Abstract
The ancient site of Dinavar, known by the locals as the city of Khāvarān, is located northeast of Kermānshāh, on the Kermānshāh-Sonqor road. The importance of the site is still evident despite environmental damage such as floods and earthquakes and agricultural development. Historical findings and archaeological evidence show that the central hill and the surrounding areas were inhabited from the Seleucid period to the present day. This site is the city of Dinavar. A city that was one of the cultural centers of western Iran in the first centuries of Islam and this issue is received from the list of thinkers attributed to Dinavar. During the surveys, in addition to the potteries, a collection of mills and large weights were observed, which indicates a pressing workshop in the site. The typology of the pressing method in this workshop and its chronology is the main issue of this research, which is addressed by asking two questions: first, what period does this data belong to, and second; What products have been produced in this workshop? Given the needs of urban communities and the need to manage and plan workshop activities, a hypothesis based on the data belonging to the time of the flourishing of the city of Dinavar and the production of oil and grape syrup is proposed. Based on the comparison and study and study of environmental data, written sources and documents of archeology and ethnoarcheology, Dinavar workshop to the time of growth and prosperity of this area in the 2nd to 4th AH. It is attributed and in addition to the production of grape syrup, the possibility of oil-pressing is also raised. Since known specimens from central and western Iran belong to the late Islamic centuries, the site data reveal part of the history of this activity.
Keywords: Pressing, Dinavar, Archaeology, Typology, Chronology.
Introduction
The study of ancient technologies is one of interests to many researchers. Archaeologists study technology to make social and economic analyzes and study human societies. Pressing and related objects are one of these ancient technologies. The ancient site of Dinavar, whose data are classified from the Seleucid era to the present day, has been one of the cultural centers of the Islamic world and one of the most important cities in the Jebāl province. Some of the archeological data of this area show that the pressing workshop was active in it. This study identifies the pressing in Dinavar with the aim of relative chronology of this method. Pressing workshops that have been built since the Safavid era near the important cities of that time provide significant signs of technical architecture, access to these structures and the continuation of the activities of some to this day, they have led to a detailed study of these works. However, it is not clear what the workshops were before the Safavid era. The present study tries to deal with how this activity took place in the pre-Safavid period. The most important questions are: 1. What period does the pressing data of the Dinavar area belong to? 2. What products have been produced in Dinavar Workshop? Considering the environmental and ethnographic data, and the necessity of managing and planning the workshop activities that are possible in the shadow of the urban system, in answer to the research questions, the hypothesis of the activity of the Dinavar workshop at the time of flourishing and Its urban growth; And the production of oil and grape syrup is measured. Field survey data are compared with similar samples to determine how this activity works, and environmental data measure the oil and grape syrup production hypothesis, or grape syrup. Archaeological and pollenological data trace evidence of olive use in the fertile crescent to ancient Paleolithic and before the beginning of agriculture (Niklewski and van Zeist, 1970; Liphschitz et al., 1991., Lovell et al., 2010 and Zohary et al., 2012). But pressing in the general sense have arisen following the complexity of societies. Pollen and archeological data show that suitable species of this practice have existed in prehistoric Iran (Van Zeist and Bottema, 1977; Djamali et al., 2010, 2016 and Mashkour et al., 2010), but the mode of operation is known only on the basis of data from the late Islamic centuries.
Materials and Method
The Dinavar is a complex site including the central hill, the religious complex and the cemetery, the remains of a castle and a Qājār bath. In a recent study, the authors found stone objects in the north of the central hill, including a healthy mill sandstone, five damaged millstones of various conglomerate dimensions, and four large conglomerate weights. The data do not provide complete information on how to press, but due to the presence of weights and the presence of four millstones, the upper surface of which shows a depression with a depth of 10 to 20 cm. The use of lever and weight pressing is discussed. In Dinavar Plain, whose vegetation has changed due to agriculture, oilseeds are native. Written evidence of pressing silenced in and around the study area, but in addition to the Celine and Satyr, the Bistun object and the stone of Tāq Bostān collection, which is obtained from the east of Kermānshāh and is considered a part of Roman mill, shows that pressing was common in this region. Ethnorchaeological studies also confirm the use of castor oil as a lamp fuel in the Qājār period up to the Pahlavi. It is worth mentioning that Dinavar community has always been a rural community and its economy has been based on agriculture, from the beginning until today. This society became one of the cultural centers of the Islamic world in the beginning of Islam. It seems that the spread of workshop and production activities such as pressing is also possible in such a structure and with the help of management and planning of the urban system, as the establishment of similar complexes near large cities has been common and pressing the ones that have been identified so far show the economic prosperity of the great Safavid cities.
Conclusion
Pottery production, pressing, milling, and in general workshop and production activities, along with labor and energy, require management and planning. This management is formed in urban system and in order to meet the needs of the urban society. Historical texts about Dinavar urban society have been silent in the first centuries of Islam, but the splendor of this society and its cultural growth is evident from the long list of thinkers attributed to this land. In this urban society, which is formed in the bed of a rich plain, the pressing of fruits and oilseeds is common. The rich vegetation and vineyards of the region confirm the production of grape syrup and oil. Extraordinary data of the area and their location near the central hill where it was located from the beginning of Islam to the ninth century AH. It goes on to show that this activity was common in the form of lever and weight, and its growth was at least from the 2nd to the 4th AH, at the same time as the establishment and development of Dinavar city and culture. Accordingly, pressing objects in Dinavar provide the basis for the study of pressing from the beginning of Islam. |