Mariyānمریان
Location: Mariyān is the name of an ancient cemetery in the vicinity of the village of Mariyān in northern Iran, the Gilān Province.
37°51’17.3″N 48°39’16.0″E
Map
Historical Period
Iron Age
History and description
The graveyard at Mariyān is located in the vicinity of a village of the same name, 35 km west of Hashtpar, in the valleys of the southern Talesh region. Originally, there was a mound in a large open area to the south of a nineteenth-century hammām. The mound was largely destroyed during farming activities in the 1980s. A few graves on the southern slopes of what had been left of the mound were still intact during the archaeological excavations in 1994. Twenty-two stone circle burials were excavated at Mariyān (fig. 1). Most of the tombs are individual. Still, there are some collective ones in which either families or specific groups within the community are buried (figs. 2 and 3). In some cases skeletal remains disappeared due either to the acidity of soil or looting. The tombs are built in large blocks of stones in the shape of a circle or oval and are covered with a series of heavy slabs or stones. The average size is 150 x 80 x 70 cm. The collective tombs are larger. It seems that the megalithic graveyard at Mariyān was originally much larger, including dozens of burials that had been either looted or destroyed before the binning of archaeological excavations.
Fig. 1. Tomb 12 at Mariyān (after Khalatbari, Archaeological Excavations in Ancient Sites of Talesh. Mariyān and Tandevin, p. 90, fig. 23)
Fig. 2. View of tomb 20 with a collective burial at Mariyān (after Khalatbari, Archaeological Excavations in Ancient Sites of Talesh. Mariyān and Tandevin, p. 103, fig. 31)
Fig. 3. Tomb 20 at Mariyān (after Khalatbari, Archaeological Excavations in Ancient Sites of Talesh. Mariyān and Tandevin, p. 103, line drawing)
Archaeological Exploration
The graveyard at Mariyān was excavated by Mohammad Reza Khalatbari on behalf of the Iranian Center for Archaeological Research in 1994.
Finds
Pottery: Typical pottery of the Late Iron Age period, including gray ware vessels, and buff ware vessels (fig. 4)
Metals: A number of bronze swords and daggers (fig. 5); spearheads, arrowheads, and mace heads in bronze; personal ornaments in bronze, occasionally in silver, earrings in bronze, circular, flat objects in bronze possibly used as mirrors.
Other objects: Beads forming necklaces, bones.
Fig. 4. A collection of pottery vessels from Mariyān (after Khalatbari, Archaeological Excavations in Ancient Sites of Talesh. Mariyān and Tandevin, p. 162, fig. 81)
Fig. 5. Bronze daggers from Mariyān (after Khalatbari, Archaeological Excavations in Ancient Sites of Talesh. Mariyān and Tandevin, p. 161, fig. 83)
Bibliography
Khalatbari, M. R., Archaeological Excavations in Ancient Sites of Talesh. Mariyān and Tandevin, Tehran 1383/2004. In Persian with a summary in English.
