New Radiocarbon Evidence from Shahdad and the Earliest Datable Linear Elamite Text

In this paper, we report two 14C-AMS dates obtained from samples of lead-based cosmetics found in two graves of Cemetery A at Shahdad (Kerman, Iran). Combined with ceramic comparisons, these new dates provide strong evidence that this graveyard was in use for most of the 3rd millennium BCE. The earliest of the two funerary contexts – Grave 30 – dated by radiocarbon analysis to between the 30th and the 27th century BCE, also contained a ceramic vessel bearing a Linear Elamite inscription, which can thus be attributed to the early centuries of the 3rd millennium BCE. This contradicts the traditional view that this writing system was created at the time of Puzur-Sušinak (second half of the 22nd century BCE) and points instead to a many centuries-long history of Linear Elamite use during the Early Bronze Age on the Iranian Plateau.