EAST AND WESTFounded by Giuseppe Tucci

QUARTERLY PUBLISHED BY THE

ISTITUTO ITALIANO PER IL MEDIO ED ESTREMO ORIENTEWITH A GRANT FROM THE

CONSIGLIO NAZIONALE DELLE RICERCHE

IsMEO

New Series, Vol. 35 - No. 4 (December 1985)

CONTENTS

IsMEO Activities - Report on the Activities of the Italian Institute for the Middleand Far East (lsMEO), 1985 319

Centro Scavi e Ricerche Archeologiche

Activities at Home

The Data Treatment

Laboratory 0/ Bioarchaeology

329

331

Archaeological Missions

Yemen - Archaeological Activities in the Yemen Arab Republic, 1985 337

Kuwaic - Bronze-Age Crafts at Failaka: Some Preliminary Observations on StoneVase Fragments 396

Oman - Excavations at the RH5 and RH6 Sites, Qurm, Winter 1985-1986 407

Iran - Elaboration of Data from Sbabr-i Sokhta Excavations 418

Pakistan-I - The Italian Archaeological Mission in Pakistan 430

Pakistan-2 - Geophysical Investigations at Moenjodaro , 1985 451

Pakistan-3 - Excavations of a Bronze-Age Ceramic Manufacturing Areas at LalShah, Mehrgarh 458

Nepal - Excavations at Htirjigau . 469

Thailand - Our Contribution to the Thailand Archaeometallurgy Project (TkP) 487

Centro di Studi Storici e Tecnici per la Conservazione dei Monumenti

Nepal - Campaign Held between November 1985 and January 1986

Aims of the Institute .

493

504

Pakistan-3 - Excavations of a Bronze-Age Ceramic Manufacturing Areas at LalShah . MehYf!arh 458

IRAN

Elaboration of Data from Shahr-i Sokhta Excavations

New Materials in the Studyof the Manufacture of Stone Vases

at Sbabr-i Sokbta

In summer 1984, soon after the IsMEOmeeting 'Archeologia Protostorica dell'AsiaMedia: Due esperienze a confronto' (Rome,July 4-7) new materials in the study ofstone vases, particularly alabaster vessels,were discovered among Shahr-i Sokhta ma­terial stored at IsMEO's Centro Scavi e Ri­cerche Archeologiche.

In the paper we gave at the above-men­tioned meeting a preliminary interpretationwas put forward. This considered alabastervessels as luxury goods whose social valueis evident from the composition of goodsin graves as well as from the intensive reuseof broken vase fragments. On the sameoccasion some consideration was given tothe stratigraphical distribution of the ala­baster materials at the Sistanic site as well,suggesting a major concentration of thesevalued containers from the very beginningof period II to the ini tial phase of periodIII (fig. 1) e). Furthermore, while it waspossible to enrich the vessel typological chartby the introduction of overall proportionaldistinctions for the biconical beaker type, topropose a typology both for the so-called'conical lamps' and for the spindle-whorls,as well as the reconstruction of the ways ofreusing alabaster fragments, no further essen­tial advances have been made with regardto the reconstruction of stone vase products.

But, as previously mentioned, soon afterthe French-Italian meeting, new materialswere discovered that give a better under-

(I) All drawings are by Patricia Smith.

418

occasion some consideration was given tothe stratigraphical distribution of the ala-

standing of stone vase manufacturing atShahr-i Sokhta and validate the manufactur­ing process proposed by the author someyears ago (Ciarla 1979, 1981).

The new material can be grouped into:

1) Finished goods.

2) Unfinished vases.

3) Tools.

4) Reused pieces.

1. Finished Goods .

Only two complete conical vessels (surfacefinds) can be added to our collection. Bothof them are extremely well polished on theouter surface and offer a clue to a betterunderstanding of phase 3b in the above­mentioned reconstruction: ' ... the outer andinner surfaces are homogeneously smoothedby moving the tool obliquely to the verticalaxis of the wall or radialIy from the baseof the vessel ...' (Ciarla 1979: 328). Whilethe working traces validate the operation ofthe proposed polishing process, it is evident,on both of them, that the outer surface hasbeen very carefullly finished, leaving theinner surface still smooth, but not completely.Two kinds of marking were, moreover, veryevident inside:

a) very thin circular 'furrows' ;

b) very thin radi al 'furrows' ,

These markings seem to be the by-productof some kind of tool like an emery-boardand an emery-wheel that was used to grindoff the ribbing on the walls left by thehollowing-out phase. Moreover, these kindof markings are no longer apparent underthe lip of the vessels, as if the artisan had

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mentioned reconstruction: ' ... the outer andinner surfaces are homogeneously smoothed

1,

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1. UNRESTRICTED VESSELS

2. RESTRICTED VESSELS

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ion of

4.INDEPENDENT RESTRICTED VESSELS

5.MORTARS

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Fig. 1 - Chronological distribution of alabaster vessel types at Shahr-i Sokhta.

limited polishing to the visible portions ofthe container.

2. Unfinished Vases

2.1. 'Rough-hewn' vases

Four specimens, all of them surface finds,can be linked to the initial stage of themanufacturing process. Out of the four'stone solids', three of them show extremelywell the first phase of shaping a roughlyoutlined silhouette from a rough chunk byhammering and chiselling (figs. 2-5). Thealabaster chunk seems to be first shapedinto an almost cylindrical form : all alongthe lateral surface large 'flakes' are strippedoff by hammering verticaIIy to the longeraxis of the piece of stone. Holding thestone in one hand, the craftsman probablyturned it stroke by stroke with his fingers.

The shaping and finishing of the flatbases are more carefully done. First theyare roughly hammered and then finelyflattened by careful chiselling, producing afishscale-type surface.

Only at this stage did the craftsman prob­ably consider the most appropriate 'Geo­metric Model' ~or shaping the vessels.

Working with a cylinder, cylinder-cone orhyperboloid shape, the rough-hewn stoneform was simply chiselled on the lateralsurface (figs. 2-3), while with cone or sphe­roid shapes a further hammering was carriedout in order to have an almost conicalshape, subsequently finely chiselled all overthe lateral surface (figs. 4-5).

2.2. Hollowing-out

Most of the alabaster wasters from Shahr-iSokhta studied up to 1983 pertained toconical (and/or spheroid) shapes; we wereparticularly excited, therefore, to find in1984 two wasters of cylinder-cone vesselsthat had been broken, moreover, during themost complicated, and less-documented, stageof the manufacturing process: the hollowing­out of the inner cavity.

While the preliminary remarks made in

420

my 1979 work seem to be validated bythe new materials found, some more valuableconsiderations can be made.

The silhouette of the inner cavity, in fact,seems to reflect the use of a drilling deviceprobably having interchangeable points ofdifferent sizes and! diameters. This hypothesisis based mainly on the presence of twodistinct cavities, one on top of the other,inside the inner profi le of the vessels (fig. 6).These almost-globular cavities can be pro­duced only if a hollowing-out process of atleast two stages is presumed:

a} drilling of a presumably cylindrical'hole';

b) hollowing-out and widening of thecavity.

At this stage of research, since we areseverely restricted by the lack of homo­geneous data (as far as we know no craftactivity areas related to alabaster vessels have'been found within or near Shahr-i Sokhta,although investigations at Tepe Graziani, 5miles east, may be considerably rewarding)we can only tentatively presume that theglobular hollowed-out cavities were obtainedby means of stone (jasper) drill-heads,bulbous in shape and of different diameters,used one after the other during the secondsubstage of the hollowing-out phase, unlesswe assume that some kind of crescent­shaped (Hint or metal) head! was verticallyassembled in a way similar to those ofmodern iron drill-heads used at Gurna(Luxor, Egypt) in the alabaster vessel work­shops (Ciarla 1979: fig. 19).

The hollowing-out of the inner cavity inalabaster vessels is definitely a questionworth further investigation, and it will prob­ably only be settled when a workshop some­where in the Turanic region is discovered.

3. Tools

3.1. Drill-heads

A few days before the French-Italianmeeting, a group of five jasper roughlyflaked elongated objects were identified, orig­inally called 'rough-hewn beads' (fig. 7a-b).

ably consider the most appropriate 'Geo­metric Model' ~or shaping the vessels.

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bulbous in shape and of different diameters,used one after the other during the second

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Figs. 2-3 - 'Rough-hewn' solids from Shahr-i Sokhta surface, probably prepared for cylin­drical shapes.

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drical shapes.

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Fig. 6a - Unfinished cylinder-cone ala­baster vessel from Shahr-i Sokhta surface.Fig . 6b - Hol lowed-out inner cavities(Del". CS U6100/33; GS). Fig. 6c ­Dressed by chiselling outer surface (Dep.

CS L16100/34; GS).

After a more thorough and controlled in­vestigation, we believe these objects couldbe drill-heads. This theory is mainly basedon a sort of wear marks detectable on the'heads' of the tools which are bulbous andslightly flattened, at the end of a flakyprysmatic body. By carefully looking at thesurface of the bulbous end, it is possible tedetect thin wear marks which reveal thatthe tools were used on some kind of rotarymachine (fig. 7c). The same kind of wearmarks, which appear as thin parallel furrows,has been found on the basal edge of heavypear-shaped, or globular-shaped granite tools(fig. 8). Moreover, parallel to the verticalaxis, symmetrical 'waists' have been observedalong the body. Obviously made on purpose,these waists could be interpreted as beingthe housing for the forked-end of the drillshaft (fig. 8d).

3.2. Polishers

Two kinds of tools used as polisherswere found in the 1984 material, mainlydistinguishable on the basis of the rawmaterials from which they were made, prob­ably according to a functional specializationof tools.

The first type of sandstone polisher isvery rough, almost tetrahedral in shape andits use is evident from the large smoothwear-furrows all along the edges.

The second type is formed by two pol­ishers made of hard brown basalt rock. Thefirst tool has a cigar-like shape and seemsto have been used at the apexes, but sinceit has weathered badly, wear traces arescarcely detectable.

The second one has an elongated shapewith a slightly concave base clearly markedby use .

Any contextual evidence links the drill­heeds and polishers just described to theShahr-i Sokhta stone-vase industry, but boththe technological features and wear marksfound up to now strongly support the useof these tools in alabaster vessel production.

We presume that future microscopic analy-

materials from which they were made, prob­ably according to a functional specialization

, .

ses of wear marks will give more weight toone theory.

4. Reuse

A few more technological remarks onlycan be added to what we said on reuse atthe IsMEO meeting, since we have justone reworked conical vase fragment at ourdisposal I(fig. 9).

A fragmented base, in fact , has beenreshaped into a very low, small cup bysimply polishing the wall and the brokenedge: first the slant of the wall has beenrectified in order to reduce the width of thebreakage, then its upper part has beencarefully polished to make a flat (unlipped)rim of a kind previously seen in the ma­terial studied to date.

As regards the manufacturing process, theoperations performed by the craftsman seemto have been the same as those describedfor the 3rd phase of the vessel manufactur­ing process.

Roberto Ciarla

REFERENCES

Ciarla, R. (1979) The Manufacture of Ala­baster Vessels at Shahr-i Sokhta andMundigak in the 3rd Millennium BC: AProblem of Cultural Identity. In Gh.Gnoli and A.V. Ross i, eds., Iranica,pp. 319-35. Napoli.

Ciarla, R; (1981) A Preliminary Analysis ofthe Manufacture of Alabaster Vessels atShahr-i Sokhta and Mundigak in the 3rdMillennium BC. In H. Harte1, ed ., SouthAsian Archaeology 1979, pp. 45-63. Berlin.

Ciarla, R. (1984) Shahr-i Sokhta AlabasterVessels: Household or Luxury Production?Paper read at the French-Italian meeting'Archeologia Protostorica dell'Asia Media:Due esperienze a confronto' (Rome, July4-7) .

423

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Fig. 7a~b - One of five jasper drill-heads (surface finds)probably used in stone vases manufacture (Dep, CSL16099/8 ; GS). Fig. 7c - Close-up view of the drill­head showing traces of rotary motion (Dep, CS

L16099/9; GS).

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Fig. Sa-c - Heavy pear-shaped granite drill -head (surface find) (Dep. CS L16100/35; GS) . Fig. 8d - Top view of the pear-shaped drill -head showingthe lateral waists (Dep, CS L16099/3; GS). Fig. 8e-f - Close-up view showing traces of rotary motion (Dep, CS L16100/35-37; GS).

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Preliminary Results of a Thorough Evaluationof the Mammal Bone Material from

Sbabr-i Sokhta

The ten-year excavations of the sand­buried town of Shahr-i Sokhta in Sistan haveyielded one of the largest Bronze-Age animalbone samples in the Middle East.

Following the excavations, a very shortsummary of the fish finds was published(Tortonese 1977), together with preliminaryreports dealing respectively with the avifauna(Cassoli 1977) and the mammals (Caloi andCompagnoni 1978), all based on a selectedpart of the bone sample. At a secondarystage, somewhat more detailed reports de­scribed the mammalian fauna (Caloi, Corn­

pagnoni and Tosi 1978), the camel remains(Compagnoni and Tosi 1978), the half-ass(Compagnoni 1978a), gazelle (Compagnoni1978b), wild carnivore (Caloi 1978), bovineremains (Caloi and Compagnoni 1981) andthe wild sheep (Compagnoni 1980) in detailalthough they were still based on the firstincomplete selection of bones .

The systematic identification and studyof the whole of this enormously large mam­mal bone sample finally began in 1984 afterhaving been formally entrusted to the author.The first step was the revision of all previousidentification and the measuring of thealready identified animal remains. After thishas been done, the next step was the identi­fication of the entirely untouched bone as­semblage from the previous seasons of ex­cavations in the settlement area of the site(1972-76).

The revision of the previous identificationbasically corroborated the main characteristicsof the domestic and wild fauna of the site,as already determined such as:

a) the very high ratio of domestic mam­mals versus wild ones;

b) the overwhelming majority of ovi­caprids (particulars sheep) and the high ratioof cattle in the domestic fauna;

c) the occurrence of wild sheep, prob­ably Urian (Ovis oignei BIyth: cf. Cornpa­gnoni 1980);

.Fig. 9 - Miniature cup reworked from the base of a fragmentedconical vase (Dep. CS L16099/17; GS).

426