Shahdad

A series of settlements on an oasis in the Kirman province, Iran, dated from the late 4th millennium BC. A series of floods in prehistoric times destroyed most buildings, but left brick-lined tombs and many artifacts suggesting that Shahdad was an important manufacturing and trading center in the first half of the 3rd millennium BC, contemporary with the Early Dynastic period in Mesopotamia. There were a number of almost life-size unbaked clay statues found lying in the graves, face to face with the corpses, presumed to be actual portraits of the dead people. Bronze, copper, and silver was locally worked and made into tools, decorated vessels, ornaments, and cylinder seals. Other finds include vessels of steatite and alabaster, and beads of agate, carnelian, and lapis lazuli. A very early form of writing appears on pottery, sometimes incised, sometimes impressed with seals; some 700 different pictographic symbols have been identified, occurring singly or in groups of up to five symbols. The evidence documents the emergence of stratified societies during the 3rd millennium BC.

An oasis on the edge of the great Lut desert northeast of Kerman in eastern Iran, which has an important prehistoric site of the later 4th and 3rd millennia bc. A series of floods in prehistoric times destroyed most buildings, but left brick-lined tombs and many artefacts suggesting that Shahdad was an important manufacturing and trading centre in the first half of the 3rd millennium bc (contemporary with the Early Dynastic period in Mesopotamia). Among the most interesting finds were a number of almost lifesize unbaked clay statues found lying in the graves, face to face with the corpses. Both male and female statues occur and are presumed to be actual portraits of the dead people. Metal, both bronze and silver, was locally worked and made into tools, decorated vessels, ornaments and cylinder seals. Other finds include vessels of steatite and alabaster, and beads of agate, carnelian and lapis lazuli. A very early form of writing appears on pottery, sometimes incised, sometimes impressed with seals: some 700 different pictographic symbols have been identified, occurring singly or in groups of up to five symbols. These discoveries indicate wideranging trade networks, a high level of craft specialization and the existence of a wealthy élite.