Sarfirouzabad Plain in the Middle Chalcolithic Period: A Review of Dalma Settlements on the Eastern Edge of the Mahidasht, Central Zagros

One of the prehistoric traditions which have been less noted in Western Iran is Dalma tradition. This, has a wide spread areas of the North West to the Central Zagros, but our knowledge is only few articles and very brief and limited reports. Despite the archaeological research on the region since the 60s and 70s in the Mahidasht, Kangavar, showed the Sarfirouzabad entity little information were available. Sarfirouzabad is located 38 km southwest of Kermanshah including three villages Sarfirouzabad (center Halashi), Jalalvand (central chenar) and Osmanevand (Bozhan center). Sarfirouzabad is the largest in the region, which has an area of 1787 square kilometers. The natural plains is located along Mahidasht extended to South and South East. In 2009, a Mission from University of Tehran, headed by Kamal Al-din Niknami carried out a survey on Sarfirouzabad in order to study and identification of the history of human settlement and patterns spanning from the prehistoric times to contemporary period. During the survey some 28 sites were identified. According to the settlements localization, some of them with less than one hectare in size are located in the slopes and hilly areas while some are located with 10 hectares on the plains near permanent water sources. It appears that this settlement was different groups of sedentary and nomads who lived together. The importance of this research is that one can characterize the inter-regional cultural interactions between the two groups of people in a specified period of Dalma; the settlement pattern analysis of Sarfirouzabad plains, was applied by five varying slope, elevation above sea level, vast area, vicinity to water source and its distance of each site from the main routes. The distribution of sites and settlement patterns shows that during the period they were mainly depended on the environmental resources, especially water resources. The location of site’s relative to studying area between 1400 and 1700 meters above sea level. So that the sites where the altitude between 1400 and 1500 meters above sea level are 6, 4/21% of total area, the area with elevation of 1500 to 1600 meters above sea level, 14, 50% of the total, sites at altitude of 1600 to 1700 meters above sea level, are 8, 28.5% of the total. In this study, the distance in between Dalma sites to water resources, river, and springs possible, Mirage has also been considered. Of the Dalma Sites, there are 14 sites located at a distance of 0 to 100 m of water, 50% of total. 7 sites are between 100 to 200 meters, 25% of the total, 7 sites are between 200 to 400 meters, 25% of the total. The main road of Sarfirouzabad is near Mereg River, Considering the placement of sites alongside the road and the river, it seems that they have been used in ancient periods. Of The total Dalma sites in Sarfirouzabad, 12 sites have 0 – 2500 meters from the main road, this included 42%, 9 of the total, 32% of sites are located at a distance of 2,500 to 5,000 meters 7 sites more than 5,000 meters, These sites are mostly located hilly and rims areas in the mountains and forests.