Investigations at Tal-i Iblis : evidence for copper smelting during the Chalcolithic period

Abstract

This thesis examines a small corpus of artifacts from Tal-i Iblis, Iran dating to the mid-6th millennium BCE. When excavated in the late 1960s, these artifacts were presumed to be evidence of an early copper smelting technology on the Iranian Plateau, and they were delivered to MIT for further analysis. In this thesis I briefly describe the origins of early metallurgical activity in the Old World focusing mainly on the Iranian Plateau. This will provide a basis for the significance of the thesis and of the early date associated with the metallurgical objects. I have studied six of the Tal-i Iblis artifacts curated at MIT through extensive qualitative and quantitative analytical methods. These methods are described in Chapter IV. The results and discussion are presented in Chapters V and VI. I have found that these Iblis sherds provide substantial evidence for the presence of a copper smelting technology during the early occupation levels at Tal-i Iblis, Iran.