Geoarchaeological study of the pottery of Gebri Mud (Mud B) ancient site, Sarbisheh, Southern Khorasan in order to determine making-materials and provenance

The potteries of Gebri Mud site in sarbisheh city includes varoius pottery that some of their types are the local indicators of southeast of Iran. Is there any connection between the composition of the building materials used in making the pottery of this region and the neighboring regions in the Parthian period? Since the imported aspect of these pottery from the southeastern regions of Iran, Makran and Sistan has been suggested, the provenance of the above works based on the mineralogical composition analysis (sedimentary petrography studies) and the relation between their composition with geological setting of the region has been investigated. In order to determine the geological characteristics of pottery artifacts and the nature of the raw materials used in their manufacture, the thin sections prepared from them were studied by polarizing microscope. The similarity of the petrographic composition of the raw materials of studied pottery with geological rock units and collected alluvial sedimentary samples of around the study area rejects the import aspect of these earthenware from the southeastern regions of Iran and strengthens the possibility that these ceramics are native and made near the place of their discovery.