2200 B.e.) ») and P. Amiet (<<Seals from Shahr-i Sokhta »). Dr Giovanni Verardi read a report on «The Buddhist Complex of Homay Qala, Afghanistan »; Prof.

Giorgio Stacul lectured on «The Sequence of Protohistoric Cultures in the Swat ValIey, Pakistan ».

. Some indication for dating the middle phase of Period V is given by the result of the dating analysis carried out by the Physical Research Laboratory of Ahmedabad, India, on. a charcoal sample collected in 1974 in layer 5 of trench E. The dating is 1100 :I: 230 B.C. or 1340-1370 B.C. with MASCAcorrections (PRL -186: kind communication of Pro£. D.P. Agrawal).

In Period V and VI layers, large numbers of animaI bone fragments have been found which are presumably the remains of meals and are currently being identified. On the floor of a room in trench E from the middle phase of Period V the skeleton of a horse was found in full anatomical connection.

It was decided that the next Conference should be held in Italy, in July 1977. Prof. Maurizio Taddei took over the chairmanship of the Executive Committee from Mr J.M. Casal, while Prof. J.E. van Lohuizen-de Leeuw, Instituut van Zuid-Aziatische Archeologie, University of Amsterdam, agreed to act as the permanent Secretary of the Association.

* * * In the course of the months of October and November, 1975, Dr D. Faccenna, Director of the Museo Nazionale d'Arte Orientale, Rome, and ,of the Centro Studi e Scavi Archeologici in Asia of IsMEO, visited the sites of the excavation works carried out by the Italian Missions in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran. This visit was made with the aim of examining, together with the members of each Mission, the scientific, technical and organizational problems connected with the works, and the coordination of their conducto

CENTRO

RESTAURI

Restoration Mission in Iran The Italian Restoration Mission of IsMEO continues its activity in Iran, under the directorship of Prof. Giuseppe Tucci, President of IsMEO and of the Centro Restauri, within the framework

On the 12th December 1974, at the Faculty of Letters of the University of Trieste, at the invitation of the Centro di antichità alto-adriatiche and other cultural institutions of Trieste, Pro£.

Maurizio Taddei, of the Istituto Universitario Orientale of Naples, field director of the Italian Archaeological Mission to Afghanistan, delivered a lecture on « Gandharan art in the light of recent archaeological excavations in Afghanistan ».

of ,. a fruitful and cordial colIaboration between the Iranian Government (Ministry of Arts and Culture), the National Organisation for the Preservationof Ancient Remains of Iran, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and IsMEO. Pro£.

Guglielmo De Angelis d'Ossat, engineer and architect, and Prof. Giuseppe Zander, architect, work together in carrying out the Mission's projectso Dr Eugenio Galdieri, architect, is the superintendent responsible for alI the work of the Restoration Mission in this country.

Members of the I talian Archaeological Missions in Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan attended the Third International Conference of the Association for the Promotion of South Asian Archaeology in Western Europe, held in the premises of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique at Ivry-sur-Seine, Paris, on July 1st to 3rd, 1975 (see EW, XXII, 1972, pp. 389 fo; XXIII, 1973, p. 426).

Reports on recent research were read by Dr Maurizio Tosi (B. Compagnoni, C. Costantini, M. Tosi, «Natural Environment and Economical Resources of the Hilmand Civilization in Southern Sistan »; R. Biscione, «The Pottery from Bronze Age Sistan and Its Connections with Prehistoric

Persepolis While routine restoration work continued on the Terrace of Persepolis and on other Achaemenian sites in the Province of Fars, Iran, under the direction of IsMEO, Dr Ann BrittTilia and Giuseppe Tilia, director of the work at Persepolis since 1964, were given the opportunity of spending a period

of stùdy

(September

1974

- June

1975)

at the Institute of Advanced Study in Princeton, where they were able to bring to completion a 547

Fig. 15 - Shahr-i Sokhta.

Trench in XDV at the end of the 1975 campaign.

The stratigraphical sequence includes phases 10-5, each one marked by a workman standing on the corresponding floor. The workman at the Iower right marks phase 10 and the find-spot of the proto-Elamite tabIet (e. 3100 B.C.) (Neg. no. Dep. CS 11714/12; E. Baldari).

Fig 17 - Shahr-i Sokhta. Phase 10 (3200-3100 B.C.).

Front halÂŁ of zoomorphic figurine representing a humped ox, decorated with incised cross-band (Neg. no. Dep. CS 11702/9; E. Baldari).

Fig. 16 - Shahr-i Sokhta. Poplar trunks forming part of the originaI roofing of room XCIX, which collapsed at the end of phase 7 (e. 2700 B.C.) (Neg. no. Dep. CS 11680/4a; M. Tosi).

Fig. 18 - Shahr-i Sokhta. Phase 8 (2900-2800 B.C.).

Bone spatula made from the rib of an ox. The instrument could have been used for smoothing the surface of pottery (Neg. no. Dep. CS 11701/9; E. Baldari).

Fig. 19 - Shahr-i Sokhta. Grave .501: the photo shows the first burial in this shaft grave divided by a mud-brick wall belonging to phase 7. Above this burial there were four other subsequent ones (three adults and a child), all without furnishings (Neg. no. Dep. CS 1176.5/2; E. Baldari) .

-.. ,"'""-"""

Fig. 20 - Shahr-i Sokhta. Grave 413: partial view of the grave furnishings attributed to phase 9. The burial is one of the earliest yet discovered at Shahr-i Sokhta. The ske1eton is that of a male aged about 50-55 (Neg. no. Dep. CS 11765/1; E. Baldari).

Fig. 21 - Shahr-i Sokhta. Grave 62: cylindrical jar with projecting conical shoulder, decorated with a geometric vegetaI pattern. The form and decoration are strongly reminiscent of the Niil cemetery (south Pakistan) (Neg. no. Dep. CS 11700/12; E. Baldari).

Fig. 22 - Shahr-i Sokhta. Grave 55: cylindrical jar in buff ware dating to Period II!. The painted decoration of serrated rhomboids is reminiscent of the square cross motif recurrent in all the figurative arts of southern Turkmenia in the Namazga IV periodo This motif had not been documented hitherto at Shahr-i Sokhta in this class of pottery (Neg. no. Dep. CS 11698/11; E. Baldari).

Fig. 23 - Shahr-i Sokhta. Grave 130: partial view of the grave furnishings attributed to phase 8-9. The remains of a kid are visible on the far right near the two spherical bowls. The skeleton is that of a female aged about 65-70 (Neg. no. Dep. CS 11685/23a; M. Piperno).

'"

..

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IsMEO New Series, VoI. 25 - Naso 3 - 4 (September,.De~ìDber 1975)