More Early Bronze Age Seal Impressions from Chogha Maran, Western Central Zagros

ABSTRACT

This paper studies the glyptic origins of the seals impressed on the clay sealings Early Bronze Age trash deposits at Chogha Maran in the western Central Zagros and correlates the origins with the functions of these clay objects in order to analyse the role of the seals and sealings in the Chogha Maran administration. The examination suggests that the clay sealings were used at Chogha Maran mostly by local groups of people for managing the local economy. However, some of the sealings might have appeared at Chogha Maran as a result of long distance cultural and possibly commercial interactions. The results emphasise the significance of the administrative evidence of Chogha Maran as it represents the only known case of employing administrative mechanisms in the Central Zagros during the first half of the third millennium BCE. The evidence attests to increasing complexity in the socioeconomical organisation of western Central Zagros societies as reflected in applying administrative technology in an indigenous communally organised storage system. The nature of the Chogha Maran administration and its connections with Susa and Trans-Tigridian centres reflects a reorganisation of the socioeconomic system of the western Central Zagros societies in response to the cultural and environmental events that occurred around 3000 BCE.

KEYWORDS:

• Central Zagros
• Mahidasht
• Chogha Maran
• administrative technology
• seal impression

Acknowledgement

We wish to offer our sincere thanks to Dr Holly Pittman for her valuable advice and sharing resources. We also express our warmest appreciations to Dr Steve Renette for sharing resources, editing our English, reading a draft of this article, and his useful comments. We are also grateful to director Dr Jebrael Nokandeh, and the curators of the National Museum of Iran who gave us the chance to study and publish the seal impressions in the museum. We extend our gratitude to Ms. Khoshtan who drew the seal impressions shown in Figure 4.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 See Rashad, Frühgeschichtlichen Stempelsiegel in Iran; Alizadeh, Lowland Susiana, 36–7.

2 Rothman, “Sealings as a Control Mechanism”; Alizadeh, Socio-Economic Complexity, Alizadeh, Origins of State Organizations. The earliest known administration and administrative function of seals has been discovered in the Late Neolithic context of Sabi Abyad in the northern Syria. See Akkermans and Duistermaat, Of storage and nomads; Akkermans and Duistermaat, More Seals and Sealings.

3 Henrickson, Chalcolithic Seals and Sealings.

4 Motarjem, personal communication.

5 Weiss and Young, The Merchants of Susa; Rothman and Badler, “Contact and Development”.

6 Pittman, Chogha Maran; Khayani and Niknami, Early Bronze Age Clay Sealings.

7 Pittman, Chogha Maran.

8 Khayani and Niknami, Early Bronze Age Clay Sealings.

9 Akkermans and Duistermaat, Of storage and nomads; Akkermans and Duistermaat, More Seals and Sealings, 43–4; Frangipane, “The Development of Administration,” 224–6; Renette, Reassessment of the Round Buildings; Hallaq, “The Stone Tablet Registers”.

10 Khayani and Niknami, Early Bronze Age Clay Sealings, 97.

11 Frangipane, Different types of egalitarian societies, 159; Frangipane, Origins of administrative practices, 13.

12 Pittman, Chogha Maran.

13 Cited in Henrickson, Godin III, 709.

14 Pittman, Chogha Maran, 369.

15 All the Chogha Maran seal impressions including those 47 published by Pittman were drawn by Susan Galucci and Robert Henrickson during the 1978 fieldwork. See Henrickson, Ceramic Styles and Cultural Interaction, 318. However, eight seal impressions are drawn again for this paper based on the original sealings stored at the National Museum of Iran (Figure 2, nos. 5, 8, 15, 16, 25; Figure 3, nos. 9, 16, 17).

16 Levine, Archaeological Investigations in the Mahidasht; Levine, The Mahidasht Project; Levine, Survey in the Province of Kermanshah; Levine and Young, “A summary of the ceramic assemblages”.

17 Henrickson, Ceramic Styles and Cultural Interaction; Henrickson, Godin III; Pittman, Chogha Maran; Renette, Along the Mountain Passes; Khayani and Niknami, Early Bronze Age Clay Sealings.

18 Renette, Along the Mountain Passes, 301–6.

19 Ibid., 304.

20 Henrickson, Godin III, 708; Levine and Young, “A summary of the Ceramic Assemblages,” 48–50, figs. 27, 28, 30; Renette, Along the Mountain Passes, 306–10.

21 Henrickson, The Chronology of Central Western Iran.

22 Haerinck, Painted Pottery, 75–8; Renette, Painted Pottery from Al-Hiba.

23 Levine and Young, “A summary of the Ceramic Assemblages,” 48–50, figs. 26–31; Haerinck, Painted Pottery, 69; Renette, Along the Mountain Passes.

24 Amiet, Glyptique Susienne, n. 40, 53, 79; Rashad, Frühgeschichtlichen Stempelsiegel in Iran, n. 750; Henrickson, Chalcolithic Seals and Sealings, fig. 2: SG 73. 209, fig. 3: SG 73.18; Rashad, Frühgeschichtlichen Stempelsiegel in Iran, nos. 130, 389, 427, 436; Rothman, Tepe Gawra, pl. 27, n. 441, pl. 29, n. 481, pl. 37, n. 1087, pl. 44, n. 1587, pl. 45, n. 1671, pl. 29, n. 482, pl. 48, n. 1848.

25 Pittman, Chogha Maran, 369.

26 Delaporte, Catalogue des Cylindres Orientaux, pl. 28, nos. 9, 12, 14, 16; Amiet, Glyptique Susienne, nos. 2258, 2264.

27 Al-Gailani Werr, Old Babylonian Cylinder Seals, 17, nos. 23, 24.

28 Frankfort, Stratified Cylinder Seals, n. 369, 876.

29 Legrain, Empreintes de Cachets Élamites, pl. 15, n. 230.

30 Pittman, Chogha Maran, 369.

31 Al-Gailani Werr, Cylinder Seals Made of Clay, 2.

32 Pittman, Chogha Maran, 369.

33 Desset, Proto-Elamite Writing, 73.

34 Delaporte, Catalogue des Cylindres Orientaux, s. 260.

35 Ii, Seals and seal Impressions, n. 3, 6, 23.

36 Mentioned in Pittman, Chogha Maran, 369: Sürenhagen, Urban Centers and Rural Sites, fig. 1; Ii, Seals and seal Impressions, no. 6; Amiet, Glyptique Susienne, nos. 902, 1026, 1313, 1379, 1381.

37 Renette, Along the Mountain Passes, 230, fig. V: 61.

38 Pittman, Chogha Maran, 369.

39 Frankfort, Stratified Cylinder Seals, 19–21, pl. 3, nos. 1, 4; Pittman, Glazed Steatite Glyptic Style, 69-70, 78-130; Pittman, “Glyptic Art of the Tigridian Region,” pl. 10.11, n. 8, pl. 10.14, n. 3.

40 Ibid.; figs. 20, 21, 23,

41 Frankfort, Cylinder Seals, pl. 46, a, b, v; Amiet, “Archaic Glyptic at Shahri Sokhta,” fig. 1f, fig. 15; Collon, First Impressions, 16–19.

42 Delaporte, Catalogue des Cylindres Orientaux, pl. 17, n. 4, pl. 24, n. 10, Legrain, Empreintes de Cachets Élamites, pl. 2, n. 25; Amiet, Glyptique Susienne, nos. 831, 832, 878, 886, 888; Roach, The Elamite Cylinder Seal Corpus, n. 711.

43 Frankfort, Stratified Cylinder Seals, pl. 17, n. 162, 168; pl. 18, n. 188; pl. 21, n. 216; pl. 39, n. 407.

44 Ibid., pl. 42, n. 443.

45 Ibid., pl. 72, n. 789; pl. 77, n. 833.

46 Amiet, Glyptique Mésopotamienne, pl. 21, n. 357.

47 Martin, Fara, nos. 53, 80, 81, 82, 84.

48 Legrain, Archaic Seal-impressions, pl. 2, n. 27, pl. 8: n. 174, 180–182.

49 Ghirshman, Fouilles de Sialk, pl. 94, s. 506, s. 42.

50 Amiet, “Archaic Glyptic at Shahri Sokhta,” fig. 1f, fig. 15.

51 Al-Gailani Werr, Old Babylonian Cylinder Seals, 5, n. 2.

52 Ii, Seals and seal Impressions, nos. 3, 6, 24, 114–123.

53 Legrain, Empreintes de Cachets Élamites, pl. 15, n. 230.

54 Pittman, Glazed Steatite Glyptic Style; Pittman, Administrative Function of Glyptic Art; Dittmann, “Glyptic and Patterns of Urban Societies,” 60; Collon, “Ninevite 5 Seal Impressions”; Pittman, “Glyptic Art of the Tigridian Region,” 290.

55 Pittman, Glazed Steatite Glyptic Style, 256–7.

56 Pittman, Chogha Maran, 368; Amiet, Glyptique Susienne, nos. 1403–1431.

57 Ibid., n. 1021.

58 Porada, Cylinder Seals.

59 Ibid.

60 Legrain, Archaic Seal-impressions, pl. 6, nos. 138, 139, 140; Ii, Seals and seal Impressions, pl. 11, nos. 77, 78, 89.

61 Pittman, Glazed Steatite Glyptic Style, 77; Dittmann, “Glyptic and Patterns of Urban Societies,” 60.

62 Pittman, Glazed Steatite Glyptic Style, 77–130, 148; Collon, “Ninevite 5 Seal Impressions”; Pittman, “Glyptic Art of the Tigridian Region”.

63 Pittman, Glazed Steatite Glyptic Style, 78.

64 Young and Levine, Excavations of the Godin Project, 54, fig. 34, no. 3. The excavators attributed the clay sealing to Godin IV or III, but Pittman assigned it to Godin IV; she cited a personal communication with M. Rothman suggesting that the sealing had been wrongly labelled as coming from Godin III. See Pittman, Glazed Steatite Glyptic Style, 110–11; Pittman, Chogha Maran, 368. The chronology of the glazed steatite style supports this (see Dating section in the present paper).

65 Pittman, Glazed Steatite Glyptic Style, 269; Collon, “Ninevite 5 Seal Impressions”; Pittman, “Glyptic Art of the Tigridian Region”.

66 Pittman, Chogha Maran, 368.

67 Zettler, “Pottery Profiles Reconstructed from Jar Sealings”.

68 Benati, Early Dynastic Period at Ur, table. 3.

69 Frankfort, Stratified Cylinder Seals, 7–11; Wilson, “Nippur,” fig. 12.

70 Carter and Stolper, Elam, fig. 15.

71 Dittmann, “Susa in the Proto-Elamite Period,” 172.

72 Gibson, “Le Protodynastique I,” 499–503; Thuesen, “Technological Analysis of Early Dynastic Pottery,” 12, table. 2.

73 Fuji, Excavations at Gubba and Songor, 141–9.

74 Pittman, Glazed Steatite Glyptic Style, 227.

75 Pittman, Administrative Function of Glyptic Art, 139.

76 Pittman, Glazed Steatite Glyptic Style, 218, 228.

77 Pittman, Chogha Maran, 368.

78 Frankfort, Cylinder Seals, nos. 240–1.

79 Pittman, Glazed Steatite Glyptic Style, 218–28.

80 Tomé, Carbal and Renette. “The Kani Shaie Archaeological Project”; Renette, Along the Mountain Passes.

81 For a comprehensive study of seals and sealings see: Frangipane, Arslantepe Cretulae.

82 Khayani and Niknami, Early Bronze Age Clay Sealings.

83 Frangipane, Different types of egalitarian societies, 159; Frangipane, Origins of administrative practices, 13.

84 Khayani and Niknami, Early Bronze Age Clay Sealings, 93.

85 For the functions of the Chogha Maran clay sealings see: Khayani and Niknami, Early Bronze Age Clay Sealings, 95–6, fig. 3, 4.

86 Pittman, Glazed Steatite Glyptic Style, 238.

87 Ibid; Pittman, Administrative Function of Glyptic Art.

88 Pittman and Blackman, Mobile or Stationary?

89 Majidzadeh and Pittman, Excavations at Konar Sandal, 100, fig. 32e.

90 Pittman, “Administrative Role of Seal Imagery,” 20, 23.

91 For such a study see: Pittman, “Administrative Role of Seal Imagery”.

92 Renette, “Early Bronze Age Zagros Interaction Sphere”.

93 Khayani and Niknami, Administrative Organization of Chogha Maran.

94 Alden, Trade and Politics.

95 Brooks, Cultural Responses to Aridity; Staubwasser and Wiess, Holocene Climate and Cultural Evolution; Stevens et al., Timing of atmospheric precipitation.