The Qazvin Plain Revisited: A Reappraisal of the Chronology of northwestern Central Plateau, Iran, in the 6th to the 4th Millennium BC

Since the 1970s the chronological sequence of northwestern Central Plateau of Iran has been based on the findings of the sites of Zagheh, Ghabristan and Sagzabad in the Qazvin plain. Recent re-excavations of Zagheh in 2001 and Ghabristan in 2002 have supplemented earlier findings and provided new interpretations of the cultural sequence in this region of Iran. The data from the ceramic sequence and radiocarbon dating suggest that Zagheh was primarily a Chalcolithic site with no evidence of presence of Neolithic material. Preliminary results from the first season of the re-excavation of Ghabristan have also shed new light on the development of the local ceramic industry and the interpretation of the periodization of the site, especially in regard to Ghabristan III, the Gray Ware period.*