CLASSIFICATION AND TYPOLOGY OF ANCIENT ELAMITE BURIAL TRADITIONS (2900- 539 BC)

چکیده مقاله

Abolfazl Bagheri Madvari From an archaeological perspective, the study of ancient burials provides valuable information about religion, ideological views, social classes, and even trans-regional relations. Meanwhile, the ancient Elamite civilization, as the first historical period of Iran, has had various burial traditions the study of which is important. The necessity of this study is due to the fact that given the limited excavations conducted so far and sometimes archaeologists’ inattention to this period compared to other historical periods, our information of this area is unfortunately incomplete. Accordingly, in the present research, it is attempted to classify and identify the burial traditions of this period using a comparative-analytical method so that the origin and reasons for some of these burial traditions in this period can be obtained. To meet this purpose, by studying different and important Elamite burial sites in four regions of Khuzestan, Khorramabad, Kashan and Tehran, burials were identified and classified in the time period of 2900-539, according to which 7 burial traditions were recognized, including tomb, jar and bowl types, in soil burial, burial cairns, coffin burial, mass burial and cremation. Subsequently, comparing with the Mesopotamian burial examples, the following results were obtained: 1- All the burial practices except the burial cairns are similar to the Mesopotamian examples and the tomb burial, double-bowl (double-jar) burials and U-shaped coffins have a Mesopotamian origin. 2. The cremation burial is also a common tradition of the Hittites in the Anatolian region, which is only limited to Elam and Mesopotamia. 3- The reason for mass burial practice in ancient Elam, according to a comparison with the mass burials of the royal tombs of Ur and the inscription of Gilgamesh, could be due to sacrifice of servants for serving in the afterlife world rather than due war or disease.