شواهدی از عناصر تزئینی سفال‌های عصر مفرغ قدیم یانیق‌تپه

شروع بررسی و کاوش های باستان شناسی در شمال غرب ایران از 1948 م. به بعد، نشانه هایی از تحولات فرهنگی که در روند جابه جایی جمعیتی به وجود آمده بودند را مشخص می کرد. مهاجرانی که بر اثر تغییرات زیست محیطی یا افزایش جمعیت و کمبود منابع زیستی در اواخر هزارۀ چهارم و اوایل هزارۀ سوم قبل ازمیلاد در گسترۀ وسیعی از شرق باستان از شمال شرق آناتولی تا جنوب لوانت استقرار پیدا کردند. این دورۀ فرهنگی در ادبیات باستان شناسی، دورۀ ماوراء قفقاز قدیم یا فرهنگ کوراارس نامیده شده است. شاخصۀ این فرهنگ در بُعد سفالگری، ساخت و تولید گونه ای از سفال سیاه رنگ صیقلی، داغ دار منقوش با معماری مدور و راست گوشه است. هدف اصلی از ارائۀ این پژوهش، دستیابی به چگونگی ارتباط شکلی و نوع نقوش سفال های این محوطه است که در پی سامان دهی مخازن موزۀ ملی در سال 1383 ه.ش. شناسایی، ثبت و مطالعه گردید. پرسش محوری این پژوهش را می توان این گونه مطرح کرد که سفالگران مهاجر، تجارب هنری خاستگاه اولیۀ خود را تا چه حد توانستند بر سبک هنری این سفال ها نشان دهند؟ داده های این پژوهش براساس مطالعات موزه ای و منابع کتابخانه ای، جمع آوری و موردمطالعۀ تطبیقی قرار گرفت. شیوۀ تجزیه و تحلیل اطلاعات از گونۀ کیفی بوده و ازنظر ماهیت پژوهشی در دستۀ پژوهش های تاریخی-فرهنگی قرار می گیرد. تفکیک آماری سفال ها نشان داد که بیشترین نقش ها مربوط به تلفیق الگوهای هندسی چون نوارهای تزئینی و ساده با نقش جانوران و پرندگان بوده که اهمیت این جانوران در بافت زیست محیطی منطقه را در روند اقتصاد معیشتی با تمرکز بردامداری و شکار نشان می دهد. مقایسۀ این نقش ها با دیگر حوزه های فرهنگی در گسترۀ جغرافیایی عصرمفرغ قدیم در محدودۀ جغرافیایی شمال غرب، غرب و مرکز فلات ایران تا مناطقی از آناتولی و ماوراء قفقاز بیانگر برخی نقوش تاثیرپذیر از مبدا و نقوشی دیگر برروی این سفال ها بومی و محلی بوده است.

New Evidence from Decorative Patterns of Early Bronze Age Pottery at Yanik Tepe, Iran

AbstractBeginning in 1948, archaeological surveys and excavations in northwest Iran brought to light evidence of cultural developments related to the movements of people who colonized vast parts of the Near East from northeast Anatolia to southern Levant in the late 4th and early 3rd millennium B.C., prompted by environmental changes, population boom or shortage of biological resources in their homeland. The period is best known in the archaeological literature as the Early TransCaucasian (ETC) or KuraAraxes culture, and is distinguished, by a disparate black burnished pottery with incised decorations. Here is published for the time a sample of decorative patterns on the related pottery from Yanik Tepe. The main question of the study was: To what extent did the newcomer potters communicated on this pottery the artistic traditions they had brought with themselves from their homeland? Data gathered through museum and library enquiries were used to carry out a comparative study. Data analysis was of qualitative nature, and the study represented one of culturehistorical. Keywords: Azarbaijan, Yanik Tepe, Early Bronze Age, Pottery, National Museum of Iran.IntroductionThe question central to this study is: Does the KuraAraxian pottery tradition at Yanik Tepe reflect traits induced by indigenous experimentations, or it was simply developed via foreign inspirations and cultural interactions? As stated, the pottery assemblages from Yanik Tepe had remained intact since their initial movement to National Museum of Iran after the close of excavation. Preparatory work was therefore required before deciding on or attempting any sort of study. Accordingly, the whole collection was recorded and washed before the decorated sherds were singled out and sorted into such groups as geometric motifs, animal motifs, plain, and miscellaneous. This was followed by the documentation process that involved photographing, drawing and registering the entire formal and technical attributes of individual pieces. Attempts were made to exclude from the final sample the patterns that were identical to those already published by Burney in various places. Also to meet the diversity criterion, pieces were selected from as varied excavated exposures as Areas or Trenches H, HX, K, L, M, P and different Levels, viz. YT.HX3, YT161HX, YTHX4, YT.HX1, YTK3, YT.HH1, YTH5, YT.HH1A, YT.C5, YT.P2, YT.LIA, YT.HH10, YT.HX1, YT.L3PRMII, YT.P2, YT.39C, and YT.RH13.Yanik TepeA key site in the archaeology of the eastern Urmia Lake Basin, Yanik Tepe is 30 km southwest of Tabriz and 6 km from Khosrowshahr, within the village of Tazeh Kand on the Talkheh Rud. Burney excavated the site in 1960, 1961 and 1962, shortly after its identification in 19589. Yanik Tepe consists of a high mound and a low mound, rising 16.5 m and 1.50 m from the surrounding lands, respectively. With an original total area of about 6 hectares, it represents a typesite of the KuraAraxes culture in Azerbaijan (Burney 1963, 138). Large parts of the site are now destroyed. Typical of the culture that flourished at Yanik Tepe were round and rectilinear houses and a distinct pottery tradition. Most intriguing are those types that resemble the material from the vast cultural horizon of eastern Anatolia and the early TransCaucasia of the mid3rd millennium BC. Building on the results of his excavations at Yanik Tepe, Burney divided the whole KuraAraxes (or the ETC) sequence to the three discrete periods of ETC I, ETC II, and ETC III, where the earliest period marks the birth of the culture in its motherland, the second is associated with round structures and decorated pottery, and the latest sees the predominance of rectilinear architecture and virtual disappearance of decorations on pottery (Summers 2004, 619620). For a more recent and detailed discussions on the chronology and dates as well as the stratigraphy of Yanik Tepe, the reader is referred to Summers 2013; 2014, 157159. An idiosyncrasy of the Early Bronze Age at Yanik Tepe is the handmade, black or gray burnished pottery with incised patterns. The technique is reminiscent of woodcarving and was presumably inspired by the densely forested landscape of the homeland of bearers of the culture who came to the rather sparsely wooded regions of northwest and west Iran. The technique was widely applied to pottery along with excised patterns, filled with white and occasionally ocher pastes. Designs like birds and highly stylized rams or ibexes with curled horns, and bands of geometric motifs were carved on bowls, jars and footed pedestal vessels and small cups, the pottery forms common to the period. The Middle Bronze period marks a shift in architectural styles as the related houses were built in a rectilinear plan using mud bricks. The thick walls spoke of twostoried buildings. The use of decorations diminishes, and the socalled graphite burnished technique emerges on a few examples of cups. Vessels are relatively finer, and burnishing is more frequent. Pottery forms show no considerable differences between the two periods (Burney 1962). However, the socalled Nakhichevan lugs, common to the latter period, occur now only in a vestigial form. KuraAraxes Pottery of Yanik TepeThis section gives a description of the pottery with a special focus on decorations, along with a series of so far unpublished illustrations, which besides enriching the existing literature on the pottery history, are intended to improve the current picture of the evolution of pottery styles through the long KuraAraxian horizon at Yanik Tepe. It is notable that, as stated earlier, the pieces and decorations published here have not been introduced in any earlier publications and have been selected from various trenches and levels to ensure a representative sample to the possible extent. The KuraAraxian pottery, coming in disparate wares and decorations, represent a new style that newcomer artisans had brought with themselves to northwest Iran. It is characterized by dark gray or shiny black or light brown color; vessels are handmade, contain mineral tempers, and show a burnished surface bearing an assortment of motifs such as spirals, “ram horns” and concentric circles or “eyes” (Burney and Lang 1971). In the KuraAraxes Period I, rail rims were common, the Nakhichevan lugs were not yet emerged, and some Chalcolithic forms and decorative techniques persisted (Glumac and Anthony 1992). Related material occurs at most sites in Caucasia, the eastern fringes of Anatolia, and Geoy Tepe K1 (Sagona 2000).The Period II is distinguished by the abundance of elbow handles and advent of semicircular Nakhichevan lugs; the rail rims are utterly absent (Seyedov 2000). Notable in the assemblages is the ubiquitous concentric circles or “eyes” and incised triangles or chevrons. The pottery with its distinctive incised decorations shows influences from neighboring spheres. Various motifs are discernible. Animals, birds and fish occur in abundance. Birds appear as stylized representations on jars and bowls with decorations always reserved for the base or close to it. Also present are very simple geometric designs, bands raging from plain examples of undulating lines to those of a very intricate combination of nested designs, horizontal grooves or hatches, zigzags and doted patterns, rows of geometric motifs like lozenges with adjoining triangles filled with a various combinations of incised dots in diverse arrangements, swastikas, small lozenges and slanting motifs. Spirals and concentric circles were applied in incised form and evolved into an excised form with the related patterns filled with a white paste or lime. A frequent motif is the sharply angled triangles evoking the mountain motif as is the incised patterns imitating cuneiform signs. They are much finer compared with the ordinary handmade pieces. The KuraArax II material from Yanik Tepe find parallels in Geoy K1, Yakhvali, Ravaz (Kohna Shahar), Baruj, Haftavan VII and Godin IV (Burney 1961, 1962; Kleiss and Kroll 1979; Asurov 2000).Typical to the KuraAraxes III assemblages are the incised spirals and loop handles attached to the rim. The concentric circles occur in a higher frequency (Burney and Lang 1971, 67; Seyedov 2000, 19). Nakhichevan lugs show a gradual decline. Related pottery is known from Geoy K3, Godin IV, Shengavit IV, Kul Tepe of Nakhichevan, Kvatskhelebi in Georgia and sites in the Koban area of East Anatolia (Burney 1961, 1962; Burney and Lang 1971; Sagona 2000).