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Sounding at the archaeological site of Tepe Pirtaj in Bijar of Kurdistan aimed to investigate the foremost cultural phenomenon of the third millennium BCE across the Near East, namely the Kura-Araxes culture, in the eastern Central Zagros, as the site promised to provide important insights into the spread of the culture in an easternmost tract of the Central Zagros. Characterized by a grey body often bearing incised decorations, the Kura-Araxes material from Pirtaj shows high expertise in manufacture. The present study explored the pottery technology and manufacturing by selecting a sample of 12 sherds for petrographic and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyses. The main objective was to examine the composition and structure, differences and comparisons, firing temperature and origin (local or imported) of the ceramics. This is of particular significance given the dearth of contemporaneous sites in Bijar. Petrographic and XRF analyses showed the ceramics to be indigenous to the region and, thus, locally produced. The whole sample was found to have been fired at temperatures below 800 C. Geological data attest to the abundance of slate, lime, quartz and calcite in the regional mountains and sediments. Thus the ceramics were locally produced, though some slight differences are discernible as regards technological aspects.

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Regional settlement pattern studies; [Maziar; 2015] Settlement dynamics of the Kura-Araxes culture: An overview of the late Chalcolithic & early Bronze age in the Khoda Afarin plain, NW Iran; [Motarjem; 2008] An investigation & analysis of the patterns of the establishment of the Bronze age in the plains around the Alvand Mountains, Hamadan [Dissertation]; [Almasi; 2014] An investigation of the cultural changes of Kangavar plain from the Chalcolithic to the late Bronze age according to the settlement models; [Niknami, et al; 2007] Theories & techniques of prediction modeling (estimation) of settlements & distributions of prehistoric sites in archaeological landscapes by using GIS & regression software, a case study: Gamasiab basin, Central Zagros; [Nikzad, et al; 2010] Investigating patterns of the Neolithic