Tepe Yahya

Thornton, C.P., Lamberg-Karlovsky, C.C., Liezers, M. and Young, S.M.M. (2002). On pins and needles tracing the evolution of copper-base alloying at Tepe Yahya, Iran, via ICP-MS analysis of common-place items. Journal of Archaeological Science 29 1451-1460. 

Obsidian from two sites in highland Iran, Tal-e Malyan and Tepe Yahya, forms the basis of this investigation. The obsidian artifacts from these two sites were excavated from deposits dating from about 4500 b.c. to A. D. 400. It is, however, the period from 3500 to 1800 b.c., corresponding to the Middle Uruk through the Ur III to Isin Larsa periods in Mesopotamia (J,2), that is of primary concern. 

The site of Tepe Yahya, located in the Soghun Valley in south-... 

Eleven obsidian objects from Tepe Yahya, composing about one-half of the excavated obsidian, were analyzed. The obsidian was an unsorted sample from two seasons of excavation, and is taken to be representative of the entire collection. All the Tepe Yahya obsidian, seven blades and four flakes, are of the utilitarian type. No obsidian luxury items were reported. 

In addition to the Tal-e Malyan and Tepe Yahya artifacts, objects from two other archaeological sites were included in the analysis. The two selected pieces from earlier periods at Ali Kosh and Choga Safid were included to attempt to correlate the samples in this investigation with those analyzed by Renfrew and coworkers (8-10) by optical emission spectroscopy. 

Figures. Clustering of archaeological artifact samples. Key MAO, Tal-e Malyan YAO, Tepe Yahya SUO, Susa KOO, All Kosh CSO, Choga...

When obsidian source assignments for comparable time periods, the Banesh Phase (3400-2800 b.c.) at Tal-e Malyan and periods VA to IVB (3600-2600 B.c.) at Tepe Yahya, are compared (Table IV), both sites show a heavy reliance on a single obsidian source. At Tal-e Malyan, the Nemrut Dag 1 source contributes 88% of the obsidian two other sources, Zarnaki Tepe and Group D (Ig), contribute 6% each. At Tepe Yahya, however, the Zarnaki Tepe source contributes 100% of the analyzed obsidian. 

One-half of the obsidian recovered at Tal-e Malyan was from the Kafteri Phase ca. 2000 b.c., contemporaneous with Ur III in Mesopotamia. Gomparison of the source distribution patterns between the earlier Banesh Phase and the later Kafteri Phase shows distinctly different patterns of source utilization. Unfortunately, contemporaneous obsidian artifacts from Tepe Yahya were not available, so these changes could not be monitored in the south central highlands. 

Anodier stone that has found wide cultural use as a carving medium in many early societies is steatite or soapstone, a very soft metamorphic rock related to chlorite and talc. In this laboratory, steatite (actually chlorite) from quarries near Tepe Yahya (Iran) was characterized by observation of the ratios of the relative intensities of basal-plane x-ray diffraction peaks after it was found that NAA-determined trace element concentrations varied wildly within a given specimen. Another technique that has been used involves the determination by NAA of a number of lanthanide elements (La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb and Lu) and the taxonomy of their abundances relative to each other — in other words, true pattern recognition , when plotted as ratios to the levels of the same elements in a standard reference chondrite Although this technique found successful provenience application... 

---