Archaeologists from University of Tübingen and Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) have uncovered a well-preserved pottery workshop dating back around 3,000 years at the Dinka Settlement Complex in the Pişder Plain of Southern Kurdistan (Başur). The discovery offers important new insights into how ceramic production was organized during the Iron Age and how urban life was structured.
Dated to between 1200 and 800 BCE, the workshop was found in the lower part of the settlement in an area known as Gird-i Bazar. Excavations revealed two updraft kilns, tools used in pottery making, production debris, and intact sediment layers. The findings indicate that ceramic production was not a household-based activity but part of an organized, collective system carried out in specialized workshops.
Researchers conducted mineralogical and microstructural analyses on raw clay, finished vessels, kiln linings, kiln fill, and fuel residues used during firing. The analyses showed that most ceramics were fired at temperatures below 900 degrees Celsius, under oxidizing conditions and using slow heating methods, a process that gave the vessels their reddish hues.
Electron microscopy and spectroscopy analyses pointed to low levels of vitrification, while different vessel types and functions were found to have been incorporated into largely the same production and firing system. This points to a modular, standardized, and well-organized production chain.
Dr. Silvia Amicone, lead author of the study from the Archaeometry Research Group at the University of Tübingen, said the uniformity observed in production reflects a shared technical tradition and a strong collective production identity. According to Amicone, this also indicates centralized management of resources, labor, and technological knowledge, pointing to a level of social organization in the Iron Age Zagros region that is more complex than previously assumed.
The structural features of the kilns are also noteworthy. Built by mixing local clay with organic materials, the kilns consist of a fire chamber and an upper section separated by a perforated floor. This design closely resembles traditional kiln types known in Mesopotamia since the seventh millennium BCE, underscoring long-term technological continuity in the region.
Post-use examinations of the kilns show that the structures were not destroyed by a sudden event but were gradually abandoned over time. Microscopic analyses indicate exposure to water and traces of natural erosion, while the fuel used during firing is believed to have been wood.
The Dinka Settlement Complex has been among the most extensively excavated Iron Age sites in the Zagros region since 2015. According to experts, the workshop uncovered in the Gird-i Bazar area demonstrates that craft production was an integral part of the urban fabric and that Iron Age city life was more organized and specialized than previously thought.
The findings of the study were published in the Journal of Archaeological Science. Excavation and analytical work is expected to continue contributing to a more detailed understanding of production, labor, and technology in Iron Age societies.