The Geographical and Cultural Boundaries of Central Zagros and Central Plateau of Iran

The different environmental features of the Central Iranian Plateau and the Central Zagros region, including the type of access to hydrological resources adjacent to the climatically high pressure regions, such as desert lands and mountainous locations, and the communication constraints are characteristics that throughout the millennia shaped the cultures of these areas. It seems that according to the recent archaeological discoveries and the natural and geographical features’ effects on determination of cultural zones, the revision of archaeological divisions of the central plateau and Zagros is an obvious and essential issue. In the past, the definition of the Central Plateau mainly included the plains of Kashan, Qom and Saveh, Qazvin, Tehran, and the margins of Kavir desert, but did not mention Kurdistan and Hamedan at all. Also, in the Central Zagros area, never mentioned any sites beyond Asadabad and Nahavand. Thus, the role of these regions in the course of cultural transformation, like a blind spot, has always been neglected and archaeologists never considered important places in the areas located between the central plateau and central Zagros, until now. Whereas, geographical divisions, despite the differences between the views of some geographers, emphasize the geomorphologic distinctions of these regions against the Central Plateau and Zagros. Thus, by a review of the factors such as geographical features, catchment areas, quality of communication routes, and the distributional coherence of some cultural materials, especially pottery, the necessity of defining an independent identity for the “Near west” of central Iran, which corresponds to the geological zone of the Sanandaj-Hamedan, distinct from the Central Zagros and the Central Plateau zone, will simply be accepted.