Technological Changes in Pottery Production during the Third Millennium BCE: A Case Study of Tol-e Qaleh in the Kur Basin, Fars, Iran

Abstract

The third millennium BCE in the Kur River basin of Fars is marked by the two cultures of Banesh and Kaftari.Scholars have assumed a gap in the chronological sequence between these two periods, suggesting that sedentarycommunities became largely dispersed during this time span. Tol-e Qaleh, a settlement site from the thirdmillennium BCE in the eastern Kur basin, was surveyed and excavated in 2021 and 2022. The earliest and latestcontexts identified by the stratigraphic excavations represent the Banesh and the Shogha-Timuran, respectively.Through laboratory examinations of a distinct pottery type, namely the red ware dating to the Banesh, a transitionalphase, and Kaftari period, the present study aimed at exploring the technological transformations in the pottery ofthe third millennium BCE at Tol-e Qaleh: Was there continuity in the industry, or is a discontinuity evident? Tothis end, eight pottery samples were subjected to X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) tests aswell as petrography. The previously established presence of “anorthite phase" in the local soil attested to the localprovenance of the assemblages dating to the Banesh, transitional, and Kaftari periods at Tol-e Qaleh. Moreover,the results of chemical analyses suggested that the constituent elements of the potsherds remained consistentthroughout the third millennium BCE at the site.