A Visit to the Deh Luran Plain.

A Visit to the Deh Luran Plain. Archaeological research on the Deh Luran Plain in southwestern Iranin the past one hundred years has produced crucial evidence for thedevelopment of our ideas about the beginnings of agriculture, thesocio-cultural impacts of irrigation irrigation,in agriculture, artificial watering of the land. Although used chiefly in regions with annual rainfall of less than 20 in. (51 cm), it is also used in wetter areas to grow certain crops, e.g., rice. , and the development of complexsocieties. Following the pioneering surveys by Jacques de Morgan Jean-Jacques de Morgan (1857-1924 [1]) was a French mining engineer [2], geologist and archaeologist he was the director of Antiquities in Egypt during the 19th century [3] andexcavations by Joseph Gautier and Georges Lampre of the French Missionarcheologique en Perse perse?adj.Dark grayish blue or purple.[Middle English pers, from Old French, from Medieval Latin persus, back-formation from Latin Persicus, Persian, from Greek in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, thenew era of archaeological research in the Deh Luran Plain began in 1959with the Iranian Prehistory prehistory,period of human evolution before writing was invented and records kept. The term was coined by Daniel Wilson in 1851. It is followed by protohistory, the period for which we have some records but must still rely largely on archaeological evidence to Project of the Oriental Institute Oriental Institute is a name given to a number of institutions of higher education throughout the world that are engaged in the study of Asian culture, languages and history. of theUniversity of Chicago. This work continued by several archaeologistsassociated with the Rice University and the University of Michigan (body, education) University of Michigan - A large cosmopolitan university in the Midwest USA. Over 50000 students are enrolled at the University of Michigan's three campuses. The students come from 50 states and over 100 foreign countries. Museum of Anthropology (UMMA) throughout the 1960s and 1970s when theIranian Revolution This article is about the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran. For the political movement in Iran 13 years prior, see White Revolution.The Iranian Revolution (also known as the Islamic Revolution,[1][2][3][4] of 1979 and the ensuing Iran-Iraq War of 1980-88brought fieldwork in the area to a halt. From 1961 to 1963 Frank Holeand Kent Flannery excavated at Tappeh Ali Kosh, Tappeh Sabz, and TappehMusiyan focusing on early village life and initial stages of plant andanimal domestication domesticationProcess of hereditary reorganization of wild animals and plants into forms more accommodating to the interests of people. In its strictest sense, it refers to the initial stage of human mastery of wild animals and plants. in the area. Hole returned to Deh Luran in 1968-69to excavate at Chogha Sefid for the later Neolithic and Chalcolithicperiods and Henry Wright of the UMMA excavated at Tappeh Farukhabad in1968 to study the Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age Bronze Age,period in the development of technology when metals were first used regularly in the manufacture of tools and weapons. Pure copper and bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, were used indiscriminately at first; this early period is sometimes called the , when this areawas involved in pristine state formation in the Near East (for moredetailed information and references to field reports see the UMMAwebsite: http://www.umma.lsa.umich.edu/OldWorld/Deh_Luran/Deh_Luran-2.html). One may question the archaeological fascination with this small(only 940 sq. km), seemingly insignificant element in the geographicalpanorama of the Near East. Separated from southern Mesopotamia only bythe low ridge of Jabal Hamrin, the Deb Luran Plain has the limitedrainfall and fierce summer heat of Mesopotamia. Nestled in the foothillsof that portion of the Zagros Mountains Zag��ros Mountains?A range of western Iran forming the western and southern borders of the central Iranian plateau and rising to 4,550.6 m (14,920 ft). known as Pusht-i Kuh, it hasonly the erratic and seasonally saline water Saline water is a general term for water that contains a significant concentration of dissolved salts (NaCl). The concentration is usually expressed in parts per million (ppm) of salt. supply of several smallerZagros streams, most importantly Adv. 1. most importantly - above and beyond all other consideration; "above all, you must be independent"above all, most especially the Mehmeh and Abdanan rivers. As aresult, the Deh Luran Plain can be viewed as a small Mesopotamia withsome of its environmental potentials and many of its archaeologicalproblems. Considering these important features, it comes as no surprise that,once I moved to the UMMA for my graduate studies and began planning areconnaissance of major archaeological areas in Iran, Deh Luran emergedas the top priority on my list of places to visit. Needless to say,encouragement by some of the older Deb Luran archaeologists, e.g. KentFlannery and Henry Wright, with whom I have the privilege of studying atthe UMMA, was a strong impetus for this undertaking. My visit to the Plain in June 1997 was meant to assess the presentstate of archaeological sites and prospects of future work. I wasthrilled to find myself the first archaeologist to set foot in Deh Luransince 1977 when the Plain was last visited by the French archaeologistPierre de Miroschedji (1981). In fact, as we were driving towards DehLuran, the burning summer heat, military skirmishes along the borderwith Iraq and an area still much like a battle zone seemed only toincrease the excitement of doing archaeology in the area. The Deh Luran and Mehran Plains and the intervening badlands badlands,area of severe erosion, usually found in semiarid climates and characterized by countless gullies, steep ridges, and sparse vegetation. Badland topography is formed on poorly cemented sediments that have few deep-rooted plants because short, heavy showers witnessed many bloody battles during the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-88. Here,thousands from both sides fell, armoured divisions drove back and forthseveral times, and Deb Luran, Mehran, and Musiyan, the only towns in thearea, were completely demolished. One can still see remains of eightyears of war in the countryside. In fact, on some sites there arescattered more corroding shells, shrapnel, and other military debristhan potsherds, what one would expect to see on an archaeological site. We began our reconnaissance from Mehran, a modest town between thefoothills of Zagros and Mesopotamian plains. The area around Mehran hasrecently been surveyed by a team from the Iranian Cultural HeritageOrganization (cf. Biglari et al. 2000). This survey led to the discoveryof several archaeological sites ranging from a possible LowerPalaeolithic surface occurrence to late Elamite and historical sites. Ofparticular interest in this area is Chogha Ahovan, a large Uruk Period The Uruk period (ca. 4000 to 3100 BC) is the protohistoric Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age period in the history of Mesopotamia, following the Ubaid period. Named after the city of Uruk, this period saw the emergence of urban life in Mesopotamia. centre, which, unfortunately, has been subject to much quarrying duringthe War. From Mehran we drove southeast to Deh Luran. Upon arriving in DehLuran, we were instructed by local authorities to use extreme cautionwhile driving in the countryside, as there are still many undetectedminefields left by the Iraqi troops. We also learned that a largeportion of the Plain is still under military control, thus hardlyaccessible or suitable for archaeological fieldwork. Despite the initial dismal picture, I was later pleasantlysurprised to discover that, except in a few cases, damage toarchaeological sites is far less than I anticipated and there is stillhope of salvaging much valuable archaeological data. Following is abrief report on the sites we were able to visit (identified by their DehLuran survey number). Tappeh Ali Kosh (DL-21): virtually untouched; but, of course, afternearly 40 years, the old excavation trenches have all been partiallyeroded and refilled (FIGURE 1). [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Tappeh Baulah (DL-24): virtually untouched; a partially corrodedbomb can be seen near the eastern slope of the mound. Tappeh Shoghali (DL-19): virtually untouched, but partially erodedand some architectural remains exposed. Chogha Sefid (DL-23): unfortunately now surrounded by a militarycompound and inaccessible for close inspection. Tappeh Musiyan (DL-20): the Bronze Age centre in the Plain, ispartially damaged by small trenches dug to shelter tanks and artillery.Although the latter have long gone, the holes have disfigured thesurface of this majestic site (FIGURE 2). [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Tappeh Gharran (DL-34): the Achaemenid to Sassanian centre and thelargest site in the Deh Luran Plain (about 60 ha) is surprisingly intactexcept for a few foxholes. Tappeh Farrukhabad (DL-32): more or less intact (FIGURE 3), butpartially damaged by fox holes and small trenches dug for lightartillery. There are also several grenade and mortar craters on thenortheastern flanks of the site and its environs. Further, as a resultof natural erosion big clumps of the mound have recently collapsed downthe nearly vertical slope facing the river. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Tappeh Patak (DK-1): a Middle Elamite to Seleucid centre, perhapsthe Neo-Elamite city of Madaktu mentioned in Neo-Assyrian sources (deMiroschedji 1986), further south of Musiyan on the way to Susiana, isbadly damaged. According to the locals, both Iranian and Iraqi troopsused the site as a base-camp; therefore the site has been subject toextensive digging and quarrying (FIGURE 4). In fact, a large portion ofthe central and eastern parts of the site had apparently been scoopedout by heavy machinery. Military debris can be seen all over the site(FIGURE 5). [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] Ghar-e Khoshk (the Dry Cave): on the foothills of the mountainridge to the north of Deh Luran, is virtually intact, but its importantdry deposits towards the entrance have been partially dug out, perhapsby soldiers occupying the cave during the War or by shepherds morerecently. The Iraqi troops razed the small towns of Deh Luran and Musiyan tothe ground before their retreat. The locals who returned thus had torebuild their houses with financial and material support from theIranian government. Consequently both towns now look modern (by localstandards) with new buildings and paved streets and alleys. There iseven a two-star hotel in Deh Luran with air-conditioning, bath with hotwater and a fancy restaurant, novelties totally mind-boggling to thosewho worked in Deb Luran in the 1960s and 1970s! Also, as part of clearing the areas closer to towns from militarywaste and minefields to render them suitable for agriculture, a majorproject has been begun by the Iranian government for clearing oldirrigation canals and digging new ones. When finished, this irrigationsystem is intended to connect the Mehmeh and Abdanan rivers andcriss-cross the Plain to bring water to the fields. Work has begun onmajor canals, but fortunately of the ones we saw, none has crossedarchaeological sites. To add to our joy, we had the good fortune of fortuitously runninginto a group of people from Musiyan (FIGURE 6) who were delighted to letme know that, many years ago, they worked with the `Americanengineers' including Mr Frank (Frank Hole, now at Yale), Mr Jim(James Neely, now at the University of Texas), and Mr Ken and Mr Henry(Kent Flannery and Henry Wright of the UMMA). After a moment of dismaywhen I had to explain to them that I am not Mr Ken's son, they wereexcited to learn that I am an Iranian student studying with him andparticularly pleased to see archaeologists back in Deh Luran after sucha long time. After explaining to them that we were only on a short visitand sadly could not accept their invitation to stay and have lunch withthem, we were offered a fair amount of exquisite and ice-cold doogh(traditional buttermilk buttermilkresidual fluid after removal of fat from milk in butter manufacture; a protein-rich supplement fed to pigs. ), so refreshing after wandering around for manyhours in temperatures exceeding 50 [degrees] C. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] When I returned to Ann Arbor, I had more good news than bad, butthe sad fact remains that, given such dangers as undetected minefieldsand explosives, it seems unlikely that further research in the Deh LuranPlain will be possible in the immediate future. In fact, a few daysafter my return, I read in the newspaper that, not far from Musiyan, ashepherd and his flock unsuspectingly walked into an unmarked minefieldand were blown to pieces. This is an example of how wars are capable ofboth extinguishing the lives of the present and destroying the recordsof the past! Acknowledgements. I am grateful to the Iranian Cultural HeritageOrganization offices in Tehran and the provincial capital of Ilam forfacilitating my visit to the Deb Luran Plain and Mehrdad Malekzadeh,Gabriel Nokandeh, and Nariman Malek-Ahmadi for accompanying me in thishazardous journey. References BIGLARI, F., G. NOKANDEH & S. HEYDARI. 2000. A recent find of apossible Lower Palaeolithic assemblage from the foothills of the ZagrosMountains, Antiquity 74: 749-50. DE MIROSCHEDJI, P. 1981. Prospections archeologiques au Khuzistanen 1977, Cahiers de la Delegation Archdologique Francaise en Iran 12:169-92. 1986. La localisation (programming) localisation - (l10n) Adapting a product to meet the language, cultural and other requirements of a specific target market "locale".Localisation includes the translation of the user interface, on-line help and documentation, and ensuring the images and de Madaktu et l'organisationpolitique de l'Elam a l'epoque Neo-Elamite, in L. De Meyer, H.Gasche, F. Vallat (ed.), Fragmenta Historiae Elamicae: Melanges offertsa M.J. Steve: 209-25. Paris: Editions Recherches sur les Civilisations. KAMYAR ADBI ADBI Asian Development Bank Institute , Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, 1109Geddes, Ann Arbor MI 48109-1079, USA. kabdi@umich.edu