Black On Red Painted Pottery From Neolithic To Chalcolithic In North Khorasan,Iran:A New Understanding Of The "Cultural Horizon Of Cheshmeh Ali Ware"

Cheshmeh Ali Ware is a type of black-on-red painted pottery,which was prevalent over the Tehran Plain during the Transitional Chalcolithic.This kind of ceramic was first reported in the 1930s.At the beginning of discovery,it was compared with the painted pottery found at the adjacent sites of Tepe Sialk and Tepe Hissar in Iran,Anau in Turkmenistan.Later,under the influence of cultural diffusionism and ethnoarchaeology,the concept of the "Cultural Horizon of Cheshmeh Ali Ware" was born and widely used in archaeological research in northeastern Iran and southwestern Turkmenistan.After the political confrontation between Iran and the West after the Islamic revolution in 1979,neither had Iranian scholars access to new archaeological theories,nor had Western scholars access to new excavated materials,and the "Cultural Horizon"was making a great clamor in the next 30 years.After 2000,along with the revival of international cooperation in archaeology,more scientific methods were used in fieldwork and research in north central Iran and Golestan,and scholars began to question the "Cultural Horizon of Cheshmeh Ali Ware".In North Khorasan,although the local researchers have realized the importance of local features of prehistoric sites,they have been constrained by the scale of excavation and the level of archaeological science and unable to challenge the concept.Under this circumstance,this research applies inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry and ceramic petrography in conjunction with archaeological classification for morphological,petrographic and chemical characterization of 37 pottery samples collected from sites in North Khorasan and Tehran Plain.Based on the analysis,it overturns some traditional assumptions of the "Cultural Horizon of Cheshmeh Ali Ware" and deepens our understanding of pottery production and distribution from Neolithic to Chalcolithic in North Khorasan.The results of this study indicate that the Cheshmeh Ali Ware and the painted pottery in North Khorasan are not identical in production location and technique.In terms of provenience,principal component analysis based on the oxide of bulk elements and trace elements,with the exception of two samples from Tepe Shahrabad(TSA-2,TSA-4),is successful in differentiating the samples from the Tehran Plain and North Khorasan.This suggests that most of the North Khorasan painted pottery is not from the Tehran plain but produced locally.In terms of craftsmanship,whether it is directly observable forms,tempers,firing quality,surface treatment,or the ratio of ceramic fabric analyzed through petrographic analysis,there are salient differences between the North Khorasan and Cheshmeh Ali samples,particularly between TSA-2,TSA-4 and the Cheshmeh Ali samples.This suggests that the two regions are different in pottery manufacture,and the similarity in the chemical composition of TSA-2,TSA-4 and Cheshmeh Ali ware is likely to be a coincidence.Meanwhile,it is found that the North Khorasan samples exhibit the characteristics of low-calcium.The pattern of transition from high-calcium buff wares to high-calcium red slipped wares and then to low-calcium red ware that has been observed in the Tehran plains is absent in North Khorasan.In addition,according to the radiocarbon dates published in recent years,the fine black-on-red painted ware of North Khorasan is likely to appear somewhat earlier than the Cheshmeh Ali Ware of the Tehran Plain,not the other way round.By analyzing the chemical and petrographic characterization of pottery samples from 6 sites in North Khorasan,this study also comes to find two major production centers:the southern piedmont plains of the Aladagh and the Atrek River valley.The pottery in the southern piedmont plains is characterized by strong local features—high-aluminum clay,which is related to the rich bauxite clay near the sites,which directly affects the appearance and firing quality of pottery.At the same time,samples from three sites in this region display a high level of separation after principal component analysis,especially the components of trace elements,reflecting the difference in the provenience of raw materials.Samples of painted pottery of the Atrek valley,represented by Tepe Qaleh Khan,are characterized by relatively high-calcium contents,which may be related to the distribution of loess along the Atrek River,and the clay color of this region is relatively yellowish.Principal component analysis of the chemical characterization shows that Tepe Qaleh Khan has the highest degree of aggregation,and its samples are aggregated with some samples from other sites.The samples also have a higher degree of aggregation on the scatter plots of clay fabric according to petrographic analysis.It appears that the provenience and processing of raw materials at Tepe Qaleh Khan are homogeneous,and there are exchanges of techniques or products within the Atrek valley.The results indicate that the specialization of pottery production at Tepe Qaleh Khan has emerged,but this site as a distribution center has not yet taken form in the Transitional Chalcolithic time.