TEHRAN – A team of Iranian archaeologists has commenced a follow-up survey on the ancient Marivan plain, which is situated in Kordestan province, western Iran.

“Supervised by [Iranian archaeologists] Nemat Hariri and Mohammad Masoumian, the survey is aimed to gain a clear understanding of various historical periods across Marivan,” CHTN quoted Marivan’s tourism chief as saying on Monday.

“This study is conducted to find answers to questions about the role of the natural passage of the Marivan plain in the transfer of [early] human groups and their culture into the Iranian plateau.”

Systematic field-walking in the summer of 2018 resulted in the recording of 60 archaeological sites dating from the Neolithic to the Late Islamic periods. Of these, 37 sites were newly discovered by the Marivan Plain Archaeological Project (MPAP); the remaining 23 sites examined by the MPAP have previously been identified by researchers from Iran’ Bu-Ali Sina University, according to Cambridge University Press.

Preliminary evidence shows occupation fluctuating over time with peak settlement numbers identified for the Chalcolithic, Iron Age, Parthian, and Islamic periods. A range of diagnostic surface finds shows the complexity of archaeological material from the Marivan Plain.

Experts believe that cultural interaction in the Marivan region had a varied impact on local groups. The Zagros Mountains may have acted as a physical barrier to direct interaction curtailing or rerouting exchange, possibly via south-western Iran or the Rania plain in Iraq.

AFM