Name
Jafarabad/Djafarabad جعفر آباد
Map
Historical Period
Neolithic, Islamic
History and description
Jafarabad is a mound located 7 km north of Susa on the east bank of the Shaur River in Khuzestan. The site consists of a main mound with a flattened, walled area. The site was first occupied in the fifth millennium B.C. and, with a few chronological gaps, continued to be attractive for human settlement until the fourteenth century.
Six architectural levels divided into three main chronological periods have been recognized at Djaffarabad. The earliest period, dated to the fifth millennium B.C. (the Early Village period) is known from the materials recovered from Levels 6 to 4. This includes remains of rudimentary walls and units in pisé, covering a maximum of 2000 m². The settlement saw three major rebuilding phases, the size of which was reduced in Level 4. Then, the settlement was abandoned. In Level 3, the site was reoccupied and houses were built around a central area. The settlement was rebuilt several times up to the last occupation level, Level 1. There are burials of three children in the abandoned structures of Periods I-II.
Archaeological Exploration
Jafarabad was first explored by Louis Le Breton and Roland de Mecquenem while working at Susa in 1934. The site was the object of a careful excavation project from 1969 to 1974 by Geneviève Dollfus on behalf of the French Archaeological Delegation at Susa.
Finds
Typical ceramics of the Middle to Late Susiana, plain and painted, flints, bones, stamp seals in stone, figurines.
Bibliography
Dollfus, G., “Djaffarabad 1969,” Bulletin of the Asian Institute of Pahlavi University, vol. 3, 1973, Shiraz, pp. 8-11.
Dollfus, G., “Djaffarabad 1969-1970. Rapport préliminaire sur les deux premières campagnes de fouilles,” Syria, vol. 48, 1971, pp. 61-84.
Dollfus, G., “Djaffarabad,” Iran, vol. 9, 1971, p. 178.
Dollfus, G., “Les recherches à Djaffarabad de 1969 à 1971,” Cahiers de Délégation archéologique française en Iran, vol. 1, 1971, pp. 17-86.
Dollfus, G., “Les fouilles à Djaffarabad de 1972 à 1974. Djaffarabad périodes I et II,” Cahiers de Délégation archéologique française en Iran, vol. 5, 1975, pp. 11-62.
Le Breton, L., “Notes sur la céramique peinte aux environs de Suse et à Suse: Tépé Djaffarabad,” Mémoires de la mission archéologique en Iran, vol. 30, Paris, 1947, pp. 124-146.
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