Tepe Farukhabad (also Teppe Farukhabad and Tapeh Farukhabad) is an ancient Near Eastern archaeological site located in the Deh Luran Plain (Dehloran Plain) which is primarily in the southwest of modern-day Iran. In lies in the Ilam province. It is 110 kilometers west-northwest of Andimeshk and 12 miles south of the village of Deh Luran. On a visit to the site in 1997 military damage was found (foxholes, trenches for light artillery, and several grenade and mortar craters) and due to erosion "big clumps of the mound have recently collapsed down the nearly vertical slope facing the river".Abdi, K., "A visit to the deh luran plain. Antiquity, 75(288), pp. 247-250, 2001
Archaeology The site was first noted by a French mission led by Joseph Étienne Gautier and Georges Lampre in 1903.Gautier, J.-E. and Lampre, G., "Fouilles de Moussian", Memoires de la Delegation en Perse 8, Leroux, Paris, pp. 59-149, 1905 An examination of the site in 1968 found 5th millennium BC Susiana pottery sherds and 4th millennium BC beveled rim bowls. The site has a small high mound and surrounding lower town and has been cut by a local river which has removed about 60% of its original area to the south. The overall site extends 190 meters from northwest to southeast and 140 meters from northeast to southwest. The central high mound extends 150 meters from northwest to southeast, and 70 meters from northeast to southwest. and rises about 30 meters above the plain of which about 20 meters is occupational remains. Wright, Henry T., "An Early Town on the Deh Luran Plain: Excavations at Tepe Farukhabad", Memoirs of the Museum of Anthropology 13, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, Museum of Anthropology, 1981
The site was worked for a single season over two months in 1968 by a team from the University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology, with 30 workers, led by Henry Wright. Two 5 meter by 14 meter step trenches (designated Trenches A and B, spaced 45 meters apart along the southwest side of the mound) and one 1 meter by 17 meter trench (Trench C, north face top of mound, depth of 12 meters) were excavated.Clare Goff, et al., "Survey of Excavations in Iran, 1967-8", Iran, vol. 7, pp. 169–93, 1969 Bayat and Faukh phase finds included mainly pottery, lithics (microliths, sickle blades, scrappers, etc.), one button seal, and bone tools. Uruk period finds included ceramic ring scrapers, 20 beveled rim bowls, clay stoppers, and conical cups, all diagnostic pottery for the Uruk culture, as well as a single wall cone. Five Middle Uruk burials were excavated. Burnette, Polly Anna, "Zooarchaeology and Spatial Analysis at Tepe Farukhabad: New Life for Legacy Data", Dissertation, Cornell University, 2019. At Tepe Farukhabad BRB diameters ranged from 15 to 31 centimeters. Desset, François, Massimo Vidale, and N. Alidadi Soleimani, "Mahtoutabad III (province of Kerman, Iran): an “Uruk-related” material assemblage in eastern Iran", Iran 51.1, pp. 17-54, 2013 Potts, Daniel, "Bevel-Rim Bowls and Bakeries: Evidence and Explanations from Iran and the Indo-Iranian Borderlands", Journal of Cuneiform Studies, vol. 61, pp. 1–23, 2009 The beveled rim bowls were associated with massive mudbrick building foundations.Hole, Frank, Kent V. Flannery, and James A. Neely, "Prehistory and human ecology of the Deh Luran Plain: an early village sequence from Khuzistan, Iran", Vol. 1. U of M Museum Anthro Archaeology, 1969 available to borrow from the Internet Archive Alden, John R., "Ceramic ring scrapers: An Uruk period pottery production tool", Paléorient, pp. 143-150, 1988 A silver wire and a fishhook were found in a Jemdat Nasr context.Stech, Tamara, and Vincent C. Pigott, "The Metals Trade in Southwest Asia in the Third Millennium B.C", Iraq, vol. 48, pp. 39–64, 1986
Bitumen is available at Tepe Farukhabad (a still active seep is at Ain Gir to the north-northwest of the site) and it has been suggested that the Uruk period development was driven by bitumen production and export. Sheikhi, Jamal, "Bitumen trade in Tepe Farukhabad, Deh Luran", Ilam Culture a scientific journal of ilam culture 24.80, 81, pp. 81-94, 2024 (in persian) Marschner, Robert F., L. J. Duffy, and Henry T. Wright, "Asphalts from ancient town sites in Southwestern Iran", Paléorient, pp. 97-112, 1978Marschner, Robert F. and Wright, Henry T., "Asphalts from Middle Eastern Archaeological Sites", Advances in Chemistry Series 171, pp. 150-171, 1978 Schwartz, Mark, and David Hollander, "Annealing, distilling, reheating and recycling: bitumen processing in the Ancient Near East", Paléorient, pp. 83-91, 2000 Bones of domestic cattle were found in Early, Middle, and Late Uruk periods. Mudar, Karen M., "The effects of context on bone assemblages: Examples from the Uruk period in southwest Iran", Paléorient, pp. 151-168, 1988
The only epigraphic find at the site, in a Middle Uruk context, was a clay ball token envelope with three sealings and possibly some numerical signs.Schmandt-Besserat, Denise, "The Envelopes That Bear the First Writing", Technology and Culture, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 357–85, 1980 Charvát, Petr, "Spheres of interest: Hollow clay balls at the dawn of ancient Near Eastern history", 2019
There was a proposal that the site was the location of Urua though consensus is with that being Tepe Musiyan, 12.5 kilometers to the east.Zeynivand, Mohsen, "A Cylinder Seal with an Amorite Name from Tepe Musiyan, Deh Luran Plain", Journal of Cuneiform Studies, vol. 71, pp. 77–83, 2019
History Tepe Farukhabad was occupied, with periods of abandonment, from the late 5th millennium BC until the late 2nd millennium BC.Sumner, William M., "Ancient Civilization in the near East", Science, vol. 218, no. 4573, pp. 671–72, 1982 (Review: An Early Town on the Deh Luran PlainZalaghi, A.,"On the Way from Susiana to the Deh Lurān Plain: New Evidence of the Elamite Settlements on the Western Bank of the Karkheh River, Southwest Iran", in Susa and Elam II. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, pp. 367–393, 2023 Alizadeh, Abbas. "The Impact of the Rise of the State in Southwestern Iran on the Region's Periphery and Buffer Zones,From Sherds to Landscapes: Studies on the Ancient Near East in Honor of McGuire Gibson, Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization 71, Chicago: The Oriental Institute, pp, 1-22, 2021 c. 4200 BC – 4400 BC - Bayat and Faukh phases Abandonment c. 3900 BC – 2350 BC - Uruk period, Jemdat Nasr, Early Dynastic periods Abandonment c. 2100 BC – 1300 BC - Šimaški, Sukkalmah and Early Elamite periods.
A sounding in the lower town found several meters of Parthian and Sasanian remains. Neely, James A., "Parthian and Sasanian settlement patterns on the Deh Luran plain, Khuzistan Province, southwestern Iran", Iranica Antiqua 51, pp. 235-300, 2016 Structural remains on the summit, originally thought to be from the Islamic era, were on later analysis dated to the Parthian and Sasanian eras.
See also Chronology of the ancient Near East List of cities of the ancient Near East Tepe Sialk Tell Yelkhi
References
Further reading Algaze, Guillermo, "Review - An Early Town on the Deh Luran Plain", Journal of Near Eastern Studies, vol. 43, no. 4, pp. 350–53, 1984 Anna Luurtsema, Kara Larson, Henry Wright, Alicia Ventresca Miller, "Persistence in Pastoralist Practices During the Uruk Period at Tepe Farukhabad", Presented at The 89th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2024 Anna Luurtsema, Kara Larson, Alicia Ventresca Miller, Henry Wright, "An Isotopic and Proteomic Investigation of Uruk Period Faunal Remains from Tepe Farukhabad, Iran", Presented at The 88th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2023 Neely, James A., and Henry T. Wright, "Early settlement and irrigation on the Deh Luran plain: village and early state societies in southwestern Iran", Vol. 26. U of M Museum Anthro Archaeology, 1994. Thuesen, I., and K. Heydorn, "Instrumental neutron activation analysis of ED I-II pottery from the Diyala Region and Farukhabad", Uch Tepe II: Technical Reports, Chicago: The Oriental Institute, pp. 65–90, 1990 Wright, Henry T., and Gregory A. Johnson, "Population, Exchange, and Early State Formation in Southwestern Iran", American Anthropologist, vol. 77, no. 2, pp. 267–89, 1975 Wright, H. T., et al., "Early Fourth Millennium Developments in Southwestern Iran", Iran, vol. 13, pp. 129–47, 1975
External links Early States in Southwestern Iran: Tepe Farukhabad Excavations - University of Michigan