extended abstracts - Geomorphic Processes and Geoarchaeology

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Geomorphic processes and geoarchaeology GEOARCHAELOGY OF PREHISTORIC SITES IN THE TEHRAN AND QAZVIN PLAINS Maghsoudi Mehran 1 , Simpson Ian A. 2 , Kourampas Nikos 2,3 , Fazeli Hassan 4 1 Faculty of Geography, University of Tehran, Iran, maghsoud@ut.ac.ir 2 Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Stirling, UK, i.a.simpson@stir.ac.uk 3 Office of Lifelong Learning, University of Edinburgh, UK, nkouramp@staffmail.ed.ac.uk 4 Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Tehran, Iran, hfazelin@ut.ac.ir Introduction. The arid to semiarid Iranian Plateau is dotted with numerous prehistoric and historic settlements. These settlements occur mainly at the foothills of the Alborz and Zagros mountain ranges, especially on the surface of alluvial fans, where freshwater and appropriate soil are available for cultivation, pottery-making and other activities. There has been little research on earlier Holocene environmental conditions of these areas and the relationships between past humans and their surrounding landscapes. How did earlier inhabitants of the Iranian Plateau interact with the land and other organisms in the course of their making a living, and how, by doing so, did they shape their surrounding landscape? In order to identify the relationship between human societies and their landscapes in the western fringes of Iranian plateau, five prehistoric sites from the Tehran and Qazvin plain were selected for pilot geoarchaeological research: the Late Neolithic (5600-5200 BC) to the Late Chalcolithic (3700-3400 BC) Cheshme Ali and Tepe Pardis in the Tehran plain, and Zagheh, Ghabristan and Sagzabad (together froming the Sagzabad Cluster), occupied in succession from the Transitional Chalcolithic (5370- 5070 BC: Zagheh) to the Iron Age (dates?: Sagzabad) in the Qazvin plain (fig. 1). The Tehran and Qazvin plains are adjacent to the southern slopes of the Albors mountain range, in the northern part of the Iranian Plateau. The Jajroud river (catchment ca 1858 km Figure 1. Location of ancient settlements in the Tehran and Qazvin plains 2 ) and many smaller seasonal streams in the Tehran Plain, and the Haji Arab (catchment ca 970 km 2 ) and Khar Roud rivers and their tributaries in the Qazvin Plain, provided water supply to the prehistoric settlements. Migration of these drainage channels, with its resultant erosion and deposition has had an effect on settlement location and preservation at both plains [4]. Methodology. The current investigation involved sampling, preparation, description and interpretation of sediment thin sections and other analyses of the composition and structure of archaeological sediments at the sampled sites. Blocks of 173
Geomorphic processes and geoarchaeology undisturbed sediment were air-dried and impregnated with polyester resin under desiccation vacuum. Thin sections (30 µm thicknesses) were prepared from these impregnated blocks. These sections were examined under a polarising microscope at magnifications from x 10 to x 400, using plain polarised (PPL), cross polarised (XPL) and oblique incident light (OIL). Disaggregated suspended sediments were subjected to standard procedures of grain size analysis in a Culter lazer particle analyser (Goldberg and Macphail) [3]. Calculation of statistical parameters (mean, standard deviation, coefficient of variation, skewness and kurtosis) and compilation of tables and diagrams were made by using the particle analyser software (LS 230) and GRADISTAT version 4.5. Results and discussion. 1. Thin section micromorphology. Charcoal, rubified particles and other human inputs in these sediments occur at various frequencies. Some of the rubified particles contain straw-mouldic pores, suggesting that these were probably derived from straw-tempered masonry elements (e.g. mud bricks or plasters). Hypocoatings and anorthic nodules in some layers suggest cycles of wetting and drying, involving (seasonal ?) water saturation. Calcite rims and hypocoatings suggest conditions of evaporation deficit, consistent with the arid/semiarid regional climate. In some sections, nemorphic gypsum is associated with calcitic ash. This association may have been genetic: experimental work has shown that gypsum nodules can form from rapid (days to weeks in the laboratory; possibly one winter season in nature) recrystallization of Tamarix aphylla ash in the presence of water [6]. Such recrystallization perhaps reflects harsher environmental conditionsTamarix sp. has been identified as the main fuel at other prehistoric settlements in Iran [5, 7]. A Figure 2. Angular bone fragment in PPL (A) and XPL (B) 2. Granulometry. Many parts of the Sagzabad Clustercontain sediments with unimodal distribution of grain size, probably resulting from low-energy sheet floods in interchannel areas. Such relatively lower-energy settings are conducive to the preservation of tells. Coarse material (very fine skewed; leptokurtic kurtosis) is dominant only in the pre-settlement layer (GH1). Many layers populations of grain with different hydraulic behaviour, analogous to those present in zones of environmental mixing in alluvial depositional environments [1, 2], suggesting deposition from variable inputs, including anthropogenic. Sediments with B 174
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Ghahroudi Tali M. 13, 102 Giligny F
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