FARMERS, HERDERS OR TRADESMEN? ANALYSING SETTLEMENT PATTERNS OF THE MIDDLE AND LATE BRONZE AGE ON THE SARFIROUZABAD PLAIN, KERMANSHAH, WESTERN IRAN

The highland plains of western Iran have been investigated with varying intensity. The Sarfirouzabad Plain located in the south of Kermanshah province, although visited perfunctorily, has not previously been studied systematically, despite attractive ecological and environmental conditions. In 2009, a team from Tehran University conducted a systematic and intensive field survey in the region to identify Bronze Age settlements and to assess their location in relation to ecological, environmental and cultural factors that may have impacted their distribution on the plain. The surveyed area was walked in transects at 20-metre intervals and resulted in the identification of 332 archaeological sites from different cultural periods, which added much to the limited knowledge about the history of this region. Twenty-four of these settlement sites belong to the Middle and Late Bronze Age horizons. This study uses GIS to map the distribution of archaeological materials and construct spatial models to determine the significance of the distribution patterns of the Bronze Age sites.