Marlik and Toul-e Talish : A dating problem

Abstract

As a result of recent activities of Iranian expeditions in Talish, to the southwest of the Caspian Sea, several graveyards with remarkable Iron Age material has been excavated. Among these, perhaps the most interesting is a Toul cemetery that produced material similar to some tombs at Marlik. Based on these similarities and on the presence of a bronze bracelet with an Urartian inscription in Toul cemetery, the excavator of the site concluded that both cemeteries are contemporary, belonging entirely to the 8th - 7th centuries B.C. and that they highly influenced by Urartian art. In this article I propose that the majority of finds from Toul cemetery belong to ca. 10th - 9th centuries B.C. The presence of a few Iron Age III/IV depositions should be considered as a result of the occurrence of later burials in the cemetery. It is further suggested that the inscribed bracelet of Toul neither is a precise chronological indicator nor an indication of Urartian influence over the art of Caspian region.