The Second Season of the Archaeological Survey of the Qeshm Island, Iran

The second season of the archaeological survey of Qeshm Island was conducted during the winter of 2012, during which the team identified a total of 138 sites. The preliminary analysis of the ceramic assemblage from these sites suggests that 5 sites date to the 3rd millennium B.C.(Bronze Age) and represent the earliest in the directory. The remainder includes 3 Iron Age, 4 Achaemenid, 23 Parthian, 20 Sasanian, 11 early Islamic, and 34 Ilkhanid and Timurid as well as 102 sites ranging in date from the Safavid to Qajar period. Bronze Age was simply represented by two settlements and three burial sites, all clustered in the central part of the island and the Turiyan plain. The three Iron Age sites previously recorded in the first season were complemented with 3 others in this season. Four sites likely datable to the Achaemenid period all lie on the shore or close to it. Pay Posht 4 (QS 129) appears to have been a harbour and an “industrial center.” Large number of copper slag and some fragments of copper and bronze vessels were found on its surface. Several settlement and burial sites can be dated to the Parthian period. As in the Achaemenid period, these are on the shore or next to it, though a few contemporary sites were recorded in the Turiyan plain located in the central island some distance from the sea. The Sasanian period does show a significant change in the number of sites compared to the earlier Parthian period. Indeed, the sites are now larger than those in the preceding period. Islamic period was attested by a plethora of structures and sites. These show great variety and include extant constructions such as mosques, imamzadehs, cisterns, dams, forts, cemeteries, sites and large and small mounds.