Abstract
Considering the importance of the Late Chalcolithic Period, especially at the end of the period, we see the emergence of the first cities and early state formation; therefore identifying the types of sites and cultural materials of this period can add important information to our knowledge about it. Among the most noteworthy tendencies of this period are the population growth, the expansion of exchange, and growing craft specialization. Despite our knowledge of different types of cultural materials, especially the pottery traditions of the Late Chalcolithic Period of the Central Zagros region, our knowledge of “Coba” pottery in Iran is limited. which were mass-produced in the northern Mesopotamia, Syria and Turkey in different forms during the “Post-Ubaid” and from the LC1 period onwards. So far, there has been little discussion about the presence of this type of vessel in Iran. This study examines Coba bowls in western Iran, especially the Kermanshah plain, and tries to answer the questions by a descriptive andanalytical method, while discussing the technological characteristics and the time span of Coba bowls in the prehistoric site of Taq-e Bustan? Also, what view do these new findings give us in terms of the distribution of these wares? The abundance of these bowls in the excavation of Taq-e Bustan in 2015 and other discovered samples from Kermanshah province and western Iran provide new evidence that this pottery tradition covered a wide area in western Iran. These samples show that we are facing a significant abundance of type 3 and 4 of Coba bowls and the bold presence of these types indicates the spread of this ware to western parts of Iran such as the Central Zagros in the Early Uruk period.
Keywords: Kermanshah, Taq-e Bustan, Late Chalcolithic, Post-Ubaid, Coba Bowls.

Introduction
Given that the fourth millenium B.C coincides with major structural changes, including the emergence of social hierarchy, technological innovations and economic reorganization, and finally the emergence early states and cities, the presence and distribution of Coba bowls, also known as mass-produced, represents a wider range of communication and interaction in the early fourth mill B.C between Mesopotamia and the Central Zagros than previously thought. Here, we aim to answer the two following questions: What are the technological characteristics of the prehistoric Taq-e Bustan place bowls? Which time period does this type of ware cover? Also, what image do these new findings provide of the distributional pattern? Therefore, the authors in this article will try to evaluate the presence of these findings in relation to the origin of this pottery and the main area of its development.
The area of Taq-e Bustan West Park, which is also known as Parthian Cemetery, is located in the northeast of Kermanshah city and the foothills of the mountains and in the west of Taq-e Bustan historical place next to a spring full of water at an altitude of 1395 meters above sea level. During the excavations of this area in 1394, a new collection of finds associated with the fourth millennium BC (traces of the Late Chalcolithic Period settlement beneath the layers containing the Parthian Cemetery) was revealed. During the initial studies, this area was considered to be on the same horizon as the Godin IV3 period.

Discussion
During the classification, typology and comparison of the pottery collection, one of the special types of pottery forms called Coba bowl was revealed in this area. The Coba bowls are the hallmark of the Post-Ubaid ceramic horizon, which has been present in four different types from the LC1 to LC3, in a wide range, including northern Mesopotamia, Anatolia and Syria. Samples of bowls from the Taq-e Bustan site are found in large numbers, upside down on the bottom floor and inside the jar. The presence of these bowls along with spherical body bowls (also know as curved bowl) -with simple rim and grooved body-, beaded-rim bowls, bowls similar to Hammerhead bowl, painted pottery comparable to pottery from Godin Tapeh of the VI3 period and other forms of pottery, are important. Based on the comparisons made, and considering the samples with absolute chronology of the Central Plateau, Central Zagros and areas outside the borders of Iran, as well as according to the radiocarbon samples obtained from the Godin period VI1, a date of about 3800 or 3700 (LC2-3) can be suggested for the settlement of Late Chalcolithic period of the Taq-e Bustan and its pottery. Samples of bowls from the Taq-e-Bostan prehistoric place are comparable to Coba bowls, such as Wide-Flower pots, conical, or V-shaped bowls. These bowls, which are considered as a relatively unknown types of this period in Iran, have not been noticed so far, if in addition to the Taq-e Bustan site, they have been obtained from Ja-baq site in Doroud Faraman of Kermanshah, Tepe Kheibar of Rawansar, Tapeh Morad Weis 2 in Sar Pol-e Zahab, Godin Tapeh period VI3, Shahzade Abdollah site in Khorramabad, Garmesi Site in Deh Luran, Tepe Badamyar of Rabat and Qale Nane in Marivan. The presence of this type of pottery in areas far from its already known areas of distribution, especially in the Central Zagros, can provide a new perspective for transregional interactions and further our understanding of the nature of society in the early fourth millennium BC in the Zagros.

Conclusion
Among the cultural finds of this site, the Wide-Flower pots with a relatively rough and uneven surface, straw temper and generally with grey core have a strong presence in the studied assemblage. Its already known sphere of development includes the northern Mesopotamia, Syria and Anatolia. The Coba bowls are an important feature of the Post-Ubaid ceramic horizon which lasts until the LC3 period. According to the division that the researchers have considered for Coba bowls, the Coba bowls of the prehistoric site of Taq-e Bustan are comparable to the third and fourth types of this V-shaped bowl, which are mostly known in the eastern areas such as Keban, Habur and Iraqi Jezira. It is certain that with further excavations and surveys, there is a possibility of changing this zoning/sphere, because examples of these bowls (V shape) are also found in western areas such as Amuq, Cilicia and southern Anatolia. These bowls are generally referred to as mass-produced bowls due to the discovery of large quantities in archaeological contexts, and the function attributed to this type of bowl generally includes household activities. Excavation in the prehistoric site of Taq-e Bustan shows the expansion of the Coba bowl sphere to the western regions of Iran, such as the Kermanshah plain in the Central Zagros. Existence of these bowls along with other comparable pottery forms in different regions within the current borders of Iran and many comparable examples in the Mesopotamia, Anatolia and Syria and the use of the Flint-scrap Technique on the surface of vessels of these sites, especially the bowls which are one of the features of the Northern Mesopotamian pottery tradition (Chaff faced-ware or Post-Ubaid culture) during the late fifth and early fourth millennium BC, indicate the prevalence and continuity of the presence of Northern Mesopotamian pottery traditions, along with the early Uruk pottery culture in the Central Zagros. This reflects the extensive regional and trans-regional relations between these areas.

Abstract
A study on religious buildings related to fire such as fire temples and Chahar Taqis in the Sassanid era shows that different factors have been considered in constructing these monuments as an important place for religious and ritualistic ceremonies. One of these factors is deviation from north. In Avesta and other Pahlavi texts such as Vendidad, Khorde Avesta, Gozidaha-ye Zadesparm, Bundahish, Arda Viraf Nameh, Shayest Nashayest, and etc. north direction is the gateway to hell and a direction for Ahriman and the demons. According to this, and considering Avesta’s lack of clarity on temples and fire temples, the purpose of this study is to clarify how strongly religious, rituals and mythical matters have been considered in constructing fire temples. Aiming at answering the question: “Whether deviation from north and building worship places related to fire in ordinal directions, as well as placing interior elements of these worship places during the ceremonies not to face north are related to religious rituals or not?”, it has been tried to clarify the reasons of deviation from the north with a historical-analytical approach and based on archaeological evidence, compliance with Pahlavi texts and today’s Zoroastrian customs. Results of studying religious monuments in the Sassanid era show that, due to the belief of north being a direction for Ahriman and the demons in Zoroastrian rituals and Iranian myths, Mobads’ place during Zoroastrian ceremonies was of utmost importance. It had to avoid north. Also, the majority of the fire temples and palaces have been built in ordinal directions, or the main entrance to the building was built in any other direction except the north. Therefore, it can be assumed that some religious and ritualistic reasons are the reasons why the Sassanians paid extra attention to deviating from the north in building their religious monuments. 
Keywords: Fire Temple, North Direction, Apakhtar, Chahar Taqi, Sassanid Era. 

Introduction
The archaeological evidence indicates that many factors, including the construction of ordinal directions, were taken into account when constructing the fire-related monuments in the Sassanid era. Now, the main question is why should a fire temple or Chahar Taqi be built on ordinal directions? And basically, why it has been taken into account in all fire temples? To find the answer to this question, the religious and ritual texts of the Sassanid era and some of the Zoroastrian written sources can be helpful; thus, relying merely on archaeological evidence cannot answer all questions about religious monuments of the Sassanid era. Thus, achieving a comprehensive perspective in this regard necessitates finding a logical relationship between the archaeological evidence and the Zoroastrian written texts. The religious texts have pointed to the fact that the position of Ahriman and winter is the north direction or Apakhtar. Since Iranians assumed the north direction as the position of winter and had no enemy bigger than winter or north and also considered the coldness as the worst disaster, they likely tended to construct their major buildings in a direction that deviated from the north because this is an important point that had been taken into consideration in religious and ritual ceremonies in Zoroastrianism. By reviewing all of the groupings and classifications presented by researchers on the location and placement of the fire-related monuments across Iran, we can figure out that most of these monuments, either having a circumambulation or without it, either being isolated or being located at the villages or city centers, and either belonging to the early, mid, or late Sassanid era, have been built on ordinal directions, and the deviation-from-north pattern is observable in most of them. In the present work, the Authors attempt to investigate the reasons for the placement of the fire temples and Chahar Taqis on ordinal directions by using a descriptive-analytical method. For this purpose, initially, the religious texts such as Avesta, Vendidad, and other Zoroastrian texts are investigated through the documentary method. Then, relying on the archaeological evidence, the instances of deviation from the north in the fire temples are identified and introduced. On this basis, the fire temples and Chahar Taqis of the Sassanid era across Iran are investigated. Yet, the main analysis in this work is based on some newly found fire temples in the west of Iran, which have provided considerable evidence in this regard. 

Discussion 
Consider the Adur Gushnasp fire temple in Takht-e Suleiman as the criterion for the identification of the Sassanid fire temples architecture style, said that the influence of this type of building plan (especially deviation from the north) can be observed in other fire temples of this era. According to the explorations of the Sassanid fire temples in the west of Iran, most of them have some features in common, one of which is the deviation from north and construction on ordinal directions. For instance, among the three Shiyan, Mil-e Milegeh, and Palang Gerd fire temples, there are similarities in terms of the plan, material, firebases, T-shape platform, and deviation from the north. In Mil-e Milegeh and Palang Gerd, the T-shape platforms are placed between the northern piers while in the Shiyan fire temple; the T-shape platform is placed at the western gate. Despite various theories regarding the function of these platforms, the T-shape platforms have been placed in such a manner as to avoid facing the north while performing or watching the ceremonies. Considering the religious, political, and social changes occurring during the 3 several hundred years of the Sassanid dynasty, it is inferable that the plans of the religious buildings of the early, mid, and late Sassanid era exhibit some changes. However, the construction of religious buildings in ordinal directions is a factor that has been taken into consideration during the whole Sassanid dynasty without being changed. Based on the archaeological evidence we can observe the deviation from the north in the placement of the building of the temples, direction of the building’s entrance, and finally, the placement of the platforms in the interior space of the temples. Some of the reasons for considering the deviation from the north include the consideration of the ritual and mythical issues, the lethality of coldness in Iranian’s culture, confliction between the position of the Iranian and Indian Yazatas and demons, and a significant relationship between the direction and intensity of sunlight and its impact on the formation of spatial patterns of the constructions. 

Conclusion 
Although there is not sufficient information available regarding how the location for fire temples was selected, an investigation and comparison of the Avesta and Zoroastrian written sources with archaeological evidence indicates that some ritual aspects such as considering a deviation from the north have been probably an essential factor when constructing these monuments. The most obvious evidence for the consideration of the deviation from the north can be seen in Adur Gushnasp fire temple, the plan of which has been repeated in most of the fire temples of the Sassanid era, especially in fire temples of the west of Iran such as Shiyan, Mil-e Milegeh, and Palang Gerd. Since the direction to which the Mobads, individuals, and fire were facing has been very important in ritual ceremonies and other purification-related ceremonies, the construction of these monuments in a direction that deviated from the north might be attributed to the religious and mythical instructions. The comparison of the archaeological evidence with written Pahlavi sources and current Zoroastrian ceremonies indicates that the deviation from the north had been taken into consideration while selecting the temple locations, determining the building entrance directions, and the platform placement in the interior spaces of these locations. 

Abstract
Previous archaeological research in the Māhidasht region is more focused on the prehistoric period despite the importance of this large and important plain, almost no information is available about its historic period. The whole of the Māhidasht plain and especially its northern part is full of large and small sites of prehistoric and historical periods. Among these ancient settlements, Quwākh Tapeh deserves special attention due to its size, settlement sequence, and surface findings. Therefore, in this article, with a descriptive-analytical method and historical approach, we try to study the site and its surface findings, and finally answer the following questions: What periods does the site have and what was the process of its expanding? What do the findings of the Quwākh Tapeh tell us about the function of sites? The results of the study of surface findings show that the site is an important settlement that was inhabited at least from the Bronze Age and probably before that and developed in the Iron Age III and Parthian periods. Among the surface findings, the Door socket from Assyrian indicates the existence of a Neo-Assyrian-style building in the site, which according to cuneiform texts related to the political situation of the Central Zagros in this period, is probably a clue to the existence of a Neo-Assyrian building. The discovery of coins Howard from the site, show the importance of the site in the Seleucid period, is probably a clue to the long-distance trade relations of the inhabitants of this site as one of the most important ancient settlements along the Greater Khorasan Road in Māhidasht- Kouzarān plain.
Keywords: Māhidasht - Kouzarān Plain, Quwākh Tapeh, Neo-Assyrian Period, Door Socket, Bes, Alexander, Mazaeus.

Introduction
The Great Māhidasht Plain is the largest, best watered, and most fertile plain in the Zagros area. These features, along with its mild climate and, most importantly, its location on the Silk Road, have been a constant draw for human groups and important settlements have been established there. In the Great Māhidasht region, numerous studies by several scholars have identified 550 archaeological sites from Paleolithic to historical times, some of which are registered on the Iran National Heritage List owing to their importance. 
One of the major settlements of the Great Māhidasht Plain is Quwākh Tapeh in the north of Māhidasht and southeast of Kouzarān, which has been studied and visited several times by archaeologists. However, little is known about this site and, despite the occasional discovery of a small treasure trove of ancient coins, it remains less-known due to the lack of archaeological excavations. 
Quwākh Tapeh is a relatively large mound located 43 km west of Kermānshāh and a little more than 4 km southeast of the small town of Kouzarān. The site comprises a large prominence 330 m long, 220 m wide, and 17 m taller than the surrounding lands (Great Central Mound). There are numerous small or large prominences both near to and far from the mound, indicating a large archaeological site measuring 500 m2, with a current area of approximately 25 ha. 
The mound was first identified in Schmidt’s 1934 surveys, locating Quwākh Tapeh on a map published in 1940 in the book, Flights Over Ancient Cities of Iran. Some years later, in the 1940s, the site was surveyed and visited by Stein. Ali Akbar Sarfarāz and colleagues reexamined the site in the surveys of the Great Māhidasht Plain in 1968. In 1998, during the investigations of Abbas Motarjem in Kouzarān plain, Quwākh Tapeh was revisited. In his report, Motarjem described Quwākh Tapeh as a site dating back to the Parthian period.

Findings
Nearly 30 years ago, a student accidentally found a small ceramic vessel containing a highly important treasure 205 m east of the central high mound of Quwākh Tapeh. Shortly thereafter, the incident was reported to the Kouzarān police and the Cultural Heritage Office of Kermānshāh then became aware of the discovery. This is how the treasure was kept safe from plunder and all of its contents were collected and made available to the government.
According to locals, this small treasure was found about 1 m deep at 205 m east of the Great Central Mound of Quwākh Tapeh and was revealed by floods after digging a canal in the mounds. The ceramic vessel contained 141 silver coins featuring Alexander the Great, Mazaeus the Achaemenid/Macedonian Satrap of Babylon and imitating Athenian Owl type. 
This treasure has a total weight of roughly 2 kg and the very small amount of green oxide on the coins shows they were minted with high-grade silver. It seems likely that the treasure was deposited during the Early Seleucid period, given the time span of the discovered coins and the lack of specimens more recent than the Antiochus I or II period. 

Stone Door Socket
On our first visit to the eastern slope of Quwākh Tapeh in 2014, we found four pieces of white limestone, one of which was used as a staircase, in the courtyard of a deserted and half-ruined house. Near another house to the south of the site were several other carved stones, one of which, if not an obelisk base, is probably a small stone casket. Our recent visit revealed that the owner of the abandoned house had removed the stone staircase to the edge of his farmland. Examination showed that this carved and ornamented stone was not an ordinary stone fragment, but a very large door socket in the style of the Neo-Assyrian period. Similar door sockets were uncovered in Neo-Assyrian palaces or temples of the Mesopotamia, including the temple of Nebo in Khorsabad, Neo-Assyrian palaces at Nimrud and Khorsabad, and Neo-Assyrian provincial capitals such as Arsalanatash, Till-Barsib, and Ziyaret Tepe. This monumental door socket indicates that Quwākh Tapeh was not an ordinary village, but rather a place with important constructions, the most important of which was likely a complex dating back to the Neo-Assyrian period.

Conclusion 
The results of our investigation into Quwākh Tapeh-especially the extent of archaeological deposits and the existence of numerous and varied pottery collections and stone objects—indicate that Quwākh Tapeh was an important center in the Neo-Assyrian period and that it contains significant archeological remnants. The discovery of the door socket in the Neo-Assyrian period is particularly interesting. If this door socket belongs to the Assyrian period, it is in fact the second Zagros site, after Tapeh Giyan in Nahavand, to reveal remnants of the Neo-Assyrian Empire of the 8th century BCE. Given that the Assyrian cuneiform texts speak of the conquest of the region and its annexation to the Neo-Assyrian Empire, the discovery of this finding may be important to tracing the Assyrian settlement in Iran, which is frequently mentioned in the texts, but missing from archaeological remnants.
The discovery at Quwākh Tapeh of a small treasure trove of ancient coins dating back to the 4th through 3rd centuries BCE is also significant. The finding of the Athenian Owl-type coins in the heart of central Zagros, far from their minting location, is important in itself, and will bring forth various topics for further study. The most recent coin in the collection dates back to the four Century BCE. This suggests that the treasure found at Quwākh Tapeh was likely deposited in the early Seleucid period (before 320 BCE).