Excavations at the Prehistoric Sites of Tepe Dehno and Tepe East Dehno, Shahdad, South-eastern Iran

Dasht-e Lut (Lut Desert) is archaeologically well-known in Near East thanks to the presence, on its western edge, of the Bronze Age urban centre of Shahdad. In 2012, the author launched a three-season field project in the area of Shahdad, with an agenda articulated around three main research points: an extensive archaeological survey along the western edge of the Lut Desert, the stratigraphic excavations of two multi-period prehistoric sites and, lastly, a systematic surface survey and excavations aimed at delimitating the urban centre of Shahdad. This paper presents the results of the second season of this recent project. Recent excavations at Tepe Dehno and Tepe East Dehno in Shahdad plain have revealed levels dating back to a period from the early 5th to the early 3rd millennium BCE based on C14 absolute dates. A total of 10 charcoal samples from the mentioned excavated sites were analysed using Accelerator Mass Spectrometer (AMS) method. Radiocarbon determinations obtained from the two aforementioned sites have questioned the prehistoric chronology of south-eastern Iran