Mendeley  

Zotero  

Eskandari N. (2023). Cultural Landscape of the Persian Gulf in the Third Millennium BCE: Some Remarks on the Tarut Island. Parseh J. Archaeol. Stud.. 7(23), 87-104. doi:10.30699/PJAS.7.23.87
URL: http://journal.richt.ir/mbp/article-1-777-en.html

Abstract
Persian Gulf, as a main trade route, has played an important role in the third millennium BCE cultural sphere of Southwest Asia. According to archaeological evidence, at least from the 5th millennium BCE, this waterway appeared to function as a channel for social interaction and exchange of material culture in the region. It seems that the Jiroft region as the hinterland of the Persian Gulf has been interacted with the contemporaneous civilizations from Indus to Babylonia via the maritime routes. The chlorite vessels produced in Jiroft have been obtained over a wide geographical range from the Indus valley to the north of Mesopotamia. The existence of the production workshops at Tepe Yahya, Hajjiabad- Varamin and Konar Sandal, and thousands of complete objects from the looted cemeteries of Jiroft, as well as their mines in Jiroft have made Halilrud region the center of production of these objects in the third millennium BCE. Tarut Island in Saudi Arabia is known as one of the ancient ports in the Persian Gulf trade sphere. More than several hundreds of fragments and complete chlorite vessels have been discovered in Tarut Island mostly from destroyed graves. Due to the large number of chlorite vessels as well as semi-finished objects, researchers of the Persian Gulf Archaeology refer to this island as a center for the production of chlorite vessels. In terms of iconography and raw material, chlorite vessels of Tarut are comparable with those recovered from the Halilrud Basin, Kerman province, Iran. In this paper, we will examine the hypothesis that Tarut was the production center of the chlorite vessels. In addition, we will discuss the relation of the Tarut and the Southeastern Iran, in particular the Jiroft region. 
Keywords: Persian Gulf, Jiroft Civilization, Tarut Island, Chlorite Vessels, Marhashi.

Introduction
This study aims to investigate the interactions between Tarut Island in Saudi Arabia and the Jiroft region in southeastern Iran through the chlorite objects in the Bronze Age. This island was a very important commercial port on the southern coast of the Persian Gulf during the third millennium BCE, when the newly known Jiroft Civilization prospered in southeastern Iran. Most scholars, notably Piotr Steinkeller, believe that the Halil Rud/ Jiroft region was probably known as the land of Marhaši (in Sumerian) or Parahšum (in Akkadian), the most important political counterpart of ancient Mesopotamia in the 3rd millennium BCE. 
 One of the most significant cultural characteristics of the Jiroft civilization is notoriously the production and distribution, sometimes on long distances, of carved soft stone vessels with a quite distinct iconography, previously labeled “intercultural style”. These often beautiful and intriguing objects have been widely discussed. These artefacts actually appeared, although sometimes in limited amounts, in a very large corridor from Mesopotamia in Iraq via the Iranian plateau into the Indus valley. Mineralogical analyses on some of the ancient vessels as well as on the mines in the Jiroft highlands have confirmed their production in the southern Kerman.  
The chlorite vessels’ inventory can be subdivided in two different productions, namely a “série ancienne” datable to pre-early Akkadian times (with elaborate figurative patterns), and a later “série recente”. Holly Pittman (2018) believes that the earlier group would be made exclusively with Iranian chloritic rocks, while the later one would have been made in the Arabian Peninsula from Omani rocks. 

Materials and Methods  
The materials of this study are mainly Bronze Age chlorite objects from both Tarut island in Saudi Arabia and the Jiroft region in SE Iran. In this study, chlorite assemblages of both regions were compared in terms of iconography and object forms to explore the cultural connections of this island with the Kerman region as the main center of production and consumption of the chlorite in the third millennium BCE. In addition, an attempt was made to explain the existence of Halil Rud/ Jiroft stone objects in Tarut island. Discovery of such a quantity of the Jiroft material in the small island of Tarut raises these important questions: Movement of people from the Jiroft region of the Tarut island happened as a colonizing group to take control of the Persian Gulf trade network in the mid third millennium BCE? Or a group of Marhashian/Jiroftian were settled in the Island as trade diasporas?

Discussion 
There is still ongoing discussion regarding the chronology of the cultural artifacts discovered on Tarut Island. The artifacts discovered on Tarut Island suggest that, in the early part of the third millennium BC, the island harbor was consistently used as an important hub in the Persian Gulf region. Judging from the Babylonian pottery of Early Dynastic I and II date found on Tarut, this strategically located island must have already at this time assumed a position of some significance in the exchange networks. However, even if inscribed, sculpted chlorite vessels compatible to types found on Tarut are known to date from the Early Dynastic II period onward, it appears more likely that the sculpted chlorite traded into Tarut date to the Early Dynastic III and Sargonic periods (Laursen and Steinkeller 2017:10). Various artifacts found on Tarut Island provide evidence of trade with Babylonia. Among these artifacts, the limestone statue depicting a standing nude male with clasped hands in a traditional Sumerian devotional posture is particularly noteworthy. Experts have suggested different dates for this statue, ranging from the Jemdat Nasr period (around 3000 BC) to a more plausible dating in the Early Dynastic period. Other Babylonian-made artifacts found on Tarut Island with a broad Early Dynastic I-III date include a marble macehead and a copper bull’s head that is similar to the examples found on lyres from the Royal Tombs of Ur (For more, see Laursen and Steinkeller 2017). From southeastern Iran perspective, the most noteworthy discoveries from Tarut Island are the sculpted vessels and fragments made of chlorite. These were discovered by chance by local gardeners, likely from disturbed burials. Interestingly, there is a striking difference between the amount of sculpted chlorite vessels found on Tarut Island and the small quantities that have been discovered on the Oman peninsula. Apart from the chlorite vessels, another imported finds from southeastern Iran are painted ceramics, so-called Bampur black on grey ware. They have been found in limited quantities on Tarut Island as well as in mainland Saudi Arabia. It is noteworthy that the imports from southeastern Iran ceased to appear on Tarut Island by the end of the third millennium BCE, which coincides with the decline of the Marhashi Kingdom. The available evidence from Tarut Island indicates that this harbor played a significant role in linking the neighboring civilized regions within the Persian Gulf area during the Early Bronze Age. In other words, Tarut Island served as a meeting point in the commercial networks that facilitated trade in the Persian Gulf region. 

Conclusion 
The presence of many chlorite objects in the small island of Tarut in the southern part of the Persian Gulf shows that population groups of Jiroft civilization settled in this island for some time (at least one to two centuries) in the mid-late third millennium BCE. According to the fact that the mentioned chlorite objects were obtained from the destroyed cemetery of Tarut, it is clear that these objects were placed inside the grave as the burial goods and were not brought there to be displayed and sold in the Tarut market.
Despite the fact that most of the chlorite objects obtained from Tarut are exactly the same as the samples obtained in the Halil Rud Basin, there are a number of objects with motifs that are rooted in Mesopotamian mythology, among which the image of Anzu is the most obvious. This shows that Jiroft chlorite vessels were also produced on Tarot Island, or at least on the undecorated samples of Jiroft vessels, engraving with Mesopotamian themes was done on this island.
The main issue is the reason for the presence of Jiroft civilization people in Tarut Island in the Persian Gulf. Considering that in the middle to late 3rd millennium BCE, a wide maritime trade network was formed in the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea, it seems logical to imagine that a group of inhabitants of Jiroft / Marhashi civilization in the mid-late 3rd millennium BCE, as trade diasporas, have settled in this island to have control over sea trade and the movement of goods in the strategic waterway of the Persian Gulf. It is worth mentioning that in the first half of the third millennium BCE, this role was played by the Mesopotamians in Tarut Island. The provenance of Tarut artefacts has been a source of debate among archaeologists. Some scholars suggested their provenance in the southern part of the Persian Gulf even based on the chemical analyses. While the Jiroftian motifs on the vessels tell another story which makes this hypothesis questionable. More physical and chemical analyses are needed to investigate the provenance of Tarut materials.