Study of Structure and Provenance of the Pottery from Tepeh Gebri Mud B in South Khorasan Province – Iran

چکیده مقاله

As far as archaeological research is concerned, South Khorasan province is among the most important and influential regions in the historical period of the Parthians, who began ruling Iran from 250 AD. One of the most prominent sites in that cultural region is Gebri Mud located in the town of Mud, 30 km southeast of Birjand, South Khorasan province. The site consists of two mounds, A and B. Although the typological study of its pottery has been carried out in previous research, no laboratory study has been conducted on the provenance and mineralogical structure of the Parthian pottery of this region, despite the fact that Burnished War and Londo pottery examples, which are among the representative and local pottery, recovered in southeastern Iran, has been discovered in this region. The purpose of the present study is to provide an answer to the following questions: To which region does the pottery recovered belong? And how has been the structure of this pottery? Accordingly, 14 pottery samples from Tepeh Gebri B were selected according to their color, shape and decoration. Then, based on the petrography and XRD tests, the minerals of pottery obtained from Tepeh Gebri B and the soils of five regions, considered as the possible pottery production sites, were selected. The results indicated that the texture of pottery samples can be divided into three groups: fine-grained sand (125 to 250 micrometers), medium-grained sand (250 to 500 micrometers) and coarse-grained sand (500 to 1000 micrometers). The components of pottery are divided into two categories: grain and matrix. The grains include quartz (mono-crystalline and polycrystalline), most abundantly found among the samples, feldspar (orthoclase and plagioclase), sandstone fragments (sedimentary and volcanic), micas (Mescoite and Biotite) and heavy minerals (Opaque). Finally, by comparing the minerals of the pottery samples with those of the study soils and then comparing them with the geological map of the region, it was found that the provenance of the pottery was consistent with Gebri region, and the pottery can be considered as local and imitative wares. Based on the presence of Anorthite and sanidine phases in some pottery, as well as the absence of clay burnout, it can be inferred that the pottery were produced at high but controlled temperatures and with quality