Environmental Context

The Qadar river on the Solduz plain with Zagros mountains in distance

The site of Hasanlu is located in the Qadar (also spelled Gadar) river valley, on the Solduz plain (modern Naqadeh).  The land is fertile and well watered, which must have provided the ancient inhabitants with good harvests.  Even today, the economy of the region relies mostly on agriculture, including apples, grapes, tomatoes, and grain.

The nearby Lake Urmia was once the largest lake the Middle East, and the sixth largest salt water lake in the world.  In prehistoric times, this lake was probably a great source of food and other resources for the people of surrounding villages like Hasanlu.  Unfortunately, modern damming of rivers, pumping for groundwater, and climate change have reduced Lake Urmia to a tenth of its original size.

​Hasanlu's proximity to the Zagros mountains and the highlands of Iran put it on an important trade route with Assyria.  This connection had a strong influence on life and art in Hasanlu.  We know from Assyrian documents that the empire conducted military and diplomatic missions in the area of Hasanlu, and the local art of Hasanlu draws heavily on the style and subject matter of Assyrian Art.  Hasanlu's relationship with its other neighbors, the Urartians, is less well understood, but may have been hostile and eventually lead to the destruction of the site.

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Archaeological Context

Hasanlu is the largest of many sites in the Solduz plain that were excavated from 1956 to 1977 by the University of Pennsylvania Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Archaeological Service of Iran.  These sites are called "tepes," the Turkish word for "hill," since they are all built atop hills.  

While some excavation had been done in this region previously, there was very little understanding of the prehistory of this area.  By excavating Hasanlu and other sites, archaeologists hoped to gain a better understanding of the different periods of human life in this region.

The site of Hasanlu was excavated by Robert H. Dyson Jr. and his team from the University of Pennsylvania.  A graduate from Harvard, Dyson was an busy archaeologist, involved in fieldwork from Mesopotamia to Central America.  He is most well know for his work in Iran on sites like Hasanlu, Hissar, Susa, and Malyan.  His discovery of the "Golden Bowl of Hasanlu" (pictured to the right) is probably his most famous.  Back in the States, he played many important roles at the University of Pennsylvania and its Museum, beginning as a curator in the Near East galleries, and eventually serving as director from 1982 to 1994.

Robert H. Dyson Jr., holding the famous golden bowl of Hasanlu.  What does the door of his jeep say?

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Temporal/Cultural Context

Hasanlu began as a small Neolithic village, much like many other sites in the Solduz plain.  In the 2nd millennium BCE, however, Hasanlu underwent dramatic changes that would distinguish it from neighboring settlements.  Beginning with changes in burial customs, architecture, and pottery styles, these changes culminated, at the end of the 2nd millennium BCE, with the construction of monumental buildings on the citadel.  The most impressive was a large temple, whose columned hall measured 18 by 24 meters.  In another part of the settlement, an artisan's house containing evidence for metal working was found.

During the 9th or 8th century BCE, Hasanlu was suddenly destroyed, possibly by the Urartians, a nearby, up-and-coming civilization.  This attack appears to have come totally unexpectedly, since most of the destroyed buildings were not emptied of their contents.  Household items, weapons, jewelry and much more--over 7,000 artifacts!--were found in the buildings destroyed in this sudden raid.  In addition, archaeologists discovered 250 bodies people people buried in the ruins of the collapsed buildings.

​"The Golden Bowl of Hasanlu," certainly the most famous artifact from the site, was one of the artifacts found in this layer.  Not only was the bowl interesting in and of it self, with its beautiful craftsmanship and repousé  decoration, but its find spot gives us a rare glimpse into a moment in the past.  The bowl, crushed in the collapse of a mudbrick building, was found in the skeletal hands of a Iron Age warrior who appeared to have been fleeing the building as it collapsed.

After this destruction, the site was inhabited infrequently down until the 3rd century, when it was finally abandoned.

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The Lion Pins

Of the 240 individuals found buried in the ruins of Hasanlu, 62 of them were crowded into one particular building together.  Some of these people appear to have been locals, while others appear to have been enemy soldiers, who were in the process of slaughtering the locals just as the building collapsed on all of them.  

The locals in this group appear to have been members of a special group, since 69 lion pins were found among these bodies.  The lion pins, shown below, are are unique in that they are made of a copper lion cast onto an iron shaft.  At the time of Hasanlu's destruction, iron was still a rare and little understood material, used mostly for decorative purposes.  The significance of these pins remains a mystery, as does the identity of the people who wore them.  Did these people regularly congregate in the building where they were found, or did they simply flee there during the attack?  Furthermore, did the enemy soldiers target these people in particular, and if so, does that mean they held some position of authority at Hasanlu?

Further Reading

The Site
http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/hasanlu-teppe-i

The Golden Bowl
http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/hasanlu-teppe-ii
http://www.archaeology.org/issues/163-1501/trenches/2823-trenches-hasanlu-tepe-ancient-looters
http://antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/danti341/downloads/ant20130227_supplement.pdf​

The Lion Pins
https://www.academia.edu/4010267/The_Hasanlu_Lion_pins_Again?auto=download
​http://www.pcma.uw.edu.pl/fileadmin/pam/PAM_2011_XXIII_2/PAM_23_2_Cifarelli.pdf