Tepe Hissar also spelled Tappeh Hesār () is an ancient Near Eastern archaeological site in Semnan province in northeastern Iran about 360 kilometers east of modern Tehran. It is located near the village Heydarabad two kilometers southeast of the medieval town of Damghan.
The site is notable for its uninterrupted occupational history from the 5th to the 2nd millennium BC. The quantity and elaborateness of its excavated artifacts and funerary customs position the site prominently as a cultural bridge between Mesopotamia and Central Asia. It is thought to have been a stop on the Great Khorasan Road.
In recent scholarship, Greater Khorasan refers to an extensive interaction sphere in Central Asia during the Middle and Late Bronze Age. The emergence of complex societies during this period is observed especially in southern Central Asia. Thus, during 2400–1500 BCE, the rise of the Greater Khorasan Civilization (GKC) is being considered.
Expeditions in 1931–32 by the University of Pennsylvania and 1976 by the University of Pennsylvania Museum revealed that the site was inhabited from 3900 to 1900 BC. Evidence was uncovered of pottery-making and metallurgy. A large Sasanian era palace was also uncovered.
Archaeology
The 6 hectare site of Tepe Hissar has a total diameter of about 600 meters rising about 7 meters above the plain. It consists of a 200 meter by 300 meter main mound with a lower terrace extending to the north and with 5 smaller hillocks lying mostly to the southwest with a few scattered flat settlement areas. A small hillock on the east edge of the main mound was designated Treasure Hill after two very rich Strata IIIC buried hoards were found there. The site was eroded and a deep gulch divided it. The surface of the main mound contained a number of burials. Examination of the largest hillock found it to hold the remains of a Sassanian building.Gürsan-Salzmann, Ayşe, "Tepe Hissar, an Introduction", in The New Chronology of the Bronze Age Settlement of Tepe Hissar, Iran, University of Pennsylvania Press for the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, pp. 1-12, 2016
The site was first discovered in 1877 by Albert Houtum-Schindler who noted that locals were digging at the site in hopes of finding artifacts.Houtum-Schindler, A., "Historical and Archæological Notes on a Journey in South-Western Persia, 1877-1878", Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 312–26, 1880 In 1925, Ernst Herzfeld examined the site as part of a regional survey, recommended it for excavations, and also noted the looting.Herzfeld, E., "Iran in the Ancient East: Archaeological Studies Presented in the Lowell Lectures at Boston", New York: Hacker Art Books, 1988 It was then excavated in two seasons, from July until mid-November 1931 and May through November 1932, by Erich Schmidt, on behalf of the University of Pennsylvania Museum.
The important site of Tureng Tepe is located about 90 km (56 mi) north of Hissar, and has some parallels to Hissar.
A related site of Shir Ashian Tepe is located about 20 km southwest of Hissar; it helped to clarify the chronology of Hissar.R. H. Dyson Jr. and C. P. Thornton, "Shir-i Shian and the fifth millennium sequence of Northern Iran," Iran 47, 2009, pp. 1–22
Metal production The presence of full-time specialists seems to be attested already in the first Chalcolithic period. Regarding the metal production, already in Hissar I period, both weapons (daggers, knife blades, arrowheads) and other tools (pins, tacks, points and needles) were made.
In Hissar II and III copper artifacts increase in quality and variety and include personal ornaments (earrings, pendants, bracelets, bands), tools and weapons (bidents, lances, mattocks, chisels, mace heads), and luxury items (vessels, mirrors, boxes and intricately cast pins and rods).
In the second half of the fourth millennium (ca 3500-3000 BC), Hissar became a major site of metalworking and processing of gemstones, especially lapis lazuli. Thus, the city became the centre of extensive intra-cultural and trans-cultural trade relationships in the region, involving also long distance trade, especially with the Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex.
According to Neda Moradi (2024), "Tepe Hissar was part of the so-called "interaction sphere" of Central Asia, spanning from the early fourth millennium to the beginning of the second millennium BCE. This cultural sphere covered a vast area from southern Mesopotamia to the Indus Valley, including Iranian plateau, the Persian Gulf region, Afghanistan, and western Central Asia, where powerful political-economic systems were established around 3500 BCE."
Chronology The first season focused on the Sassanian mound and initial work on the main mound. The excavators determined a relative chronology of the site, dividing it into a number of layers. Note that unlike usual practice strata are numbers from oldest to most recent. E.F. Schmidt, "The Tepe Hissar Excavations 1931", Museum Journal of Philadelphia, 23/4, pp 322–485, 1933 E.F. Schmidt, "Excavations at Tepe Hissar, Damghan, Iran: with an additional chapter on the Sasanian Building at Tepe Hissar", Philadelphia, 1937 Yule, Paul, Schmidt, Erich Friedrich, "Tepe Hissar : neolithische und kupferzeitliche Siedlung in Nordostiran / nach den Arbeiten von E.F. Schmidt dargestellt von Paul Yule", München: C.H. Beck, 1982Gürsan-Salzmann, Ayşe, "Erich F. Schmidt Excavations (1931–32)", in The New Chronology of the Bronze Age Settlement of Tepe Hissar, Iran, University of Pennsylvania Press for the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, pp. 13-40, 2016 Christopher P.Thornton and Thilo Rehren, "A truly refractory crucible from fourth millennium Tepe Hissar, Northeast Iran", Journal of Archaeological Science, vol. 36, iss. 12, pp. 2700-2712, December 2009
Strata I (subdivided into IA, IB, and IC) - painted pottery. Only examined in soundings so full extent is unknown though it is estimated to have covered and area with a diameter of 200 meters. Building were constructed with sun-dried mud bricks. Some walls were buttressed. Subdivisions are based on pottery with IA being handmade with rectilinear designs, IB being wheelmade decorated with animal or floral motifs and IC wheelmade with dark brown decoration on a light grayish brown ground. Clay finds included spindle whorls, cones, bicones, dics, and figurines. A number of seals were found but no sealings leading to the idea they were being used as decoration. Copper objects (in IA) included knife and dagger blades, pins, and needles. Numerous lithic and bone objects were also excavated as well as 144 burials. Strata II (subdivided into IIA and IIB) - grey pottery. IIA featured wheelmade pottery with motifs similar to Strata IC while decoration changed somewhat in IIB. Strata II is the thinnest of the layers and assumed to have been the shortest occupation though this is not certain. Buildings construction and plan were similar to Strata I so this Strata is largely defined by pottery type. Small finds, lithics, figurines etc., were also similar to Strata I. More copper objects and types appeared including maceheads, rings, bracelets, anklets, earrings, and various tools. A few small gold and silver ornaments were found. Of the 209 burials excavated, those in IIA contained more and varied grave goods.
Strata III (subdivided into IIIA, IIIB, and IIIC) - handmade burnished greyware pottery. The oldest level, IIIA is minimal and ill-defined and its principle value is in making clear the demarcation between Strata IIB and Strata IIIB. The final and most recent layer at Tepe Hissar, IIIC, is also very thin and the buildings are few and insignificant however burials from that layer are "extraordinarily well-equipped" and the buried hoards on Treasure Hill was particularly rich in finds. Strata IIIB was the principle occupation layer including some structures destroyed by conflagration. One, called the Burned Building (BB) was, unlike the others, burned while occupied and still retaining its possessions. This occurrence provided the excavators with a number of skeletal remains and finds as well as baking the mudbrick walls. The BB was the best constructed and elaborate building in Strata IIIB with six rooms (with several stairways leading to the roof), gateway passage, courtyard, outside latrine, and a tower at the door. The excavators declared it the residence of the towns most prominent resident and not a cultic site. Finds in the main room included numerous lapis lazuli, chalcedony, gold, and silver ornaments, copper daggers (one with a grip of silver bands), and large copper vessels. A storeroom contained a number of sizable lidded storage vessels as well as a copper mattock and two copper stamp seals. A large numbers of flint arrowheads were found inside and outside of the BB. Baked clay and lithic finds from Strata III were similar to those of Strata II while metal finds were much more numerous and varied, primarily of copper and silver.R.H. Dyson Jr., "The Burned Building of Tepe Hissar IIIB, a Restatement", Bāstān-šenāsi wa honar-e Irān, vol. 9, no. 10, pp. 57–83, 1972 Burials excavated were 106 of Strata IIIA, 270 of Strata IIIB and 53 of Strata IIIC. After Strata IIIC the site was abandoned.
While the majority of burials were simple pit graves (a few double burials) where the body was wrapped in woolen garments, five cist graves, one "vault" grave, and one communal grave were also found. One cist grave (CG25, Strata II, adult male) was notable for its grave goods which included "a large copper stamp seal hung from his pelvic bone, a mace head, along with an abundance of copper jewelry, earrings and multiple-coil bracelets near his head and on his arm, copper pins with double scroll heads on his chest, a silver head band, and lapis lazuli, carnelian, turquoise beads scattered on his chest". The communal grave (CG15, Strata II-III, mostly males and infants) contained a variety of grave goods, primarily copper ornaments, a copper mattock, and a copper knife. Five of the pit graves were of high status with many grave items, often of copper - "Dancer" (CF55 x1), "Warrior 1" (DF19 x2); "Warrior 2" (DF09 x1); "Priest" (DF08 x1) and "Little Girl" (DF18 x1) all dated to Strata IIIC.Gürsan-Salzmann, Ayşe, "Death and Burial Culture of Tepe Hissar", in The New Chronology of the Bronze Age Settlement of Tepe Hissar, Iran, University of Pennsylvania Press for the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, pp. 217-266, 2016