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Alimirzaei F, Rahmani G. Technical and Structural Study of Iron Age Gray Pottery; A Case Study of Pottery from Zavarehvar Site Excavation in Varamin Plain. KCR 2022; 5 (3) :1-14
URL: http://kcr.richt.ir/article-6-1827-en.html

The Iron Age in Iran (550-1450 BC) and beyond, represents a period characterized by significant social, cultural, economic and technological transformations during its evolutionary stages. Zavarehvar is an Iron Age settlement site located in the Varamin plain in central region of Iran, where numerous excavations have been carried out by various archeologists in recent decades. During the 2017 excavation at the Zavarehvar site, a number of gray pottery pieces related to burials were discovered. Given the distribution of the Iron Age cemeteries and the limited technical studies conducted on these potteries, our understanding of the production methods such as texture, components, and manufacturing processes is crucial for comprehending the pottery production technology of this specific period. Therefore, the results from laboratory studies can be beneficial in finding the production process of these artifacts. This research aimed to provide more precise knowledge for conducting comparative studies and determining the local origin of these artifacts by examining nine Iron Age pottery samples from this region using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and petrographic analysis of thin sections. The results indicated that the main phases of the potteries, based on petrography, include quartz (SiO2), and calcite. The ICP-MS results also largely confirmed some of the petrographic observations. However, a significant part of the chemical clustering of ceramics was not due to heterogeneity in elemental composition, nor to differences in the clay sources used. Additionally, we can say that the potteries are local origin, since the soils studied showed significant similarities in trace elements with the pottery samples, confirming their local origin.