First published in 1988, the present volume contains the texts of papers read at a three-day Colloquium on bronzeworking centres in Western Asia from 1000 BC until the beginning of the Achaemenian period in 539 BC, which was held in the British Museum in July 1986. Each paper has been revised in the light of the discussion which followed it. The Colloquium was organized by Dr J E Curtis on behalf of the Department of Western Asiatic Antiquities and forms the first in a series which it is hoped will be held annually.

Photographs, with extensive commentary, of 105 seals and seal impressions from Tepe Hasanlu in southwestern Azerbaijan, Iran, dating to about 800 B.C.

Hasanlu V provides archaeologists with a new, more accurate chronology of Hasanlu, the largest and arguably the most important archaeological site in the Gadar River Valley of northwestern Iran. This revised chronology introduces Hasanlu Periods VIa, V, and IVc for the first time. Based on new findings, the report overturns current constructions of the origins of the archaeological culture in Hasanlu, which sought to link the Monochrome Burnished Ware Horizon (formerly known as the Early Western Grey Ware Horizon) to the migration of new peoples into western Iran in the later second millennium B.C. Hasanlu V shows instead that the Monochrome Burnished Ware Horizon developed gradually from indigenous traditions. This reappraisal has important implications for our understanding of Indo-Iranian migrations into the Zagros region.

This book presents for the first time the complete corpus of equipment for horses excavated by The Hasanlu Project in the Iron II level at Hasanlu Tepe, Iran. The equipment is varied, extensive, and in a context sealed as buildings collapsed during the violent surprise attack and resulting fire that destroyed the town. The equipment, most still in its primary location ready for active use, make it of particular, if not unique, importance. It is also remarkable in the quantity recovered, its variety and richness, the functional types that could be identified (riding, draft, ceremonial), and the amount that could be reconstructed. Its life context gives new information about equipment and usage not otherwise available and allows suggestions for the layered importance of the horse as evidenced by the equipment. No other book presents equipment for horses in a similar context and quantity because the preservation at Hasanlu is unique for this part of the Near East in this time period. The equipment also provides new insight into space use in Hasanlu, one of the most important Iron Age sites in northwest Iran. Findspots yield information about building use and reuse, some as stables. These and architectural alterations provide unique information regarding changes to the town over time, some of which most likely reflect changes in the dynamics of the region.

Numerous metallic artefacts, deposited in a hoard in ancient times, came to light by chance on the campus of the Sultan Qaboos University in Al Khawd, Sultanate of Oman. Mostly fashioned from copper, these objects compare well with numerous documented artefact classes from south-eastern Arabia assigned to the Early Iron Age (1200–300 BCE).

A reassessment of artistic relationships between ancient Greece and other regions of the Aegean basin