Jar

This jar has a flat base, bulging body, carinated shoulder and everted rim. It is made of a buff clay, with dark brown horizontal lines on the shoulder. It was found in a grave at Kamterlan II, a mound in Luristan in the Zagros Mountains of western Iran. Although it had been a settlement in the late third millennium B.C., by the second millennium the site had become a cemetery. The shape of the jar parallels that of bronze vessels, called ‘inkwells’ by archaeologists, which have been found in burials elsewhere in Luristan, as well as in Elam; in fact, the carinated shoulder is a feature of metalwork but not of pottery. Although their purpose is unclear, bronze inkwells attest to interaction and exchange between the elites of Elam and Luristan during the Bronze Age. This ceramic version suggests that its owner aspired to elite status.

It is often thought that the inhabitants of Luristan in this period were pastoral nomads, who moved with their herds from the high valleys of the Zagros during the summer to lowland pastures in the winter. This theory arises from the dearth of evidence for settlements, and the occurrence of isolated cemetery sites. At the same time, the infrastructure necessary for bronze working, an important industry in Luristan, suggests that some sedentary settlements must have existed. In all likelihood these settlements were not located on mounds, but at lower elevations near water sources where agriculture could be practiced. This is probably the case with Kamterlan II, where an earlier settlement was replaced around 2000 B.C. by another, lower one, and the site at the top of the mound subsequently became a cemetery.

Credit: Rogers Fund, 1943