Tall-e Bakun

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Tall-e Bakun is a prehistoric site in Fars province, Iran, about 3 kilometers south of Persepolis along the Kor River. It was inhabited during the Bakun period (roughly 5500–4100 BC) and continued into the Lapui period (about 4100–3500 BC). The site has two mounds, A and B, with mound A covering about 2 hectares.

Excavation history
- Early exploration in 1928 by Ernst Herzfeld.
- Full-scale digs in 1932 by Alexander Langsdorff and Donald McCown.
- Additional work in 1937 by Erich Schmidt as part of the Persepolis Expedition.
- Limited trenching in 1956 by Namio Egami and Seiichi Masuda.
- Small trenches in 2004 by a joint team from the Oriental Institute and Iran’s Cultural Heritage organization.

What it shows
- Tall-e Bakun was active from about the 6th to the 4th millennium BC, with Phase A inhabited around 4000–3500 BC.
- Layer III is the best preserved: houses stood close together with no clear streets, and each building had several rooms. The interior was richly decorated, with murals and wooden columns, and the site produced finely painted pottery, ceramic female figurines, and animal figurines.
- A variety of artifacts was found, including copper, pottery, and stone. About 140 fired clay sealings were found, mainly used as door seals.
- The people at Bakun ran a local industry and traded with distant regions, bringing in shells, copper, steatite, lapis, and turquoise from areas like the Persian Gulf, the central plateau, Kerman, and northeastern Iran.

Nearby sites and kiln evidence
- Other Bakun-period sites nearby include Tall-e Jaleyan, Tappeh Rahmatabad, Tol-e Nurabad, and Tol-e Pir; these are several times larger than Tall-e Bakun A.
- Tall-e Bakun A is the only site in the area with a long sequence of ancient double-chamber kilns, used for at least 300 years. These kilns resemble those at Tepe Gawra and some from the Sinai Peninsula but are not found elsewhere in the Levant.

Culture and pottery
- The Bakun culture flourished in western Iran during the late 5th and 4th millennia BC, with a distinctive and influential pottery tradition (Bakun ware).
- Bakun pottery includes bowls and jugs with green, reddish-brown, or deep brown bands. Pottery from Bakun has been found across Fars and in northern and eastern Khuzestan, Behbahan, and Zuhreh.
- Bakun A settlements served as both production sites and centers for administering production and trade. Painted pottery often features motifs such as large-horned mountain sheep and goats.

Decline and legacy
- After the Bakun period, the Lapui period followed (roughly 4100–3500 BC).
- The site provides an important record of early settlement planning, craft production, and long-distance trade in ancient Iran, as seen in its houses, kilns, and decorated pottery.