Jug

This jug has a globular body, a flat base, a wide everted rim and a loop handle at the shoulder. It is made of pinkish-buff clay, and may have been made by hand rather than on a potter’s wheel. It was excavated at Khatunban, a cemetery site in Luristan in the Zagros Mountains of western Iran. It is often thought that the inhabitants of Luristan in this period were pastoral nomads, who moved with their herds from the high valleys of the Zagros during the summer to lowland pastures in the winter. This theory arises from the dearth of evidence for settlements, and the occurrence of isolated cemetery sites, such as Khatunban. At the same time, the infrastructure necessary for bronze working, an important industry in Luristan, suggests that some sedentary settlements must have existed. In all likelihood these settlements were not located on mounds, but at lower elevations near water sources where agriculture could be practiced.