Fatemeh Alizadeh, Rouhollah Shirazi

Central Asiatic Journal, Jahrgang 62 (2019), Ausgabe 2, Seite 253 - 276

The Parthian pottery of southeastern Iran is not well known to archaeologists. The aim of this article is thus not only to emphasise the esthetical value of the motifs and colours used on everyday artefacts in this easternmost part of southern Iran, but to use archaeological finds in order to determine the integration of the Makran region into the rest of the Persian cultural sphere as well as into southern and central Asia. Excavations at related sites, such as at Chabahar and Nik Shahr, serve as vectors of comparison with pottery from other Parthian sites, whilst the present study will attempt to create a comparative typology.

Hossein Sarhaddi-Dadian, Hossein Moradi, Rouhollah Shirazi, Zuliskandar Ramli

Central Asiatic Journal, Jahrgang 62 (2019), Ausgabe 2, Seite 175 - 192

The present paper intends to analyse ancient local society, as a result of migration and cultural communication between various ethnic groups throughout the eastern part of the Iranian Plateau. Based on the results of excavations in the cemetery of Shahr-i Sokhta, offerings, tools and skeletons were examined. The alignment and positioning of the buried bodies changed over the centuries as a consequence of people with different ethnic backgrounds migrating to the site along the commercial routes connecting Central Asia in the north with Baluchistan and the coastal regions of the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, as well as between Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley. The study suggests at least five different geographical origins of Shahr-i Sokhta's inhabitants in the third millennium.