Fig 1.
A- Map of Iran showing the location of Ghalekuti. B- Ghaleluti I excavated areas. C- Ghalekuti II excavated areas. Redrawn and adapted from Egami et al., (PL. XL) [8] and Fukai et Ikeda (PL. XLVI and XLII) [9].
Fig 2.
Drawings of the pottery typology studied for organic residue analyses (not scaled).
Other typologies available at the site are not presented here. If several pottery vessels have the same letter it means it is the same typology, *denotes very large vessels, §denotes very small vessels. Redrawn and adapted from Egami et al. [8], Fukai and Ikeda [9] Sono and Fukai [3, 10].
Table 1.
Pottery vessels studied for their lipid residue analysis, context, type (see Fig 2 for details), lipid concentration and source assignment.
Table 2.
Materials selected for radiocarbon dating, context, period, δ13C and δ15N values (recorded on an EA-IRMS), C/N ratios and conventional radiocarbon measurement and calibrated radiocarbon measurements in OxCal (v4.4) against IntCal20 calibration curve (Reimer et al., 2020).
Fig 3.
Probability distribution of radiocarbon measurement on human and animal bone collagen from Ghalekuti I and II.
Each distribution represents the relative probability that an event occurs at a particular time. For each of the dates, two distributions have been plotted: one in outline, which is the result of simple radiocarbon calibration, and a solid one, based on the chronological model used. Distributions other than those relating to particular samples correspond to aspects of the model. The large square brackets down the left-hand side of the figure, along with the OxCal keywords, define the overall model exactly.
Fig 4.
Iron Age ceramic studied as thin-section A. Original sherd and transversal section (macroscopic scale) and B. Thin-sections of the same potsherds observed under XP light from Ghalekuti both sorted by fabric classification upon thin-section observations. Fabric (i): a GHA-0582, b GHA-0583, c GHA-0584, d GHA-0586. Fabric (ii): e GHA-0588, f GHA-0590. Fabric (iii): g GHA-0587, h GHA-0589. Fabric (iv): j GHA-0569, k GHA-0570. Fabric (v): k GHA-0585. Fabric (vi): l GHA-0581.
Table 3.
Fabric composition of ceramic vessels studied as vertical thin-section.
The percentages and frequency of inclusions followed the ranges defined in Quinn [2,4].
Fig 5.
Box and whisker plot showing total C16:0 and C18:0 concentration based on the lipid profile.
Fig 6.
Chromatograms of lipid profile 1 typical of degraded animal fats identified as a,b,c ruminant dairy fats, and d,e ruminant adipose fats and chromatogram of lipid profile 2 f,g suggesting plant oil residues. Dots are n-alkanoic acids, numbers their chain length, *denotes modern contaminants (plasticizers and pesticides) and IS the internal standard (n-tetratriacontane).
Fig 7.
a, c, e. δ13C18:0 values plotted against the δ13C16:0 values of the BA/IA I, II, and III ceramic vessels, respectively. b,d,f Δ13C (= δ13C18:0- δ13C16:0) values plotted against the δ13C16:0 values for the same ceramics. Blacks dots are TLEs with lipid profile 1 and grey dots TLEs with lipid profile 2. Ellipses denote modern reference range of dairy products from Iran [27], and ranges denotes means values and standards deviation of reference animal fats worldwide [28–31].