Some Evidences on Social and Economic Institutions of Iron Age Societies in the Center of the Iranian Plateau

Studying and understanding social, economic and political structures of Iron Age societies is an important aspect of archaeological studies on this age. Archaeological surveys of Iron Age in Iran have so far been concentrated on typological study and comparison of the findings obtained from excavations in the cemeteries of this era, and little attention has been paid to examining and reconstructing various social, economical and political aspects of societies of this period. Our archaeological knowledge of Iron Age Iran is greatly based on the excavations carried out in cemeteries of this period, but settlement sites have not been examined sufficiently. Most researchers have so far classified Iron Age peoples of Iran as societies lacking organized political and administrative institutions, and have referred to them as wanderers, on the basis of the small number of the settlement sites. Studying, explaining and analyzing the data obtained from the excavation of the settlement sites of this period can prove the existence of social, economic and political institutions and that they were well organized. The discovery of some grey potsherds with cylinder seal impressions along with such evidences as seals, plaster tokens, big crocks and remains of crock plumps in granaries and places of special usage in large and important Iron Age settlement sites, provides good evidence on social and economic organizations related to agricultural affairs.