The Land of Aratta Author(s): Yousef Majidzadeh Reviewed work(s): Source: Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol.

35, No. 2 (Apr., 1976), pp. 105-113 Published by: The University of Chicago Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/545195 . Accessed: 21/05/2012 23:11
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

The University of Chicago Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Near Eastern Studies.

http://www.jstor.org

THE LAND OF ARATTA

YO USEF MAJIDZADEH, Art, Tehran University

Department of Archaeology and History of

1971-72," Iran 12 (1974): 155-75; Erica Reiner, "Tall-i-Malyan, Epigraphic Finds 1971-72," Iran 12 (1974); 176; idem, "The Location of An'an," Revue d'Assyriologie 67 (1973): 57-62. 2 . Hansman, and "Elamites, Achaemenians Anshan," Iran 10 (1972): 101-25. 3 S. N. Kramer, Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta: A Sumerian Epic Tale of Iraq and Iran (Philadelphia 1952), p. 3. 4 G. Herrmann, "Lapis Lazuli: The Early Phase of its Trade," Iraq 30 (1968): 54. Achaemenians and 5 J. Hansman, "Elamites, Anshan," p. 118, n. 97. [JNES 35 no. 2 (1976)] C 1976 by the University of Chicago. All rights reserved.

the last thirty years, one of the outstanding problems in the field of the ancientDURING Iran has been the search for the exact location of Anshan and Aratta, history of two important neighboring city states somewhere on the Iranian plateau. Both states are mentioned for the first time in the Sumerian texts usually thought to reflect the Early Dynastic II period (the first half of the third millennium B.c.). Anshan remained well known in later periods also as one of the main centers of the Elamite kingdom, while Aratta was a wealthy area to which the Early Dynastic rulers looked as a source for costly commodities. The uncertainty as to the precise location of these two regions resulted in a series of controversies among scholars who have proposed to identify them with different areas within the present geographical borders of Iran. The state of Anshan, however, finally found its identity and exact location through the archaeological activities at Tall-i-Malyan led by William Sumner.' It is noteworthy that before the evidence of the discoveries at Tall-i-Malyanwas available, John Hansman was the only scholar who identified that site as Anshan.2 So far, four different regions have been proposed by four different scholarsas the exact location of the state of Aratta, all before the recent definitive demonstration of the location of Anshan: (1) S. N. Kramer equated the state of Aratta with the modern province of Luristan in the southwestern Iran;3 (2) the second proposal was made by Georgina Herrmann, while discussing the lapis lazuli trade, who located the state of Aratta "somewhere south or southeast of the Caspian";4 (3) the third suggestion was made by HansmanS in a footnote, where he identified the city with Shahr-i-Sokhta, an archaeologicalsite on the southeast side of Lake Hilman which has producedthousands of flakes of lapis lazuli and carnelian during recent excavations;6 (4) and finally, Sol Cohen has identified Aratta with the combined areas of Hamadan-Nahavand-KermanshahSanandaj in a very detailed discussion in his Ph.D. dissertation.7 The discovery of the exact location of the state of Anshan as the modern province of 1W. Sumner, "Excavations at Tall-i-Malyan 6 M. Tosi, "Excavations at Shahr-i-Sokhta, A
Chalcolithic Settlement in the Iranian Sistan. Preliminary Report on the First Campaign, OctoberDecember 1967," East and West 18 (1968): 9-66; idem, "Excavations at Shahr-i-Sokhta, Preliminary Report on the Second Campaign, September-December 1968," East and West 19 (1969): 283-386; idem, "Shahr-i-Sokhta," Iran 8 (1970): 188 ff.; idem, "Shahri-Sokhta," Iran 10 (1972): 174-75; C. C. LambergKarlovsky and M. Tosi, "Shahr-i-Sokhta and Tepe Yahya: Tracks on the Earliest History of the Iranian Plateau,"East and West 23 (1973): 21-53. 7 S. Cohen, "Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta" (Ph.D. diss., University of Pensylvania, 1973). I must thank Dr. M. Civil who kindly allowed me to use his Xerox copy of this unpublished dissertation, given to him by the author himself. It is now available from University Microfilm, at Ann Arbor, Michigan.

105

C~asPian uAN
Sea

HA
e

KARA Till

MA

SAGOAD HA0

GODIN TEPE VA5LK

URUK Il

*SH MTA KERMAN

VAHYA
UlfL

Of
Oman
0
10

200 4QO 300 on

FIG. 1.-Map

showing location of major archaeological sites in Iran

THE LAND OF ARATTA

107

Fars, however, proved that the identification of Aratta as Luristan by Kramer, as south or southeast of the Caspian by Herrmann, and as Hamadan-Nahavand-KermanshahSanandaj by Cohen are all completely out of the question since it is known that the state of Aratta was adjacent to the state of Anshan. In contrast to other scholars, Hansman looked to the east. He included the province of Kerman in the ancient state of Anshan, and having brought the modern state of Sistan into the neighborhood of Anshan, proposed the possibility that Shahr-i-Sokhta could be identified with the city of Aratta.8 The discovery of Anshan in Fars and the results of the last fifteen years of archaeological activity in the province of Kerman can now help us to review all the available sources and to make another attempt in the hope of finding the precise location of the state of Aratta. The earliest written sources in which the state of Aratta was mentioned belong to Enmerkar, who according to the Sumerian King list was the second king of the First Dynasty of Uruk.9 It is also probable that Enmerkar was a ruler during the Early Dynastic II period.10 One of the texts is known as "Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta,"'1 for which I shall use the abbreviation ELA, and the other, "Enmerkar-Lugalbanda,'12 for which I shall use the abbreviation EL. We learn from the Epic of ELA that the king demands the advice of the goddess Inanna in the search for gold, silver, and lapis lazuli from the state of Aratta: "it was then the lord of Uruk-Kullaba, Enmerkar... in need of Aratta's craftsmen and building material, turned, at the outside of the propitious fertility rite."'3 Heeding his (Enmerkar's) plea, Inanna . . . advises him to select a suitable emissary to carry her message via Susa, the mountain country of Anshan, and over great mountain ranges to the land of Aratta."14 Accordingly, in order to get to Aratta, the emissary had to cross Susa (the modern province of Khuzistan) and traverse Anshan (the modern province of Fars). Furthermore, we know that after crossing Anshan and before arriving at Aratta, one had to cross seven mighty mountains.'5 This geographical description fits very well with the character of the mountainous region between Fars and Kerman, so that the destination of Enmerkar's emissary could have been nowhere but the modern province of Kerman. Geographically, Kerman is separated from Fars by the long chain of the Kerman range, comprised of high mountains, some of which reach six and seven thousand feet above the surface of the surrounding plateau.16 There is a series of long and southeastward intermontaine valleys which are located between the Kerman range and the Zagros mountains of Fars and within the Kerman range. These valleys include the Anar Valley, the Bard-Sir Valley, the Kerman Basin, and the Rayin-Sarvestan Valley.17 More intermontaine valleys are situated in the southwest region of the Kerman province, among which are the Soghun Valley, the Jiroft Valley, and the Dolatabad Plain.'8 Furthermore, it is within these intermontaine valleys that two important excavated and many unexcavated fourth and third millennium B.C. settlements are located.
8J* . Hansman, and "Elamites, Achaemenians Anshan," p. 118, n. 97. 9 T. Jacobsen, The Sumerian King List, AS no. 11 (1939), table 2. 1o G. Herrmann, "Lapis Lazuli: The Early Phase of its Trade," p. 38, n. 87. 11 S. N. Kramer, Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta; S. Cohen, "Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta." 12 C. Wilcke, Das Lugalbandaepos (Wiesbaden, 1969); cf. reviews by S. N. Kramer, Acta Or. 33 (1971): 363 n. 1 and M. Civil, JNES 31 (1972): 386.
13 S. Cohen, "Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta," pp. 28-29. 14 Ibid., pp. 30-31. 15 S. N. Kramer, Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta, p. 17, lines 166 ff. 16 J. R. Caldwell, at Tal-i-Iblis, Investigations Illinois State Museum, Preliminary Reports, no. 9. (1967), pp. 21-40. 17Ibid., p. 27. 18 C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky and M. Tosi, "Shahri-Sokhta and Tepe Yahya," p. 29.

108

JOURNAL OF NEAR EASTERN STUDIES

On the other hand, it is impossible to accept the ancient settlement of Shahr-i-Sokhta, located in Sistan well to the east of Kerman, as a probable region for the location of Aratta. Since the writers of the Epic of ELA and the EL Cycle were able to give such detailed geographical descriptions for the regions between Uruk and Aratta, if Shahr-iSokhta had been Aratta, they would certainly have mentioned the crossing of the salt desert of Dasht-i-Lut (the deadly desert which lies between Kerman and Sistan) and Lake Hilmand. The mountain range of hur-sag-zubi/black mountain in ELA, (lines 73-74, 108-09, and 164-65) passed on the route of Aratta, has been taken as a reference to the Qara Dagh in southern Kurdistan and thus as a reason to look for Aratta in this direction. However, there is evidence to indicate that for the Sumerians a black mountain was a source for white gypsum.19 Therefore, the identification of the hur-sag-zubi in ELA with any identified or unidentified black mountain which was located in the vicinity of Sumer and was used as a source for white gypsum could be a mistake since this name apparently was not a proper name for a specific mountain but for black mountains which could produce white gypsum. Even today qara, a word of Turkish origin is used commonly as an adjective for geographical names such as qara su or qara chai "black river," qara chaman "black grass," or qara dagh "black mountain."20 The existence of such black mountains as the source for gypsum, however, has been attested in the vicinity of Tal-iIblis in western Kerman by the unearthing of a large furnace for baking gypsum.21 Therefore, the mountain with the gypsum resources used at Tal-i-Iblis or any similar "black mountain" within the Kerman region may be identified with the mountain range of hur-sag-zubi of ELA. Like the reference of hur-sag-zubi, the names of the two rivers Aratta and Rappa, crossed by Sargon II, in his eighth campaign,22 have been taken as evidence for the location of the land of Aratta; the two rivers have been identified by Gordon as the Ab-iSirwan and the headwaters of the Diyala.23 If we accept the assumption that the river Aratta is adjacent to the land of Aratta, this could again point towards the west. However, there is no certainty that the Aratta river in this late text refers to the same place as the Early Dynastic Aratta. The identity in name between Aratta river and the state of Aratta may be a mere coincidence and not an indication of relationship, since we know that the word aratta was also a word for "abundance" and "glory."24 Another possibility is that Aratta was applied to more than one area.25
19 E. Gordon, "A New Look at the Wisdom of Sumer and Akkad," Bibliotheca Orientalis 17 (1960): pp. 131-35; hur-sag-gi mu-im-babbar ba-an-mu, "my Black Mountains has produced white Gypsum"; also C. L. Edmonds in his "Two Ancient Monuments in Southern Kurdistan," Geographical Journal 65 (1925): 63, discusses the interesting fact that Qara Dagh, the "black mountain" where the bas-reliefs of NaramSin were found, produced gypsum. 20 For more examples of similar names see Dehkhoda, Lughatndme, vol. 57 (1960), p. 249 where another Qara Dagh is mentioned as a mountain range in Azarbayjan. 21 J. R. Caldwell, Investigations at Tal-i-Iblis, p. 180 and p. 178, pl. 9. 22 F. Thureau-Dangin, TOL 3, pp. 8 and 30. 23 E. Gordon, "dKASKAL. KUR," JCS 21 (1967): 72 and n. 9.
24 S. Cohen, "Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta," p. 55 and n. 67. 25 A good example is the occurrence of three different states of Parsua in three different locations in the Neo-Assyrian records. On the basis of geographical description from the reign of Shalmaneser III, as well as the third campaign of Shamshi-Adad V, in a list of Adad-Nirari III, and from the reign of Tiglathpileser III indicate that the land of Parsua should be located in the northwestern Zagros. During the seventh century B.C., according to the account of the eighth campaign of Sennacherib and the records of Ashurbanipal, a second Parsua was located in the southwestern Zagros, probably on the middle Karun River; yet, the third Parsua was in the province of Fars, the homeland of the Achaemenid Persians. For a detailed study see T. Cuyler Young, Jr., "The Iranian Migration into the Zagros," Iran 5 (1969): 17-19.

THE LAND

OF ARATTA

109

The occurrence of various geographical names in both ELA and EL26 which have been identified with localities neighboring Sumer in west central Iran occur as places on the route between Uruk and Aratta. As in the case of the black mountains and river Aratta, we may presume that familiar names were applied to similar geographical features on the road to Aratta. Furthermore, the crossing of seven mountains27 may very well be formulaic28 since the number seven had particular significance and could be used as the symbolic expression for such things as the measurement of time, space, and distance in the ancient Near East, as well as today. Therefore, the number seven may only indicate the crossing of a series of mountains. Finally, one has to keep in mind that both texts are epics from which one should not expect detailed geographical exactitude. As for the sources of precious stones, in the epic of ELA, Enmerkar addresses Inanna, saying: "Let the people of Aratta, having brought down the stones of the mountains from their highlands, build for me the great temple... ,"29 which is not really specific as to the source of the valuable stones. Although the existence of lapis lazuli in the mountains of Kerman has been mentioned in two medieval reports, the one by HamdAllah-Mostawfi of Qazvin, the state accountant of Sultan Abu Said (A.D. 1316-35),30 and the other in 1295 by c~an Te, a Chinese traveler,31 in Sistan the similarity of lapis lazuli, found in large numbers of chips, from Shahr-i-Sokhta with that of Badakhshan indicates that this stone was being imported from Afghanistan32 and shipped to Uruk via Kerman, Anshan, and Susa.33 Kerman falls into place between Shahr-i-Sokhta and Uruk, so that the route via Aratta, Anshan, and Susa by which Badakhshan lapis lazuli reached Mesopotamia is evident and fits the textual evidence.34 There is, however, evidence to indicate that some of the lapis lazuli of Badakhshan, while passing through the Kerman area, was used in the region. This has been shown through the excavations of Ali Hakemi of the Iranian archaeological service at Shahdad at the northwestern edge of the Dasht-iLut somewhat northeast of the city of Kerman.35 In his brief report the excavator
26 S. Cohen, "Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta," pp. 50-55. 27 S. N. Kramer, Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta, p. 17, lines 166 ff. 28 C. Wilcke, Das Lugalbandaepos, p. 122, lines 342-44. 29 S. N. Kramer, Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta, p. 9, lines 38 ff. Mostawfi, The Geographical Part 3o Hamd-Allah of the Nuzhat-al-Qulub, trans. G. Le Strange (Cambridge, 1905), p. 197. 31 B. Laufer, Sino Iranica (Chicago, 1919), p. 250. 32 C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky and M. Tosi, "Shahri-Sokhta and Tepe Yahya," p. 46. 33 Ibid., p. 27. 34 S. Cohen, "Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta," p. 59. 35 Ali Hakemi, "Etude archeologiques de la lisibre du Desert de Lout," Bastan Chenassi va Honar-e Iran, Revue d'archdologie et d'art Iraniens 2 (1969): 24-25 in French and 36-51 in Persian; idem, "Shahdad," Iran 11 (1973): 201-3 and pl. 10.; Mr. Hakemi has also published two successive reports in Honar va Mardom [Art and People], a monthly publication of the Directorate General of Cultural Relations of the Iranian Ministry of Culture and Art, no. 126 (April, 1973): 75-83 and no. 127 (May, 1973); 79-89. Since these articles are in Persian, a summary translation

of the geographical description of the region and its historical background is given here. "The Dasht-i-Lut is separated from the Kerman region by a range of mountains which continues northwards to the regions of Ravar and Darband, and southwards into the area of Bam. Shahddd, a modern name for the ancient city of Khabis, is located at the foot of Mount Joft&n, the highest peak of which rises some 3,990 m. above sea level. The peaks of this mountain range are covered with snow until the middle of May. Thus a fairly large amount of water flows into the Shahdtd plain all through the year. The permanent water of Shahddd is provided by the Derakhtangdn river, which originates in the Hinnaman mountains; another river with less water originates in the high peaks of Joftan. "The remains of several ancient river beds in this region indicate that in prehistoric times the Shahdid plain enjoyed much more water than today. The present region of Shahddd is entirely covered with citrus and date trees which are more dense in the southern and western than in the eastern and northern parts of the region. "A brief survey in the vicinity of the Shahdid cemetery has demonstrated extensive cultural remains up to 7 km. to the east of the cemetery. A huge flood during the twelfth or thirteenth century A.D. destroyed this large settlement. The remains of various settlements ranging in date from the prehistoric to the

110

JOURNAL OF NEAR EASTERNSTUDIES

mentions the appearance of a large number of lapis lazuli beads in association with objects related to the Early Dynastic II-III periods. Since the Shahdad findings come from a cemetery, one has to consider the possibility of the existence of an advanced stone industry for lapis lazuli in a nearby settlement whose dead were buried at the Shahdad cemetery, where a portion of the manufactured materials were placed with the dead. Although there has been relatively little archaeological activity in the eastern part of Iran, there is already enough evidence to prove the province of Kerman to have been a highly-developed and well-populated region during the first half of the third millennium B.C. In the southwest of Kerman, within the intermontaine valleys of Soghun and Jiroft, "though incompletely surveyed," a large number of fourth millennium B.C. settlements have been noted; so far twenty-seven have been registeredby the Tepe Yahya expedition.36 Tepe Yahya, in the Soghun Valley is the largest one of all.37 Yahya IVC and IVB are contemporary with the Jemdat Nasr and Early Dynastic periods, respectively. The appearance of Jemdat Nasr four-lugged jars and beveled-rim bowls in association with Proto-Elamite tablets, cylinder seals, and a larger number of decorated steatite bowls shows very close cultural relationship between southern Mesopotamia, Susa, and Tepe
Yahya.38

A second major prehistoric settlement in western Kerman, which has yielded the earliest evidence for the smelting of copper ores in the southern Iranian plateau, is Tal-iIblis, a settlement 125 km. northwest of Tepe Yahya.39 The presence of beveled-rim bowls, cylinder seals, and Proto-Elamite tablets indicates a close cultural relationship between Iblis 5-6, Yahya IVC, Susa C, and the Jemdat Nasr period.40A survey in the vicinity of Tal-i-Iblis, in the Bard Sir Valley, resulted in identifying twenty-four prehistoric sites, while, according to the surveyors "there is every reason to suspect that additional survey will show many more."41 Here also, as in the Soghun Valley, we are confronted with a highly-developed and well-populated area. The cultural unity between western Kerman and eastern Kerman province, on the one hand, and its relationship with southern Mesopotamia and Susa, on the other, become quite evident if we include in this picture the excavations at Bampur,42 where the pottery of periods I-VI is closely related to that of Yahya IVC-IVB,43 and the cemetery of Shahdad, which is very closely related both to the Early Dynastic II-III Periods and
thirteenth century A.D. cover a total area of 64 sq. km. Some Sasanian and Seljuk architectural remains are still visible above ground." For detailed information see A. Hakemi, Honar va Mardom, no. 126 (April, 1973): 76-78. 36 C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky and M. Tosi, "Shahri-Sokhta and Tepe Yahya," p. 29. 37 For some of the publications on the Tepe Yahya excavations see: C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky, Excavations at Tepe Yahya, Iran, 1967-1969, American School of Prehistoric Research, Peabody Museum, Harvard University, Bulletin no. 27 (1970); idem, "The Proto-Elamite Settlement of Tepe Yahya," Iran 9 (1971): 87-96; idem, "Tepe Yahya 1971, Mesopotamia and the Indo-Iranian Borderlands," Iran 10 (1972): 89-100; C. C. and Martha Lamberg-Karlovsky, "An Early City in Iran," Scientific American 224, no. 6 (1971), pp. 102-111.
38 C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky and M. Tosi, "Shahri-Sokhta and Tepe Yayha," pp. 48-49. 39 R. C. Daugherty and J. R. Caldwell, "Evidence of Early Pyrometallurgy in the Kerman Range in Iran," in J. R. Caldwell, Investigations at Tal-i-Iblis, pp. 16-21. 40 C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky, "The Proto-Elamite Settlement," p. 90. J. R. Caldwell, Investigations at Tal-i-Iblis, 41 p. 73. 42 B. de Cardi, "Excavations at Bampur, S. E. Iran: A Brief Report," Iran 6 (1968): 135-55; idem, Excavations at Bampur, A Third Millennium Settlement in Persian Baluchistan, 1966, Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, vol. 52, no. 3 (New York, 1970). and M. Tosi, "Shahr43 C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky i-Sokhta and Tepe Yahya," p. 40.

THE LAND OF ARATTA

111

to the rest of the Kerman region. The similarity of Shahdad pottery and Yahya IVB-A has already been pointed out.44 We also learn from the Epic of ELA that the people of Aratta were skilful metalworkers, stone cutters, masons, and sculptors. Note "Let them (the people of Aratta) fashion artfully gold (and) silver,... May (the people of) Aratta fashion artfully its If interior."''45 we turn again to the province of Kerman, we find much evidence for skilled craftsmenship: (a) the highly-developed steatite carvings of Tepe Yahya IVB suggest that at the time of Early Dynastic II-III Periods this settlement was an advanced center for a lithic industry.46 It is even believed that the Mesopotamian steatite bowls were being imported from Tepe Yahya;47 (b) the large number of magnificent art-works such as painted statues with their hands clasped before their breasts in the attitude of prayer, strikingly similar to the Early Dynastic statues, where the upper part of the body together with the arms is schematized in a curiously geometric fashion, decorated copper plaques, steatite carved vessels, a cylinder seal elaborately carved with a seated goddess, masses of lapis lazuli and agate beads, and many other types of objects recovered from the cemetery of Shahdad, indicates great artistic ability among the people who buried their dead there;48 (c) finally, significant evidence for the metallurgical advancement of the Kerman region has been documented at Tal-i-Iblis.49 Despite the undisputable close cultural connection between the Kerman region and Susa and Mesopotamia during the Late Protoliterate (Susa C) and Early Dynastic II-III (Proto-Elamite = Susa D) periods, the entirely different pottery tradition of the Kerman region,50 and the "generalized similarities in the technological, metallurgical, ceramic, architectural and lithic industries" between the Kerman settlements give its culture an identity entirely different from the cultures of Malyan, Susa, and southern Mesopotamia. In addition, the Kerman sites possess a specific link with the east, namely the painted black-on-gray ware which connects Yahya IVB with Shahr-i-Sokhta II-IV, where this ware is at home.51 On the basis of all the criteria given above, the idea of connecting the present provinces of Kerman and Fars together to represent the ancient state of Anshan as one cultural region, as proposed by Hansman, is impossible.52 Accordingly, the possibility of identifying Aratta as the ancient settlement of Shahr-i-Sokhta which is also proposed by Hansman53 cannot be accepted for the following reasons: (a) as already mentioned, the topographical features of Shahr-i-Sokhta, as well as Sistan, do not fit with the geography of Aratta as described in both ELA and EL; (b) on the basis of the criteria which give a completely distinct identity to the culture of the Kerman regiondifferent from that of Anshan, Susa, and Mesopotamia-Shahr-i-Sokhta cannot be
44 C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky, "Tepe Yahya 1971," p. 91, n. 10. 45 S. N. Kramer, Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta, p. 9, lines 38 ff. 46 C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky and M. Tosi, "Shahri-Sokhta and Tepe Yahya," pp. 33-34. "The Proto-Elamite 47 C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky, Settlement," p. 92. 48 Except for one plate (A. Hakemi, "Shahdad," pl. 10), so far none of the Shahdad material has been published. I have, however, had the opportunity, on several occasions, to see these materials. Also, in the summer of 1972, at the Sixth Congress for the Art and Archaeology of Iran in Oxford, photos of

some of the outstanding pieces were shown by the excavator, Mr. Hakemi, during the presentation of his excavation report. 49 R. C. Daugherty and J. R. Caldwell, "Evidence of Early Pyrometallurgy in the Kerman Range in Iran," in J. R. Caldwell, "Investigations at Tal-iIblis," pp. 16-21. -o C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky, "The Proto-Elamite Settlement," p. 90. 51 C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky and M. Tosi, "Shahri-Sokhta and Tepe Yahya," pp. 39-40. 52 J. Hansman, "Elamites, Achaemenians and Anshan," p. 118, n. 97. 53 Ibid., p. 118, n. 97.

112

JOURNAL OF NEAR EASTERN STUDIES

regarded as a direct neighbor of Anshan; (c) the pottery of Shahr-i-Sokhta I, a phase contemporary with the Jemdat Nasr period, is closely connected with that of the Geoksjur culture of southern Turkmenia.54The similarity of the Geoksjur pottery to that found in the Quetta Valley in western Pakistan55 and in Mundigak period III in southwestern Afghanistan56 has been indicated by Lamberg-Karlovsky and Tosi.57 Although during periods II-IV at Shahr-i-Sokhta some changes occur in the pottery tradition, there is a basic continuity all through the period and the connection between Shahr-i-Sokhta IV and MundigakIV is certain.58 In contrast to the strong cultural relationship between southern Turkmenia,Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Shahr-i-Sokhta, there is practically nothing to link that site with Susa and Mesopotamia except for three clay cylinder seals with geometric patterns relatable to some of the Jemdat Nasr period from Sin Temple IV-V at Khafajah,59and a fourth cylinder seal found on the surface of the mound.60 Also, some bull vases dating from Shahr-i-Sokhta I-early II have been found which,61 however, offer only slight similarity to the well-known examples from Sin Temple IV-V.62 Likewise, the four-lug jars of Shahr-i-Sokhta, Period I,63 which have been compared to those of the Jemdat Nasr period,64 provide no specific similarities either in type or decoration, but only a general similarity in the number of lugs. The disputable direct relationship between Shahr-i-Sokhta I and Jemdat Nasr/Susa C proposed on the basis of three cylinder seals and the bull vases fades away by the time of Shahr-i-Sokhta II-IV, which are the phases contemporary with the Early Dynastic II-III periods. At this time the only possible relationship which one can establish between Shahr-i-Sokhta and Mesopotamia is the widespread use of lapis lazuli. The large quantity of lapis lazuli collected in Shahr-i-Sokhta has quartz and pyrite inclusions indicating that it had been imported from the Badakhshan sources in Afghanistan.65 Only about 10 percent of this lapis lazuli had been worked into objects, while 90 percent occurred as waster flakes. This indicates that the lapis lazuli was being at least partially worked at Shahr-i-Sokhta before its onward shipment to Mesopotamia.66 The lack of archaeological evidence establishing some cultural relationship between Shahr-i-Sokhta III-IV and Early Dynastic Mesopotamia is significant since ELA indicates the existence of well-established cultural and political contacts between Mesopotamia and Aratta. Thus the identification of Shahr-i-Sokhta itself as Aratta is precluded. In conclusion, the modern province of Kerman remains the only region which can reasonably be regarded as the exact location of the state of Aratta. This is, furthermore, supported by the fact that Aratta was located on the route for the transshipment of
and M. Tosi, "Shahr54 C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky i-Sokhta and Tepe Yahya," p. 24, n. 11. 55 W. A. Fairservis, Jr., Excavations in the Quetta Valley, West Pakistan, Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, vol. 45. (New York, 1956), pp. 263-64, 326-27. 56 J. M. Casal, Fouilles de Mundigak (Paris, 1961). and M. Tosi, "Shahr57 C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky i-Sokhta and Tepe Yahya," pp. 24-26. 58 Ibid., pp. 24, 42. 59 Ibid., p. 26, figs. 16-18. 60 M. Tosi, "Excavations at Shahr-i-Sokhta," fig. 107.
61 C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky and M. Tosi, "Shahri-Sokhta and Tepe Yahya," p. 36, fig. 141. 62 P. P. Delougaz and S. Lloyd, Pre-Sargonid Temples in the Diyala Region, Oriental Institute Publications, vol. 58 (Chicago, 1942), pp. 43-44, pls. 25-26. 63 C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky and M. Tosi, "Shahri-Sokhta and Tepe Yahya," figs. 139-40. 64 Ibid., p. 36. 65 Ibid., p. 46. 66 Ibid., p. 27, 46; M. Tosi and M. Piperno, "Lithic Technology behind the Ancient Lapis Lazuli Trade," Expedition, Fall 1973, pp. 20-21.

THE LAND OF ARATTA

113

lapis lazuli from its sources.67 Thus, the lapis lazuli of Badakhshan could have been brought to Shahr-i-Sokhta, and there, after receiving some primary treatment, could be sent through Aratta to Uruk without any direct contact between Shahr-i-Sokhta and
Mesopotamia.68

At the present time, the archaeological evidence is not sufficient to identify with certainty the residential city of the Lord of Aratta. The very rich deposit of the Shahdad cemetery may, however, lead us in the direction of the capital city of Aratta. The only problem lies in the fact that no other cemetery has, so far, been excavated in the entire Kerman region. Therefore, one cannot rule out the possibility that at the time of the Shahdad cemetery the inhabitants of Kerman were enjoying prosperity, and that all the cemeteries were being loaded with similar rich offerings. However, if in the light of future excavations the cemetery of Shahdad remains unique in its richness,69then one must look for a settlement somewherebetween Shahdad and the present capital city of Kerman, a site whose residents buried their dead in this cemetery.70However, the discoveries in Kerman already are filling a great gap. In place of a legendary land of Aratta, we can visualize a specific area and begin to see the interaction of Sumerian and Early Iranian civilizations in the finds from excavated sites. Aratta is emerging from the shadows.
67 G. Herrmann, "Lapis Lazuli," p. 36.

C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky and M. Tosi, "Shahri-Sokhta and Tepe Yahya," p. 50. 69 Compare the wealth of the Shahdad cemetery with that of the Shahr-i-Sokhta graveyard. Although the richest graves are in the latter and belong to phases 5-7 (Period II), which are approximately contemporary with the Shahddd cemetery, they appear much poorer. This in turn indicates once more that the richness and the prosperity of the people of

68

Aratta described in the Sumerian Texts does not fit the situation at Shahr-i-Sokhta. For a detailed description of the Shahr-i-Sokhta graveyard see M. Piperno and M. Tosi, "The Graveyard of Shahr-iSokhta Iran," Archaeology 28 (1975): 186-97. 70 The location of the capital city of Aratta in the vicinity of the Shahdad cemetery becomes more likely when one considers the geographical description of the region and its historical background given in n. 35 above.