Journal of Iran National Museum

Journal of Iran National Museum

A Door Sealing from Tape Jameh Shuran Sofla, the Mahidasht Plain, Western Central Zagros

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
1 Department of archaeology, Faculty of Humanities, University of Tehran
2 University of Mazandaran Department of Archaeology
Abstract
Tape Jameh Shuran Sofla (JSS) is known in Iranian archaeology as a significant Iron Age site in western Central Zagros. The site was excavated by L. Levine in 1978 as part of the “Mahidasht Project” of the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), but its report has never been fully published. While working on a corpus of clay sealings from the Chogha Maran archive of the Mahidasht Project in the National Museum of Iran (NMI), we came across two objects with the findspot number 468: a silver coin, and a clay sealing with a stamp seal impression depicting two quadrupeds. The number refers to the site of Jameh Shuran in the Mahidasht Project survey system. This paper studies the style, iconography and function of the clay sealing. The JSS sealing – which was identified as a door sealing -  is dated to the LC 3-4 and is attributed to the mid-Fourth Millennium BC developments of the Central Zagros before the establishment of the Godin VI: I administrative institution. The glyptic connection between the Central Zagros, Susiana, northern Mesopotamia, and the west Central Iranian Plateau reflected in the imagery of the JSS seal impression, supports the intensification of interactions and the movement of people, goods, and ideas in the region during the LC, especially along the Khorasan High Road.
Keywords
Subjects

  • Receive Date 15 July 2023
  • Revise Date 04 November 2023
  • Accept Date 24 January 2024