Explore Iranica

CERAMICS viii. The Early Bronze Age in Southwestern and Southern Persia Southwestern Persia, ca. 2000-1000 B.C.E. Knowl­edge of the ceramic sequence of southwestern Persia between 2000 and 1000 B.C.E. is based primarily on excavated material from the Ville Royale at Susa (Gasche; Steve et al.; Carter, 1971; idem, 1980; Miro­schedji),…

CERAMICS ix. The Bronze Age in Northeastern Persia Archeologists have traditionally linked the ap­pearance of burnished gray wares at Tepe Hissar (Ḥeṣār) and Tureng (Tūrang) Tepe in Gorgān during the second half of the 4th millennium b.c., and their possible diffusion westward in the first half of the 2nd millennium,…

CERAMICS x. The Iron Age The pottery of Iron Age Persia presents a vast array of problems, not least the huge area and long span of time that must be taken into consideration. An outline of the basic problems will be presented here, with identification of crucial sites and regional…

CERAMICS xi. The Achaemenid Period Although information on architecture and sculpture at major Achaemenid sites in Persia is plentiful, knowl­edge of the pottery of this period is almost totally lacking. Because there are few excavated sites the survey provided here is only tentative. It is possible to distin­guish several areas…

CERAMICS xii. The Parthian and Sasanian Periods Several recent studies have provided a general picture of the ceramics of the Parthian and Sasanian periods in Persia, spanning nearly a millennium, which had previ­ously been virtually unknown. One of the major conclusions is that the distribution pattern of pottery characterized by…

CERAMICS xiii. The Early Islamic Period, 7th-11th Centuries Early Islamic pottery has been found in two main regions of Persia: Ḵūzestān and the Persian Gulf, on one hand, and the Persian plateau, including Khorasan, on the other. For most of this century, however, study of all Islamic pottery of the…

CERAMICS vi. Uruk, Proto-Elamite, and Early Bronze Age in Southern Persia The ceramics discussed here represent local pro­duction in Fārs province from approximately 4000 to 1600 B.C.E., divided into four chronological groups: Lapui (Lapūʾī) ware (ca. 4000-3500 B.C.E.), Banesh (Baneš) ware (ca. 3500-2800 B.C.E.), Jalyan (Jalīān) ware (ca. 2800-2400 B.C.E.?),…

CERAMICS vii. The Bronze Age in Northwestern, Western, and Southwestern Persia Northwestern Persia. There were two major ceramic traditions in northwestern Persia during the 3rd millen­nium B.C.E. Throughout the entire period Early Transcaucasian II-III flourished around the northern half of the Lake Urmia basin, for example, in Yanik Early Bronze…

CERAMICS xiv. The Islamic Period, 11th-15th centuries Saljuq and post-Saljuq periods (429-654/1038-1256) Earthenware. There is very little firm evidence for either localization or precise dating of pottery made in Persia in the 5th/11th and early 6th/12th centuries, as few controlled excavations have been undertaken and very few dated specimens have…

CERAMICS xv. The Islamic Period, 16th-19th centuries The Safavid period Although several European travelers to Persia in the 11th/17th century reported active potteries at Shiraz, Mašhad, Yazd, Zarand, and especially Kermān (see, e.g., Lane, pp. 119-23), there are no detailed records that would assist in attributing specific pieces surviving from…

ČERĪK (also jerīk, from Mongol tserig “warrior[s]”), originally troops sent by an individual or camp (yort) to serve in the royal army (Petrushevskiĭ, II, p. 769). The čerīk system persisted in Iran for many centuries, in slightly varying forms. The Mongol period. In the 7th-8th/13th-14th centuries the term čerīk was…

CERULLI, Enrico (born Naples, 15 February 1898; died 1988), Italian orientalist and diplomat. Between 1950 and 1954 he served as ambassador to Tehran, where he became interested in Shiʿite passion plays (taʿzias), at that time held in low esteem in both official cultural and orthodox religious circles. As a young…