From the perspective of pottery production during the Chalcolithic period at Tepe Ghabrestan (ca. 4200–3100 BCE), the Qazvin Plain constitutes one of the most important archaeological sites in the north central Iranian Plateau. This study was conducted with the aim of identifying the technology of pottery manufacture and the mineral compositions present in the ceramics. The research is significant for sourcing the provenance of Ghabrestan pottery and assessing the level of craftsmanship among its producers. The central research question concerns the quality of production and whether the pottery was locally made or imported. In this study, twenty pottery sherds from excavations at Tepe Ghabrestan selected from the ceramic repository of the Institute of Archaeology, University of Tehran were analyzed using physical tests (porosity measurement, water absorption, and density), petrography, X ray diffraction (XRD), and X ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF), to perform elemental analysis and investigate the technological processes of pottery manufacture in the Qazvin Plain during the fourth millennium BCE. The results indicate the use of advanced and specialized production technology, reflecting the potters’ skill in controlling the firing process and selecting high quality raw materials. Petrographic examination of thin sections confirmed the presence of minerals characteristic of the region, including quartz, biotite, calcite, and augite. A major finding was evidence of the use of high speed potter’s wheels in producing Ghabrestan pottery, as shown by the uniform wall thickness and smooth surface finishes. Microscopic analysis confirmed the presence of inorganic tempers (mineral additives) incorporated to enhance mechanical properties and reduce cracking during firing. The clay used matches the geological composition of the Qazvin Plain, indicating local production of the pottery.
 

Pottery has long been one of the key mediums for expressing cultural elements in Iran. The decorative motifs used in this art form are deeply rooted in Iranian culture, literature, religion, and political contexts, immortalized through the innovative creativity of Iranian artists. Among these motifs, the “Waq Tree” or “Talking Tree” stands out as one of the most prominent decorative elements, particularly gaining attention during the Ilkhanid period. This motif, which combines natural, imaginative, and mythical elements, was employed in the luster tiles of Takht-e Soleyman and reflects a profound connection between humans, nature, and animals. This study aims to address why this motif was prominently featured and executed by artists during the early Ilkhanid rule at Abaqa Khan’s palace in Takht-e Soleyman. It seeks to explore both visual representations of the examples and their associated cultural foundations. Using a descriptive, analytical, and historical approach, supported by imaging of historical samples, this research concludes that the painters of Takht-e Soleyman’s luster tiles depicted wild animals such as deer, gazelles, and rabbits instead of humans—who are typically central to illustrations of the Talking Tree. The choice of wild animals over human figures may reflect the nature-oriented tendencies of the Seljuks and Mongols. This selection also highlights the influence of Mongol culture on Iranian art—a culture that introduced animal anthropomorphism as a prominent element in literature and art. The Waq Tree, rooted in Iranian and global folklore, symbolizes a deep connection between humans, nature, and living beings. This mythological concept is intertwined with ideas such as the sanctity of nature and the bond between the human world and the natural world. The depiction of this motif on Takht-e Soleyman’s luster tiles demonstrates the artists’ efforts to convey these concepts, which were innovatively reimagined during the Ilkhanid era.

The city of Sahneh, located 54 kilometers northeast of Kermanshah in the central Zagros passage, plays a crucial role as a strategic crossroads, linking the Iranian central plateau to Mesopotamia and connecting the internal plains of Kermanshah to Hamadan. Archaeological surveys in Sahneh County, conducted in 2003, employed the site survey method, whereby all ancient sites were studied in terms of their geographical location and settlement sequence. This approach provides the necessary data for interpreting the settlement history of the region. As a result of this field research, for the first time, two archaeological sites containing cultural materials from the Middle Elamite period were identified in this area. This discovery significantly extends the cultural domain of the Middle Elamite period in the Zagros toward the east and northeast, indicating that the influence of this civilization extended beyond its known centers in the southwestern provinces of Iran (such as Khuzestan, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, Fars, and Bushehr) as far as Kermanshah Province. Given the importance of these findings, further surveys were carried out in 2024 and 2025 to identify Middle Elamite sites in Sahneh. Following this research, two additional sites with Middle Elamite cultural materials were discovered. These findings not only confirm the existence of an active cultural-commercial corridor in this region but also highlight the necessity of revising cultural-geographical maps and historical developments of the Middle Elamite period in the central Zagros. Continued studies and targeted excavations at these sites can clarify the role of this region in the network of cultural interactions between the Iranian Plateau and Mesopotamia and are expected to lead to a fundamental reassessment of current perspectives on the history of this era.

Abstract
The Upper Gotvand Dam, with a 90-kilometer-long lake, is one of the largest dams in the country, and its impoundment caused the flooding of a large number of ancient sites, ancient and modern migration routes, villages, and nomadic settlements in the northeastern region of Khuzestan. Before the dam was completed, a team of archaeologists surveyed its basin in 2007. After that, in 2008, a team of archaeologists from ICHTO of Khuzestan Province excavated the Kalantar site and the Kalantar cemetery, and then in April and May 2010, salvage excavations were carried out at Kalantar 4 & 5 sites to obtain as much information as possible, which yielded significant results. Following the excavation of the Kalantar 5 site, traces of residential stone architecture, plain buff and red pottery, and turquoise blue and green glazed pottery, as well as some ground stones such as grinding stones, mortars, and pounding stones, were found. According to typological comparisons on the potteries, it was determined that they belonged to the Middle Islamic period (fifth and sixth centuries AH), and the site was inhabited during the Seljuk period. In addition, it was determined that there is a great similarity between the stone architecture of the Kalantar 4 (a Neo-Elamite site), and the Kalantar 5, and with the local architecture of the region in the present time, both in villages and in nomadic settlements. In other words, the continuity of cultural traditions over several millennia is observed in this area.
Keywords: Kalantar 5, Gotvand Dam Basin, Middle Islamic Period, Stone Architecture, Islamic Glazed Pottery.

Introduction
The Upper Gotvand Dam was built on the Karun River near the small town of Gotvand to generate electricity and irrigate downstream agricultural lands, and a wide range of intermountain valleys, numerous ancient sites, ancient and modern migration routes, villages, and nomadic settlements were submerged in the 90-kilometer-long lake behind the dam. Before the dam was impounded, two teams led by Shahram Zare and Hossein Azizi Kharanghi, respectively, surveyed the area (Azizi Kharanghi et al., 2007). Salvage excavations were conducted by Hamidreza Valipour on two sites, Kalantar 4 and 5, which were found during the surveys in the spring of 2010 (Valipour, 2010a & b). The preliminary results of the excavation of Kalantar 5 will be presented here.
The first goal of the excavation, like all salvage excavations, was to access as much information as possible. Due to the proximity of Kalantar 5 to Kalantar 4 and the similarity of its surface architectural structure with the architecture of Kalantar 4, the excavation team was faced with some questions, the most important of which were: 1- Is Kalantar 5 an extension of the Kalantar 4 settlement and can we consider them as one site? 2- Was the settlement in Kalantar 5 established after the abandonment of Kalantar 4 and as a result of the displacement of its residents? 3- Does Kalantar 5 belong to a different time than Kalantar 4? Of course, given the presence of Islamic pottery on the surface of Kalantar 5, it was assumed that this area, in addition to the Elamite period, would also contain evidence of settlement from this period. 4- Function and type of settlement in Kalantar5.

Kalantar 5
Kalantar 5 is located on a natural hill south of Kalantar village (Ab Zālu Arab) in Lali County, at N: 32˚ 13΄ 42/6˝ latitude and E: 049˚ 04΄ 55/4˝ longitude, 160 meters north of Kalantar 4 and 13 kilometers east of the Gotvand Dam. The highest point of the site is 278 meters above sea level. The Karun River, the closest major water source to the site, flows 4.5 kilometers northeast of the site; a water stream also passes through the valley to the northwest.
During the excavation, one trench was opened at the highest part of the site, measuring 10×10 meters, where the regular stone pieces and traces of walls indicated the existence of architectural spaces in this part of the site. Given the depth of the natural bedrock, it was clear before the excavation began that not much height of the walls remained.

Architecture
A total of six architectural spaces were revealed during the excavation in Trench I. Stone and mud mortar were used in all the architectural structures. The stones used in the construction of the different parts of the complex are soft limestone in small to large sizes. All the stones lack cutting polish but have an almost regular shape. Many of the stones used in the architectural structures are cubed. The walls are rectangular. The walls lack any covering, and even during the excavation in the rubble layers, no samples of mud, plaster, or lime were found. The six aforementioned spaces seem to belong to the same building because they all share walls. It is possible that the natural bedrock of the hill was used as a floor for the spaces. Stone supports were used in addition to all the main and internal load-bearing walls. The entrances were mainly created by not connecting two walls or by cutting off part of the length of a wall. Next to some walls, there are smaller annexed spaces as storage places, which were probably used to store daily necessities or food or fuel, and they lacked any entrance and were accessed from above. A pyrotechnical structure was found inside one of the spaces, about one-fifth of which remains. Since a very small part of it remains, it is difficult to distinguish its function as an oven or else. No evidence of a roof or debris was found during the excavation. Given the relatively small width of the spaces and the absence of columns, the roofs of the spaces were most likely created using parallel wooden poles and covered with mats or tree branches and mud. This reconstruction was carried out in comparison with the current situation in the village adjacent to the site. The reason for this comparison is the great similarity of the architecture obtained from the settlement spaces of the site with the architecture of the adjacent village.

Pottery
The 319 potsherds recovered from the excavation are divided into two major groups: plain and glazed. 265 sherds (83%) of the total are unglazed. Unglazed pottery can be divided into two groups: buff and red. The technology of pottery production is completely similar in terms of form, manufacturing technique, inclusion, firing, and decoration. Most of the sherds are wheel-made (96%). The inner and outer surfaces of the pottery are unpolished, and both sides of the vessels are smoothed by the wet hand method. Rarely, red wash was used to cover a handful of buff wares. The texture of buff ware is much more cohesive than that of red ware. Mineral materials such as fine to coarse sand were used as an inclusion in unglazed pottery; in one of the red potteries, the inclusion is a combination of organic and mineral materials. In general, the quality of buff-colored pottery is better than that of reds, and the number of buff sherds is much greater than that of reds. 236 sherds (74% of all pottery and 89% of unglazed pottery) are buff, and 29 sherds (9% of all pottery and 11% of unglazed pottery) are red. There are 10 sherds of pottery with incised decoration in the unglazed buff group.
54 pieces (17%) of the pottery are glazed. Except for two pieces with green glaze, the rest are turquoise blue. The pottery of this group is in the category of pottery with monochromatic glaze. Five pieces are also of the sgraffiato type with turquoise blue glaze. In terms of form, manufacturing technique, inclusion, firing, and color, these sherds are completely similar to the unglazed buff wares. The inclusion of all samples is mineral.
The reconstructed forms are the jar (44.5%), bowl (37%), and bowl (18.5%), respectively. The sherds date back to the 5th and 6th centuries AH and are dated to the Seljuk period (Karimi & Kiani, 1985; Towhidi, 2000; Kambakhshfard, 2001; Grube, 1994; Treptow, 2007).

Other Cultural Materials
In addition to pottery, other cultural materials recovered included animal remains, pounding stones, stone mortars, pivots, iron nails, iron knife, the bottom, rim, and body of transparent or opaque glass vessels in blue, yellow, and milky colors, as well as a few broken shells.

Conclusion
Kalantar 5 is a rural settlement site from the Middle Islamic period because considering the landscape of the region, the location of the site, the extent of the architectural remains, and the dispersion of cultural materials, it is unlikely that the settlement was urban. There is no connection between the sites of Kalantar 4 and 5 from a cultural and temporal perspective. An interesting point to note is the similarity of the architectural structures of this site with the architecture of Kalantar 4 and the modern village of Ab Zālū Arab and other nomadic villages and settlements in the region. With an ethnoarchaeological approach, this similarity can be considered a kind of cultural continuity in architecture. Perhaps the same environmental and subsistence conditions can be considered the reason for the construction of similar architecture over a long period.
The buildings were constructed using completely local materials, such as stone and mud. All the stones are limestone, ranging in size from small to large, and are uncut and unpolished but have a fairly regular shape, and many of the stones have been broken using chisels and hammers. It seems that the six identified spaces had both roofed and open sections. The three spaces 1, 3, and 4 were associated with activities that required separation from the residential areas; the three spaces 2, 5, and 6, which are part of the main residential complex, were probably places for resting and performing other daily activities. These three spaces are connected by some entrances.
All finds, from functional examples such as pottery, glass vessels, pounding stones, and mortars to decorative shells, indicate a normal settlement, and all of them are related to daily life activities.
The pottery of the Kalantar 5 bears no resemblance to the Kalantar 4 site. Many of them are Islamic glazed pottery, including monochrome green and turquoise blue glazes and some with incised patterns under the turquoise blue glaze. The pottery is not very diverse in terms of color, glaze, type, and theme of the patterns. These potteries date back to the fifth and sixth centuries AH and are dated to the Seljuk period. During this period, the glass industry in Iran was very prosperous (Shishehgar, 2003: 24), and glass fragments recovered from a rural settlement site confirm this.