ARCHAEOLOGICAL STUDY OF MINES AND METAL SMELTING FURNACES IN THE CENTRAL DISTRICT OF SARBISHEH COUNTY - SOUTH KHORASAN, IRAN

The eastern and southeastern regions of Iran have long been of great importance due to the existence of metal mines. Although new research has been conducted in recent years on geology and mining, little research has been done on the site's ancient mines. In 2013, an archaeological survey in Sarbisheh County identified a number of mines and metal smelting furnace. These historic sites are located in the central district of Sarbisheh County in the southern part of the county and in places called Koohakrud, Mesgaran, and Kasrab. In all, nine mines and three metal smelting furnaces were discovered, the largest of which is located in the Koohakrud area, 25 km south of Sarbisheh. The purpose of this research is to introduce the mines and study sites in the central district of Sarbisheh County, how to extract ores and how to melt metals. In this regard, questions have been raised about the period of mines and metal extraction furnaces? What metal is the most extracted metal and how was the metal extraction method done? Mineral fragments from all these mines and a large amount of slag from the furnaces, and in some of these mines, clay finds have been obtained. The dating of identified mines is very difficult due to the lack of data. However, according to the cultural materials obtained from around these mines and furnaces, the Middle Ages to the late Islamic Middle Ages can be considered for these sites. According to the evidence of metal smelting, the most common mineral used in smelted rocks is copper, and the method of extracting metal mines has been surface and underground mining. The research method in this research was descriptive-analytical, and data collection has been done in a field and library method.