Softstones: steatite, chlorite

A variety of softstones (including steatite, chlorite, serpentine) with similar properties and colours (white, red, and most commonly shades of green) can be grouped under the same label since they are frequently confused or combined in archaeological literature (Moorey 1994, 100) and were apparently considered sufficiently alike in antiquity to be used for similar purposes. Importantly these stones are relatively soft and easily carved, which led to them being used both for beads and seals, but also very commonly for vessels. Given the diversity of stones that fall under this category, it is rather difficult to create a distribution of their geological sources, though of course some of the urban centres of Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Indus which used these stones and the objects manufactured from them needed to procure the material (or finished goods) from distant highland regions.

4.4.1 ‘Intercultural style’ vessels and ‘weights’

Steatite and chlorite are important for reconstructing exchange routes not so much for the material itself (though presumably the material characteristics were important), but for a group of distinctively formed and decorated vessels and other objects that have been dubbed ‘intercultural style’ (Kohl 1978). The term is somewhat unwieldy since it has such a general meaning, but it is the most convenient and commonly understood for the group of objects described. This label encompasses a fairly diverse set of objects dating to the 3rd millennium including bowls, vases and ‘weight-like’ shapes whose real function remains unclear (see Figure 4.7). Various iconographic themes occur frequently as decoration on these objects: particularly ‘hut’, ‘woven-mat’, ‘combatant snake’, ‘bevelled square’,

‘guilloche’, ‘date-palm’ motifs (to follow Kohl’s terminology), alongside a few other anthropomorphic or zoomorphic motifs. Many show inlaid decoration, using stones of other colours (often remaining inlay includes a white version of steatite, but sometimes other stones like lapis lazuli or carnelian). Whilst there are many finds of these sorts of objects in Mesopotamia (where they were first identified), it now seems there is a particularly strong relationship with south-eastern Iran where chlorite/steatite vessel workshops have been identified (for example at Tepe Yahya, see Kohl 1978), and where many hundreds of objects have been uncovered recently around Jiroft/Hari Rud region. Sadly, in the latter case, the majority were from uncontrolled excavations and recovered after the looting of graves (Lawler 2003; Perrot and Madjidzadeh 2006, 2005; cf. Muscarella 2001). Their dating is therefore difficult to pin down, but given the better-dated ‘intercultural style’ vessels from other sites, the second half of the 3rd millennium seems most likely for the Jiroft cemeteries (Muscarella 2001, 178-179; Madjidzadeh 2003;

Majidzadeh 2008; Potts 2005).

In general, like etched carnelian beads, these objects represent a distinctively

‘eastern’ commodity in the sense that their distribution seems to involve an exchange network stretching eastwards from Mesopotamia: i.e. the Gulf, Iran, south central

a b c

d e f

Figure 4.7. A range of ‘inter-cultural’ style vessels and related objects: a. tall conical vessel, ‘Iran’ (Shinji Shumeikai, Japan, SS 1498; Aruz and Wallenfels 2003, 338-339, cat. 235); b. shallow cylindrical vessel with figured decoration and cavities for inlay, ‘Mesopotamia’ (BM 1288887, photo: © Trustees of the British Museum #AN00032381; Aruz and Wallenfels 2003, 330-331, cat. 227); c. handled ‘weight’ with snakes, Soch, Uzbekistan (State Museum of the History of Uzbekistan, Tashkent; Aruz and Wallenfels 2003, 339, cat. 236);

d. ‘guilloche’-pattern small vessel/vial, Tarut island (National Museum, Riyadh, 2633; cf. Aruz and Wallenfels 2003, 326, cat. 224f); e. shallow cylindrical vessel with zigzag patterns and ‘hut motif’, Saar, Bahrain (Bahrain National Museum, Manama 358-2-88; Aruz and Wallenfels 2003, 341, cat. 239); f. miniature vial possibly used for cosmetics, Gonur Depe (Sarianidi 2006, 198, fig. 64).

This image is not available in the e-book version for licencing reasons; see the British Museum online photo catalogue for images.

Asia and the Indus (see Figure 4.8). No ‘intercultural style’ objects are known west of Mari, and for some reason they did not seem to penetrate the Egyptian cultural sphere (unlike lapis lazuli), nor have any examples been so far found in Anatolia, the Caucasus or the Aegean, where lapis lazuli has been found in small quantities.

Again this implies they had a particular ‘intercultural appeal’ (Aruz 2003, 244-245), but one whose power did not extend outside this eastern interaction sphere.

It is difficult to assess what kind of exchange items these objects represented in the different regions in which they were circulating. It seems likely that their cultural meaning or value was rather different in each locale: in south-east Iran, where they appear to have been manufactured, a close relationship to particular local cultural and ritual meanings seems likely, compared to a potentially more abstract role as indicator of wealth and power to obtain foreign goods in Mesopotamia.

Presumably the distribution of these objects also indexes the movement of people between regions (as all these distributions must do), but the extent and nature of such movement cannot be easily assessed. We do not know if such objects had

‘ethnic’ associations or were imported by immigrants from the Jiroft region, for example⁴⁰. Perrot has suggested that the intended contents of these vessels may have been the prime motivation behind their distribution – and argues on the basis of the repeated depiction of an unidentified plant⁴¹ that these may well have been medicinal, narcotic, seasoning or aphrodisiac plants which would have been more easily available on the Iranian plateau but not in Mesopotamia (Perrot and Madjidzadeh 2005, 145, 148).

Southern Iranian land routes and the Persian Gulf maritime routes were most important to the flow of these ‘intercultural style’ objects, presumably mostly in finished form. The footprint shows a particular network of interaction within this eastern sphere which linked southern Mesopotamia and the Gulf region to eastern Iran and parts of Central Asia (Figure 4.8). However, as with lapis lazuli and carnelian, the density of discovery – or at least the way in which they are currently published – does not facilitate the reconstruction of local social networks.

4.4.2 Central Asian softstone objects: composite figurines and miniature columns

A small number of ‘intercultural style’ items find their way into Central Asia during the late 3rd millennium: for example two vessels were found in graves at Gonur Depe and a ‘weight’ was found in uncontrolled circumstances in the vicinity of Soch, Uzbekistan (Figure 4.7c). These might well have been imported items given their low number. However, it is interesting to note the occurrence in this region of a range of other objects made from softstone (especially steatite, chlorite and alabaster). These objects include: composite figurines; stone vessels, including miniature vials thought to have contained perfumes or other cosmetics (Pottier 1984, 28-9); steatite and alabaster seals (Sarianidi 1981, 178); stone ‘pocket books’,

40 Whilst avoiding an essentialist view of ethnicity as an immutable property of individuals, groups or their material culture, it is still possible that different individuals and groups could ‘buy into’

material culture with particular ‘ethnic’ associations, in this case an ‘eastern’ one for Mesopotamians, or else migrants from the ‘east’ could demonstrate their distinctiveness through the use of such material.

41 Perrot likens the status of this unknown plant to that of silphinum, whose botanical identity is also unknown but which was an important plant for seasoning of food and as aphrodisiac for Greeks and Romans (Perrot and Madjidzadeh 2005). of the model (i.e. the inability to ‘travel’ across the sea, mean that the items on the south-coast of the Persian Gulf do not have the expected ‘halos’.

See Appendix C.1.1 for the database of objects.

which might possibly have been used as loom weights (Hiebert 1994b, 382);

and ‘miniature columns’ (Hiebert 1994a, 154-157), staffs and maceheads whose intended functions remain elusive. The presence of these objects, at least some of them apparently locally manufactured (Hiebert 1994b, 386), even if the material was sourced from the Kopet Dag or Pamir mountains to the south, demonstrates that central Asian communities were well able to manufacture complex objects in stone. It also suggests that they were much less interested in, or less able to obtain, foreign-made ‘intercultural style’ vessels than is the case for, say, Gulf and Mesopotamian communities⁴².

There were at least two types of composite figurines used during the BMAC period: a seated female type which, whilst many of the examples have come from uncontrolled contexts in Bactria (Ligabue and Salvatori 1990, figs. 108-113), is now fairly confidently linked to BMAC contexts (Sarianidi 1990b; Hiebert and Moore 1993), and the perhaps related, though even less clearly contextualized, male type with gashed face (Aruz and Wallenfels 2003, 244-245) found in eastern Iran. The role of these figurines is of course unclear: it has been speculated that the female types represent a princess or goddess (Potts 2008a) whilst the male types might be some kind of god, demon or ‘dragon’ (Francfort 1994)⁴³. Whilst these figurines may represent clues about the circulation of other materials, such as textiles (see Section 6.5.3) or iconographic styles, given the lack of good archaeological contexts it is rather difficult to say anything more directly about the function or circulation of the figurines themselves.

Softstone vessels of alabaster (sources of which are known from the Kopet Dag mountains) were used by earlier Namazga communities near the piedmont during the early and mid 3rd millennium (Hiebert 1994b, 376)⁴⁴. The miniature vials which date to the end of the 3rd millennium or early 2nd millennium BC (e.g. Figure 4.7f ) appear to be related to very similar steatite vials from south-east Iran and the Persian Gulf, which show different decoration schemes. Scientific analysis of their composition and contents, which could reveal both greater detail about their circulation (e.g. whether the vials are locally circulated or exported) and related function (e.g. whether they were used to transport or sell the contained liquid, or just temporarily store it), has sadly not been undertaken to date. Hiebert (1994b) suggests that the distribution of the various types of vial may indicate changing contacts or alliances between Central Asia, eastern Iran and the Gulf, but does not go on to suggest why or by what mechanism the vials would have travelled. If they are indeed cosmetic bottles containing perfumes or make-up then their distribution is of course interesting as a proxy for the exchange or expansion of ‘cosmetic’ fashions or rather of particular organic substances used for the cosmetics (cf. also later 3rd millennium ‘Syrian bottles’, see Section 5.6.3).

Whilst we should not assume that ‘cosmetic’ products were exclusive to women, if these vials could be linked to female burials it could be that the movement of

42 On the other hand, this may be partly a matter of economic scale – central Asian communities were apparently much smaller – hence the smaller ‘intercultural style’ corpus.

43 Certainly, given the standardized depiction, it seems plausible that both represent important generic characters with ‘mythological’ associations rather than historical political personages in the Renaissance sense (i.e. they are iconographic rather than photographic) but the same can be said for much of the imagery of the 3rd millennium in the Near East.

44 The shapes and colours of which might, contra arguments set out later in Section 5.6.4, have provided a model for the new plain aesthetics of the pottery of the Namazga V period (for examples, see Masson 1988, pl. 7, 35).

these objects was facilitated by migration through elite marriage exchanges and alliances, for example (especially if isotopic analysis of female skeletons showed evidence for immigration). Unfortunately, data to confirm or reject this hypothesis are currently lacking.