Visiting Tol-e Tahmachi, a Fifth Millennium BCE Settlement in the Persian Gulf Littoral, Southwest Iran

Abstract

Previous archaeological investigations of the northern coast of the Persian Gulf have assumed that it had an unstable landscape due to successive fluctuations and sea-level changes in the mid-Holocene, and no prehistoric settlements were expected there. This impression has also been reinforced by the lack of a systematic strategy for carrying out detailed archaeological surveys on the northern shores of the Persian Gulf, which contrasts to the systematic approaches use in the inter-montane valleys of the Zagros Mountain and the lowland plains of Khuzestan. Geoarchaeological studies have partially reconstructed landscape evolution of the Persian Gulf’s northern coasts, and prehistoric sites are now being found in this region. One prominent recent find is Tahmachi, a fifth millennium BCE settlement in the Liravi (Deylam) plain, which is less than 5 km north of the current shoreline. The two remaining mounds situated alongside the Zendarun stream attest to the presence of a permanent settlement with at least 10 m of cultural deposits in a dynamic and resource-rich landscape. Based on material culture and surface finds, the prehistoric population here had access to diverse resources from both sea and land.