2021/01/01 by Barbara Helwing · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · Earth and Planetary Sciences · Social Sciences · #Ancient Near East History #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies #Eurasian Exchange Networks
paper · doi:10.4000/books.momeditions.12567
openalex publication_date 2021/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02
The highlands of Iran, with their rich mineral resources, are known as one of the hotspots of early metallurgy. Following a long gap in archaeological research after 1979, the work carried out since 2000 has made possible to gain a more detailed understanding of the early steps of metal exploitation and usage in Iran. The new investigations enable us to trace a technological development that begins with hammering and annealing of copper in the Neolithic period, proceeds with small-scale smelting and casting during the 5th millennium BCE, and from the early 4th millennium on evolves into an advanced copper and silver metallurgy whose products circulate widely and supply consumers in the lowlands of Khuzestan and probably Mesopotamia. The foundation of the first urban sites in the late 4th millennium BCE correlates with a quantum leap in metallurgical technology that became possible through the introduction of updraft furnaces. From that moment onwards, we can also observe experimentation in the production of various alloys such as arsenic copper. Surprisingly, tin bronze is introduced to highland Iran only in the 2nd millennium BCE. Raw materials for the metal industry were in the beginning native metals. The mining areas, which are widely known in Iran, can rarely be dated, therefore to establish the beginning of opencast and underground mine exploitation remains a problem; however, at the latest from the Bronze Age onwards, underground shafts were used to obtain the desired materials. New research has provided robust data that afford a more precise chronological but also geographical distinction between the various strands of development, which differ according to regional “schools”. Long-distance exchanges of knowledge and objects only occur from the late 4th millennium BCE onwards with the inclusion of the Iranian highlands into a network of urban sites. Both the early development of metallurgy in Iran and its subsequent developments have to be understood in their particular historical setting of political alliances and avoidances. Until the Iron Age, shifting political constellations determine the accessibility and distribution of raw materials and products in Iran and beyond.