Godin Tepe
Gowdin Tepe
Iran · Kermanshah
In brief
Godin Tepe in the Kangavar Valley was inhabited intermittently between approximately 5000-500 BCE. Excavations supported by the Royal Ontario Museum revealed a complex connected with Late Uruk and a columned palace attributed to the Median period.
What was found?
- 1Building complex with an oval defensive wall
A courtyard, large buildings, an entrance building, and storerooms are enclosed by an oval defensive wall. Its pottery bears close similarities to examples from Uruk and Susa.
- 2Numerical clay tablets and seals
Numerical record tablets, seals, and seal impressions were found within the oval enclosure. These are evidence of recordkeeping and practices for controlling goods.
- 3Fortified palace with columned halls
The Iron Age building has large columned halls, benches along the walls, and a place for a throne. It is among the early examples of the tradition of columned reception halls in Iran.
- 4Storage and kitchen rooms
Storerooms and a kitchen have been uncovered in the palace's private section. They show that provisions for food supply and storage existed alongside spaces for formal reception.
- 5Painted and undecorated pottery
The forms and decoration of vessels change over time in the Bronze Age layers. These changes allow the settlement's successive phases to be distinguished.
What does it point to?
Storage, recordkeeping, and large reception spaces appear at Godin Tepe in different periods of the same settlement. According to researchers, the oval complex was a center connected with exchange with distant regions; the interpretation that its inhabitants were themselves foreign merchants remains uncertain.
What did it teach us?
- Documented recording and sealing practices connected with Mesopotamia and Susa at a settlement in the Zagros.
- The Iron Age palace made it possible to trace the development of the columned hall tradition in Iran.
- The pottery sequence helped distinguish successive phases of the Bronze Age settlement.
Images
Record
- Culture
- Local Zagros cultures; communities connected with Kura-Araxes; Medes
- First modern dig
- 1965
- Coordinates
- 34.5167°, 48.0667°
Sources
- iranicaonline.org
- rom.on.ca
- Encyclopaedia Iranica — Godin Tepe
- Encyclopaedia Iranica — Tunç Çağı
- Paléorient / Persée — Godin V ve VI buluntu topluluklarının değerlendirilmesi
Nearby excavations
- Hegmataneh 52 km
- Takht-e Soleyman 244 km
- Susa 259 km
- Chehrabad Salt Mine 267 km
- Chogha Zanbil 282 km
- Tepe Sialk 313 km
- —
- —
- 12.000
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