Iranian Metallurgy of the Fourth Millennium BC in its Wider Technological and Cultural Contexts

Abstract

The fourth millennium BC in Iran is crucial for our understanding of the development of the extractive metallurgy of copper, lead, and silver. The origins of metal smelting technologies can be traced locally back to the fifth millennium BC and are related to an even earlier utilisation of native metals at Neolithic sites across Iran. Several studies have demonstrated Iran's significance for our understanding of the earliest alloying of arsenical copper and the eventual adoption of tin-bronze in the period from the late fifth through to the early third millennium Be. From a metallurgical perspective, the Iranian evidence is critical for characterising the development of extractive metallurgy and alloying across southwest Asia and neighbouring regions. From a socioeconomic perspective, the development of early metallurgy in Iran has been linked to the rise and expansion of complex societies within Iran and in neighbouring Mesopotamia. This paper reviews the major metallurgical developments that can be tracked across fourth millennium BC Iran, and places these developments within the broader technological and cultural contexts of Chalcolithic western Asia. Particular attention is paid to similarities in the development of early metal smelting and the production of copper, copper alloys, lead, silver, and gold in the highland zones to the north and east of Mesopotamia.