The Iranian Plateau during the Bronze Age

The book compiles a portion of the contributions presented during the
symposium “Urbanisation, commerce, subsistence and production during the third
millennium BC on the Iranian Plateau”, which took place at the Maison de
l’Orient et de la Méditerranée in Lyon, the 29-30 of April, 2014. The twenty
papers assembled provide an overview of the recent archaeological research on
this region of the Middle East during the Bronze Age. The socio-economic
transformation from rural villages to towns and nations has prompted many
questions into this evolution of urbanisation. What was the impact of
interactions between cultures in the Iranian Plateau and the surrounding
regions (Mesopotamia, the South Caucasus, Central Asia, Indus Valley)? What
was the overall context during the Bronze Age on the Iranian Plateau? What was
the extent and means of the expansion of the Kuro-Araxe culture? How did the
Elamite Kingdom become established? What new knowledge has been contributed by
the recent excavations and studies undertaken in the east of Iran? What was
the influence of the Indus Valley culture, known as an epicentre of
urbanisation in South Asia? What are the unique characteristics of the ancient
cultures in Iran? While the urbanisation of early Mesopotamia has been the
subject of much debate for several decades, this topic has only recently been
raised in respect to the Iranian Plateau. This volume is the product of an
international community from Iranian, European, and American institutions,
consisting of recognised specialists in the archaeology of the Iranian Bronze
Age. It provides an overview of the latest research, including abundant
results from current on-going excavations. The current state of archaeological
research in Iran, comprising many dynamic questions and perspectives, is
presented here in the form of original contributions on the first emergence of
towns in the Near and Middle East.