Excavations at the Prehistoric Sites of Tepe Dehno and Tepe East Dehno, Shahdad, Southeastern Iran

Abstract

Dasht-e Lut (Lut Desert) is archaeologically well-known in Near East thanks to the presence, on its western edge,of the Bronze Age urban centre of Shahdad. In 2012, the author launched a three-season field project in the area ofShahdad, with an agenda articulated around three main research points: an extensive archaeological survey alongthe western edge of the Lut Desert, the stratigraphic excavations of two multi-period prehistoric sites and, lastly, asystematic surface survey and excavations aimed at delimitating the urban centre of Shahdad. This paper presentsthe results of the second season of this recent project. Recent excavations at Tepe Dehno and Tepe East Dehnoin Shahdad plain have revealed levels dating back to a period from the early 5th to the early 3rd millennium BCEbased on absolute dates. A total of 10 charcoal samples from the mentioned excavated sites were analysed usingAccelerator Mass Spectrometer (AMS) method. Radiocarbon determinations obtained from the two aforementionedsites have questioned the prehistoric chronology of southeastern Iran.

Keywords

• southeastern iran
• shahdad
• excavations
• absolute chronology