Qasrdasht قصردشت

Name

Mohammad-Taqi Atayi

Map

Historical Period

Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Elamite, Iron Age II/III, Achaemenid, Parthian, Sasanian, Islamic

History and description

Tepe Qasrdasht is located in the plain of Kamin Plain south of the Tang-e Bōlaghi. It covers an area of about 2.3 hectares, and its height is about 16 m above the surrounding plain.

Qasr Dasht has a continuous archaeological sequence from the Middle Elamite and the Iron Age II/III periods. This makes it a key site for the study of the cultural gap that exists between the local Shogha-Taimuran phase and the Achaemenid period. Soundings at the site yielded five new pottery types that had previously been unknown in the Kur River Basin. These pottery types could be dated to the first half of the first millennium B.C.; they chronologically fill the above-mentioned cultural gap.

Archaeological Exploration

Ernst Herzfeld was the first archaeologist who mentioned the mound of Qasrdasht in his 1926 Reisebericht. A decade later, Sir Aurel Stein passed through the valley and referred to the conical mound of “Karsu-dasht.” In 1947, Mahmud Rad opened three trial trenches at the site on behalf of the Scientific Institute of Persepolis (Bongāh-e Elmi-ye Takht-e Jamshid). Rad never published his excavation results, but both Ali Sami and Mohammad Taghi Mostafavi mention that he found potsherds dating from the fourth and third millennia B.C. The site was later visited by William Sumner and Linda Jacobs in the 1970s. In 1995, Abbas Alizadeh conducted a regional survey in the valleys to the northwest of Persepolis, in which he catalogued the site of Qasrdasht. In 2016, Mohammad Taqi Atayi excavated the mound at Qasrdasht.

Finds

Finds mainly consist of potsherds. Some 85,000 potsherds were collected and examined. The five key types found at Qasrdasht are mottled and hand-made ware (fig. 2), matte red slipped ware (fig. 3), burnished orange ware (fig. 4), smoothed plain ware, and painted buff ware (fig. 5).

Fig. 2. Mottled Hand-made Ware from Qasrdasht (photo. M. T. Atayi)

Fig. 3. Two samples of Matte Red Slipped Ware sherds from Trench B, Qasrdasht (photo: M. T. Atayi)

Fig. 4. A burnished orange ware jar from Trench B at Qasrdasht. In situ and after restoration (photo: M. T. Atayi)

Fig. 5. Two painted beakers from Iron Age III deposits of Trench A at Qasrdasht (photo: M. T. Atayi)

Bibliography

Alizadeh, A., “Some Observations based on the Nomadic Character of Fars Prehistoric Cultural Development,” in Yeki Bud, Yeki Nabud: Essays on the Archaeology of Iran in Honor of William M. Sumner, Naomi F. Miller and Kamyar Abdi (eds.), Los Angeles, 2003, p. 94 (for Qasrdasht).

Atayi, M. T., “Classification and Typology of Potteries from Trench A & B at Tappeh Qasrdasht (Fars),” Majale-ye Jāmeh-ye Bāstānshenāsi-ye Iran (Journal of the Society for Iranian Archaeology), vol. 2, 1400/2021, pp. 25-83 (in Persian), available online: https://independent.academia.edu/SocietyforIranianarchaeologySIA.

Atayi, M. T. et. al., “Archaeological Survey at Tappe-ye Qasrdasht, Kamin Plain-Fars: First Report,” Majale-ye Jāmeh-ye Bāstānshenāsi-ye Iran (Journal of the Society for Iranian Archaeology), Vol. 1, No. 1, 1394/2016, pp. 87-131 (in Persian), available online: https://independent.academia.edu/SocietyforIranianarchaeologySIA.

Atayi, Mohammad. T., et al., “Excavation in Step Trench A, Qasrdasht-Fars; Second Report,” Majale-ye Jāmeh-ye Bāstānshenāsi-ye Iran (Journal of the Society for Iranian Archaeology), vol. 1, No. 1, 1394/2016, pp. 132-158 (in Persian), available online: https://independent.academia.edu/SocietyforIranianarchaeologySIA.

Atayi, M. T., et al., “Excavation in Deep Trench B, Qasrdasht-Fars; Third Report,” Majale-ye Jāmeh-ye Bāstānshenāsi-ye Iran (Journal of the Society for Iranian Archaeology), vol. 1, No. 1, 1394/2016, pp. 159-180 (in Persian), available online: https://independent.academia.edu/SocietyforIranianarchaeologySIA.

Atayi, M.T., F. Bahrololoumi, M. Mashkor, and M. Azimi, “Contribution to the understanding of the Iron Age III of Fars based on the absolute datings from Tappeh Qasrdasht,”, Majale-ye Jāmeh-ye Bāstānshenāsi-ye Iran (Journal of the Society for Iranian Archaeology), vol. 1, No. 1, 1398/2019, pp. 159-180 (in Persian), available online: https://independent.academia.edu/MohammadTaqiAtayi.

Herzfeld, E., “Reisebericht”, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, N. F. Band 5, No. 80, 1926, p. 243 (for Qasrdasht).

Jacobs, L.K., Darvazeh Tepe and the Iranian Highlands in the Second Millennium B.C. Unpublished dissertation, Anthropology Department, University of Oregon, 1980, pp. 155-157 (for Qasrdasht).

Mostafavi, M.T., The Land of Pārs, Chipendale, 1978, p. 11 (for Qasrdasht).

Sami, A., Gozāreshhā-ye Bāstānshenāsi, vol. 2, Tehran, 1330/1951, p. 128 (for Qasrdasht).

Stein, A., “An Archaeological Tour in the Ancient Persis”, Iraq, vol. 3/2, p. 221 (for Qasrdasht).