The Architecture of Western Mazandaran and Eastern Gilan During the Iron Age

One of the most important and unanswered questions in archaeological researches of two neighboring provinces of Guilan and Mazandaran is; what kind of settlement patterns are there in the prehistory، especially in the Iron Age of the region; Presence or absence of permanent architecture and the kind of the architecture and the applied material، despite their importance reconstructing the livelihood systems، have had no considerations in the archaeological studies of Guilan and Mazandaran and have not been studied yet systematically. Meanwhile، the main prehistoric archaeological activities at two provinces are mainly focused on the Iron Age graveyards (1500-750 B. C.). The lack of fundamental questions and methodological considerations in archaeological researches lead to the settlement patterns and architecture in this era remain obscured. However there are many questions seems to need more attentions in the archaeological investigations. Some of these inquiries are listed below: How is the distribution of sites and settlement pattern in this area during prehistoric time? What factor (s) led to identify little evidence of such settlements at this part of Iran? Are there any sedentary settlements in northern slops of Alborz Mountains over prehistoric era? If there is، what are its architectural elements? And what materials were used in the construction of temporary or permanent architectures? In this paper we tried to establish an initial sketch of Iron Age architecture attributions in the region restricted from west parts of Mazandaran to southeastern parts of Guilan. Based on available evidences، we can show that the prehistoric inhabitants of these areas have had semi-sedentary and occasionally fully-sedentary architecture. To sum up، the attribution of the Iron Age architecture in this region includes: 1 - The use of local materials such as cobbles and wood for building the foundation، walls and roofs; 2 - Stones have used in flooring، foundations and probably in walls and also in oven and heart borders; 3 – It seems that unbaked bricks were used in wall occasionally; 4 - Fully fastening angles and making the rectangular spaces was known to these ancient people; 5 - The usage of woody piers probably was prevalent bearing the roofs. 6 - It seems that the roofs were made of wood or other unstable materials. 7- Also we can see traces of ovens and hearts near interior or exterior sides of walls of living space. 8 - Burnt and trampled layers associated with these structures were used for flooring the living rooms and beyond as well. All of these probably shows intermeshed context of sedentary settlements in northern slops of Alborz Mountains in the period between 1500 -750 B. C. In other hand there are evidences of temporary settlements in caves and rock shelters.