Workshop Kasiri/Abedi/Thomalsky
Archaeometrical Studies in Iran: State of Research and Perspectives
Organizers: Kasiri, Masoud / Ajorloo, Bahram (both: Department of Archaeology and Archaeometry, Tabriz Islamic Art University)/ Thomalsky, Judith / Mishmastnehi, Moslem (both: German Archaeological Institute, Eurasia Department, Tehran Branch)
Abstract
A long-lasting, still ongoing critical examination of the different applications for more than 75 years – since Libby developed the method of radiocarbon dating in 1946 – lead to the establishment of archaeometry as a practically self-contained science, representing a huge spectrum of distinctive methods and approaches. Beyond this, archaeometry also has pushed archaeological sciences to new perspectives for understanding and solving questions such as how ancient societies developed technologies on a minute scale; what did they eat or used and from where their resources came from. Especially in such a resource-rich country like Iran, archaeometric studies can reveal numerous aspects of the evolution of ancient technologies as well as the patterns of ancient trades and connections between societies.
During the last decade, studies on archaeometry in, throughout and alongside Iran have provided fruitful, new approaches and results. Comprehensive projects on traces of ancient mining, earthquakes, investigations on ancient ecology and climate, as well as the analyses of ancient technologies (e.g. glazed and enameled ancient materials). A larger part of these researches were run more or less independently or focused singular questions apart from comprehensive perspectives. It is worth emphasizing, that Iranian archaeometry is equally facing common global problems such as the comparativeness of valuable data references and standards by using different applications, methods and laboratories. Considerable lacks of data in special fields such as dendrochronology or isotopic studies should be filled in order to provide basic frameworks. It is therefore also necessary to determine standards of education, equipment and facilities for archaeometric departments in universities.
This requested workshop will invite scholars of different archaeometrical and archaeological disciplines from Iran and other countries, in order to establish a scientific network that will cooperate in archaeometrical researches in Iran. We will gather and review actual data; will discuss necessities, problems in applications, data gaps, and aim to bind the loose ties of facilities and capacities for future researches.
Participants
A. Aali (Archaeological Museum of Zanjan, Zanjan, Iran)
Kamran Ahmadi (Research Center for Conservation of Cultural Relics (RCCCR), Tehran, Iran)
Bahram Ajorloo (Department of Archaeometry, Faculty of Applied Arts, Tabriz Islamic Art University, Tabriz, Iran)
Veli Bakhshaliyev (Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, Azerbaijan)
Rémi Berthon (Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, UMR 7209 du CNRS, France)
Michael Bode (Deutsches Bergbau-Museum, Bochum, Germany)
Achim Bräuning (Institute of Geography, Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nurnberg, Erlangen, Germany)
Mohammadamin Emami (Department of Conservation of Cultural Heritage, Art University of Isfahan, Iran)
Zeynab Foroozan (Institute of Geography, Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nurnberg, Erlangen, Germany)
Nicolas Gailhard (Department National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) Sorbonne University, Paris, France)
Negar Ghorbani (Department of Archaeometry, Faculty of Applied Arts, Tabriz Islamic Art University, Tabriz, Iran)
Michael W. Gregg (Department of Anthropology, St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Canada)
Masoud B. Kasiri (Department of Archaeometry, Faculty of Applied Arts, Tabriz Islamic Art University, Tabriz, Iran)
François-Xavier Le Bourdonnec (Université Bordeaux, France)
Elise Luneau (CNRS UMR 8215, Nanterre Cedex, France)
Catherine Marro (Université Lyon, Archéorient, UMR 5133, France)
Verónica Martinez Ferreras (ERAAUB, Department of History and Archaeology, University of Barcelona, Spain)
Wendy Matthews (Department of Archaeology, Reading University, United Kingdom)
Morteza Momenzadeh (Zarneh Research Group, Tehran, Iran)
Alexander Nagel (Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, USA)
Hasan Fazelinashli (Department of Archaeology, University of Tehran, Iran)
Nima Nezafati (Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Department of Geology, Tehran, Iran)
Marie Orange (LabEx LaScArBx, Bordeaux Montaigne University, France)
Ernst Pernicka (Curt-Engelhorn-Zentrum Archäometrie, Mannheim/Institut für Geowissenschaften, Universität Heidelberg, Germany)
Kambiz Pourtahmasi (Department of Wood and Paper Science & Technology, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran)
Mehdi Razani (Department of Archaeometry, Faculty of Applied Arts, Tabriz Islamic Art University, Tabriz, Iran)
Simone Riehl (Institut für Naturwissenschaftliche Archäologie, Universität Tübingen/ Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment, Frankfurt, Germany)
Yassin Sedghi (Department of Archaeometry, Faculty of Applied Arts, Tabriz Islamic Art University, Tabriz, Iran)
Thomas Stöllner (Deutsches Bergbau-Museum, Bochum, Germany)
Programme
9:00 E. Pernicka: Archaeometallurgical researches in central Iran
9:30 N. Nezafati/M. Momenzadeh/K. Ahmadi: A Road Map for the Ancient Mining and Metallurgical Studies in Iran
10:00 M. B. Kasiri: Relative Dating of Chehrabad (Iran) Salt Mine Mommies on the Basis of Fluorine, Uranium, and Nitrogen content
10:30 Z. Foroozan/A. Bräuning/K. Pourtahmasi: The Potential of Tree Rings for Reconstructing Climate History in Northern Iran
11:00 Coffee break
11:30 H. Fazelinashli /M. W. Gregg : Agricultural Societies at the Intersection of the Southern Coastal Plain of the Caspian Sea and Foothills of the Alborz Mountains in Northern Iran
12:00 S. Riehl: Addressing the role of environmental fluctuations in ancient resource management by plant remains and stable carbon isotope measurements (Chogha Golan)
12:30 W. Matthews: High-resolution analyses of early agricultural built environments in the Zagros: integrating archaeobotany, micromorphology and geochemistry
13:00 Lunch break
14:00 A. Nagel: Elamite Polychromies: New Research on Pigment-Stratigraphy from Chogha Zanbil and Susa
14:30 V. Martinez Ferreras/E. Luneau: New Pottery Analyses from southern Uzbekistan: a trans-chronological Perspective
15:00 M. Razani/B. Ajorloo: The experimental archaeology of Islamic potteries from Qaradagh, Azerbaijan, NW Iran
15:30 M. Emami/Y. Sedghi: Set on the Fire over 4th millennium BC: Preliminary Multi-Analytical Approach to the Ceramic Production Technology in Tal-i Eblis
16:00 Coffee break
16:30 N. Gailhard/M. Bode: The Copper Mines of Nakhchivan: an archeometallurgical and archaeometry
17:00 A. Aal/T. Stöllner: The salt-mine and salt-mummy project of Chehrabad (Iran): Recent interdisciplinary research
17:30 M. Orange/F.-X. Le Bourdonnec/R. Berthon/V. Bakhshaliyev/C. Marro: Looking north: first insights into the consumption of obsidian from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age in Nakhchivan