A STUDY OF THE COMPOSITION AND PROVENANCE OF THE POTTERY FROM TEPEH GEBRI MUD B IN SOUTH KHORASAN PROVINCE – IRAN

Abstract

As far as archaeological research is concerned, South Khorasan prov ince is among the most influential regions in the era of the Parthians, who began ruling Iran from 250 BCE. One of the most prominent archaeological sites in that cultural region is Gebri Mud, located in the town of Mud, 30 km southeast of Birjand, South Khorasan province. Although the typological study of its pottery has been carried out in previous research, no laboratory analysis has been con ducted on the provenance and mineralogical composition of this Parthian pottery, despite the presence of Burnished Ware and Londo pottery. The study therefore aims to address the following questions: To which region does this pottery belong? And what is the structure of this pottery? The 14 pottery samples from Tepeh Gebri Mud B were selected according to their color, shape and decoration. Based on petrographic and XRD analyses, the authors selected and compared the mineralogical composition of the pottery samples from Tepeh Gebri Mud B with soils from five regions with a high probability to be pottery production sites. The results indicate that the texture of the pottery samples can be divided into three groups: fine-grained sand (125-250µm), medium-grained sand (250-500µm), and coarse-grained sand (500-1000µm). The pottery compo nents are divided into two categories: grain and matrix. The grains consist pre dominantly of quartz (both monocrystalline and polycrystalline), which is the most abundant mineral in the samples, as well as feldspar (orthoclase and plagio clase), sandstone fragments (sedimentary and volcanic), micas (muscovite and biotite), and heavy minerals (opaque). Comparison of the mineralogical composition of the pottery with that of the stud ied soils, together with the correlation with the regional geological map, indicates that the provenance of the pottery is consistent with the Gebri region. The pottery can therefore be considered local and imitative ware. Furthermore, the presence of anorthite and sanidine phases in some samples, along with the absence of clay 25/03/2026 13:08 105382_Iran_Antiqua_60_08_Moradzadeh ea.indd 169 170 K. MORADZADEH ET AL. burnout, suggests that the pottery was produced at a high but controlled firing temperature, indicating a high level of technological quality. Keywords: