東京大学総合研究博物館

西秋研究室

Laboratory for Prehistoric Archaeology of West Asia, The University Museum, The University of Tokyo

Professor Yoshihiro Nishiaki

Tall-i Bakun B, Marv Dasht, IranYoshihiro Nishiaki
The University of Tokyo

The excavations
Tall-i Bakun B is one of the two mounds known as Tall-i Bakun, which are situated nearby the Achaemenid
capital of Persepolis, on the Marv Dasht plain (Figs. 1, 2). It comprises a circular mound with a diameter ofapproximately 140 m, and rises to a height of about 4 to 5 m from the surrounding field. As with at Tall-iBakun A, extensive excavations were conducted at this mound in the early 1900s. Following them, theUniversity of Tokyo's excavations at this mound were carried out for one week from September 25, 1956,
along with those at Tall-i Bakun A. For more detailed descriptions of the site setting, the excavation history,
and the aim of the Japanese excavations, see the page for Tall-i Bakun A.
The trench opened at Tall-i Bakun B was small, covering an area of 2 m by 6 m, and was located adjacent tothe east excavation limit of the University of Chicago's trench (Fig. 3). The excavations reached the virgin
soil, which was approximately 4.2 m deep from the surface. The deposits were divided to Layers B1 and B2
from top; these are almost certainly comparable to Levels II and I of the University of Chicago's excavations,
respectively (note that the stratigraphic definitions are reversed between these two expeditions). In theUniversity of Tokyo's excavations, no standing architectural remains were recovered. However, the virginsoil exhibited some pits, which may represent quarrying pits for the procurement of clay materials forbuildings located outside the excavation trench.
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iz

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Bakun ABakun B

Marv Dasht

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Rijabad Gap

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Fig. 1 Map showing the location ofTall-i Bakun B and related sites inthe Marv Dasht plain.

Fig. 2 Distant view of Tall-i Bakun B.

Fig. 3 The excavations trench at
Tall-i Bakun B, 1956 (Egami andMasuda 1959).

The Chalcolithic remains
The recovered archaeological materials consist of a large number of pottery fragments. According to theexcavators, the Layer B1 assemblage contained painted Black-on-Buff ware ceramics, which weretypologically earlier than those of Tall-i Bakun A (Fig. 4). The Layer B2 material, however, was essentiallydominated by chaff-tempered coarse-ware ceramic assemblage, and contained no painted ceramics (Egamiand Masuda 1959). In the current chronological scheme for the Chalcolithic cultural development insouthwest Iran, Layer B1 is best assigned to the Early Bakun, whilst Layer B2 is ascribable to theShamsabad phase of the Pottery Neolithic (Nishiaki 2003). The most recent re-analysis of the ceramic
specimens supports this interpretation (Miki 2015). Further, the radiocarbon dates provided by Alizadeh(2006)'s soundings show a boundary between the Shamsabad and the Bakun phases, which was dated at~5000 cal. BC.
It is noteworthy that the lithic artifacts from Layer B1 have also been studied recently (Fig. 5). The results
revealed that a particular core reduction technology, which uses the unifacially prepared cores for pressure
blade production, was used in the Early Bakun (Nishiaki 2019). This technology, known in the Chalcolithic
period of Susiana plain, is distinguished from the earlier Pottery Neolithic lithic reduction technology known
at Jari B. This fact provides a new dimension to interpret the emergence of the Bakun Culture in the highland
plateau of Fars. The manufacturing of the distinct painted ceramics of Bakun marks the advent of theChalcolithic in the southwestern Zagros. In this context, lithic perspectives will shed new light on the current
debate regarding the establishment of the Bakun Culture, which has thus far been discussed solely based on
ceramic evidence.
The excavations at Tall-i Bakun B and Bakun A were conducted by the Japanese teams with the aim of"obtaining archaeological materials to develop the Japanese research of the Middle East archaeology," which
was still in its infancy in 1956 (Egami and Masuda 1959). The results might not have been admittedly sogreat for the international scientific communities in the 1950s. Nevertheless, the studies conducted sincethese initial excavations, notably in the last decade, have proved the significance of re-evaluating the culturaldynamics of early farming societies in the southwest Iranian highland plateau, in comparison with
Mesopotamian "core regions" in the plain to the west, where cultural development occurred earlier andsupposedly made a great impact on the neighboring regions like the Marv Dasht plain. Given the absence ofdetailed publications regarding the 1930's excavations at Tall-i Bakun B, the materials obtained in 1956 areevaluated as an important source of information to understand the cultural development over this period.**The text is after Nishiaki 2020.

Fig. 4 Pottery recovered from Tall-i
Bakun B, 1956 (Egami and Masuda
1959).

Fig. 5 Lithic artifacts from Tall-i
Bakun B (Nishiaki 2019).

Further reading
Alizadeh, A. (2006) The Origins of State Organizations in Prehistoric Highland Fars, Southern Iran:
Excavations at Tall-e Bakun. Oriental Institute Publications Vol. 128. Chicago: University ofChicago.
Egami, N. and S. Masuda (1959) Marv Dasht, Vol. I, The Excavations of Tall i-Bakun, 1956. The Institute ofOriental Culture, The University of Tokyo.
Miki, T. (2015) Ceramic change during the Chalcolithic period of the Marv Dasht plain, Southwest Iran: theproduction technology of assemblages from Tall-i Bakun A and B. orient 58(2): 139–155 (inJapanese).
Nishiaki, Y. (2003) Catalogue of Archaeological Materials in the Department of Archaeology of WesternAsia. Part 6: Prehistoric Pottery from the Marv Dasht Plain, Iran. The University Museum, The
University of Tokyo, Material Reports No. 51. Tokyo: The University Museum, The Universityof Tokyo.
Nishiaki, Y. (2019) Neolithic-Chalcolithic transition in Southwest Iran: Examining blade production
technology at Tall-i Bakun B, Fars. Journal of Archaeology, Iran 2: 1–5.
Nishiaki, Y. (2020) Tall-i Bakun A, Tall-i Bakun B, Tall-i Jari A, Tall-i Jari B, Tall-i Gap, Tall-i Mushki. In:
Iranian Archaeology, edited by K. Yamauchi, N. Murakami and T. Kanai, pp. 1–22. Fuefuki:
Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Teikyo University.

Copyright © Yoshihiro Nishiaki. All Rights Reserved.
17 June 2020