Pottery from Ancient Tombs in the Dailaman District, Iran

Yoshihiro Nishiaki
The University Museum,
The University of Tokyo

This volume, Part 7 of the series of the Department of West Asian Archaeology Collection Catalogues, features ancient pottery excavated by the Tokyo University Iraq-Iran Archaeological Expedition in the Dailaman district, northwest Iran (Fig. 1) . The excavations, carried out in 1960 and 1964 under the direction of Professor Namio Egami, led to the discovery of dozens of late prehistoric to early historic tombs and other features at six archaeological sites: Ghalekuti I, II, Hassani Mahale, Lasulkan, Noruz Mahale, and Khoramrud (Fig. 2) . These tombs and features, particularly the tombs yielded an abundant collection of archaeological objects, part of which are currently stored at the University of Tokyo thanks to the generous arrangement made by the then Iranian authorities. The present catalogue comprises a selection of complete and nearly complete pottery from this collection. These pottery specimens represent the Late Bronze Age to the Parthian Period, thereby providing a unique opportunity to investigate changes in the mortuary practices, the ceramic chronology, the evolution of the social complexity and other aspects over this time period; all of these are insufficiently understood in the northwestern part of Iran. We hope that this catalogue stimulates new research contributing to such aspects.


The original descriptions of the excavations and finds, including pottery and the associated human remains, are available in the following publications:

Egami, N. (1963) Dailaman I: The Excavations at Ghalekuti and Lasulkan in 1960. Tokyo: The Institute of Oriental Culture, The University of Tokyo.

Egami, N. and J. Ikeda (1963) Anthropological Studies of West Asia 1: Human Remains from the Tombs in Dailamanistan, Northern Iran, Vol. 1. Tokyo: The Institute of Oriental Culture, The University of Tokyo.

Egami, N., S. Fukai and S. Masuda (1966) Dailaman II: The Excavations at Noruzmahale and Khoramrud, 1960. Tokyo: The Institute of Oriental Culture, The University of Tokyo.

Sono, T. and S. Fukai (1968) Dailaman III: The Excavations at Hassani Mahale and Ghalekuti, 1964. Tokyo: The Institute of Oriental Culture, The University of Tokyo.

Ikeda, J. (1968) Anthropological Studies of West Asia 2: Human Remains from the Tombs in Dailaman, Northern Iran, Vol. 2. Tokyo: The Institute of Oriental Culture, The University of Tokyo.

Fukai, S. and J. Ikeda (1971) Dailaman IV: The Excavations at Ghalekuti II & I, 1964. Tokyo: The Institute of Oriental Culture, The University of Tokyo.


The chronological position of the tombs and features that produced the pottery documented here is summarized in Fig. 3 . It is a chronology based on more recent work, in which the original reports were reviewed. For details, see the following.

Hori, A. (1981) Dailaman and Halimehjan - Re-examinations of their Chronology -.  Bulletin of the Ancient Orient Museum III, pp. 43-62

Tani-ichi, T. (1997) Reconsideration of the chronology of the tombs from Hassani Mahale and Ghalekuti. In Expedition of Mind, edited by Y. Nishiaki, pp. 150-156. Tokyo: The University of Tokyo Press (in Japanese).

Arimatsu, Y. (2005) Ceramic chronology of the Iron Age to the Parthian Period in the Dailaman district, Iran. Proceedings of the 10th Annual Meeting of the Japan Society for West Asian Archaeology,  pp. 34-38. Tokyo: The Museum of Horses and Horse Racing (in Japanese).


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