An Insight into the Impressed Decorations on the Pottery from Zolfabad, Farahan, Iran

An Insight into the Impressed Decorations on the Pottery from Zolfabad, Farahan, Iran Mohammadreza Nemati Research Institute for the Iranian Organization of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Mohamadreza1973@gmail.com Esmail Sharahi Markazi Province Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Directorate sharahi.esmaiel@yahoo.com Ali Sadraei Situated 48 km north of Arak in the Farahan plain, Zolfabad is one of the largest archaeological sites of the Islamic period in the Iranian province of Markazi. It has been identified as a large rural settlement and a center for pottery manufacture in the vast plain of Farahan, spanning the 6th-13th centuries AH/AD 12th-19th. During the two seasons of excavations evidence on pottery production was recorded at the site. Among the attested vessels and sherds, the Ilkhanid material with impressed decorations is of particular importance in that they bear a diversity of floral and animal motifs as well as inscriptions. The present work represented an attempt to explore the correlation of these motifs with the related decorative designs from the pre-Islamic as well as the Islamic times, but also to study the Iranian archetypes on these pieces and their combination with the Mongolian-inspired motifs. The study built on both fieldwork and library research. Close affinities were observed between the motifs in the Zolfabad assemblage and those used in the pre-Islamic Iran, and the latter’s superiority to the designs inspired from Iran’s post-Islamic culture was corroborated. The case study of the impressed ceramic subunit from the site, which in light of the attested indications were produced locally, evince a continuation of the Iranian archetypal designs. Despite the dominance of the Islamic culture and the preponderance of the Shiite doctrine in the Ilkhanid Farahan, the impressed motifs on these ceramics reflect a wide application of Iranian symbolism and an imagery tradition enrooted in the pre-Islamic culture. Although due to the Islamic ideological tenets the earlier motifs were imparted new concepts, those in our study assemblage one does not discern a domination of the Islamic culture on the motif Repertoire except for a few islimis (arabesque) and khatays (floral patterns), which are among the most ubiquitous designs of the Islamic art. The patterns decorating the ceramics under study are by no means explainable by the Islamic culture and relate in every aspect to the pre-Islamic concepts. The same was true for the Chinese-Mongolian culture. In particular, in the wake of the Mongolian conquest of Iran the Chinese motifs to a certain extent step to a fore, but their representation in the Zolfabad assemblage is far inferior to the Islamic motifs. At any rate, the use of various motifs as specific symbols and the use of Persian script, etc. bear a testimony to the highly intensified importance the Ilkahnid residents of Zolfabad placed on the indigenous motifs and the deep connection of the local artisans and population with the rich pre-Islamic native culture. Keywords: Zolfabad, Impressed motifs, Ilkhanid period, Iranian culture. Situated 48 km north of Arak in the Farahan plain, Zolfabad is one of the largest archaeological sites of the Islamic period in the Iranian province of Markazi. It has been identified as a large rural settlement and a center for pottery manufacture in the vast plain of Farahan, spanning the 6th-13th centuries AH/AD 12th-19th. During the two seasons of excavations evidence on pottery production was recorded at the site. Among the attested vessels and sherds, the Ilkhanid material with impressed decorations is of particular importance in that they bear a diversity of floral and animal motifs as well as inscriptions. The present work represented an attempt to explore the correlation of these motifs with the related decorative designs from the pre-Islamic as well as the Islamic times, but also to study the Iranian archetypes on these pieces and their combination with the Mongolian-inspired motifs. The study built on both fieldwork and library research.