A Preliminary Report on the First Season of Excavation at Gilavan Cemetery in Northwestern Iran

Khanghah Gilavan cemetery with an area of 300 hectares is one of the unique sites located in northwestern Iran in the Ardabil province. The first season of excavations in this site, was carried out in 2006, during which, 10 burials belonging to the Middle Bronze Age, Iron Age I and Parthian period were excavated. They were pit graves lacking any structure. In other words, these types of graves had no particular architectural features and were created by digging a hole and placing the dead people there. The burials were mostly individual, with some double burials seen as well. Funerary objects in the graves were pottery, bronze and iron objects. These burials contained gifts such as pottery, bronze weapons, metal ornaments and decorated beads of various forms. An interesting point regarding the cemetery is the existence of burials from three periods, the middle Bronze Age, Iron Age I and the Parthian Era. Based on the archaeological data obtained from the burials and compared with other graves and archaeological sites, two of the burials can be attributed to the middle bronze age, four to Iron Age I and four to the Parthian period.