Absolute (14C AMS) and Relative Chronology of Dava Göz Khoy; New Evidence of Transitional Chalcolithic, Dalma and Pisdeli Cultures in NW IRAN

The settlement of Dava Göz situated about 15km SW of Khoy and 1.5km north of the Dizaj Diz town in NW Iran. Dava Göz is a small site at north of the Lake Urmia, measuring about 100×100m (ca. 1ha). The first season of archaeological excavation primarily aimed to clarifying the chronology, settlement organization, and respond to some of the fundamental questions such as the transition process from Late Neolithic to Early Chalcolithic (Hajji Firuz to Dalma) and identifying different cultural horizon including Middle and Late Chalcolithic (LC1 and LC2) periods and also outlining cultural condition of the region during prehistoric periods. The present paper is intended to expose six absolute radiocarbon data from the site and preparing new data for revising prehistoric chronology of NW Iran. According to fresh absolute C14 radiocarbon date the stratigraphy and chronology of the settlement is now well understood and covers Transitional Chalcolithic (Dava Göz I: 5400-5000 BC), Early Chalcolithic or (Dalma Dava Göz II: 5000-4500 BC) and Middle and Late Chalcolithic 1 (Pisdeli, LC1: Dava Göz III: 4500-4200 BC) and Late Chalcolithic 2 (Chaff-Faced Ware horizon, LC2: Dava Göz IV: 4200-3900/3800 BC) phases of the regional culture of north of the Lake Urmia Basin. Actually, Dava Göz is one of the scant well excavated settlements that give new and fresh information on the developments of the Lake Urmia Basin communities between the sixth to fourth millennium BC (5400-3700/3600 BC), and on their relationships with the contemporary Caucasian cultures as well as with those located further west and south, in Eastern Anatolia and in the Syro-Mesopotamian region. The first preliminary result of excavation, suggest special function for Dava Göz. It seems clear that this site could be consider as winter land for some agro-pastoral groups of Lake Urmia Basin who trying to find some pasturelands and preparing same raw materials like obsidian for the settlements of Urmia region The implications of the findings will discuss along with limitations and future research directions.