Facial reconstruction of an Iron Age individual from Sialk Tepe, Isfahan
This individual from Sialk Tepe is dated to the Sialk VI phase (c. 800-550 BC). (Morteza Djamali, 2012)
The archaeological site of Sialk is one of the oldest and longest-inhabited settlements on the Central Iranian Plateau, continuously occupied by farming and metallurgical communities. It consists of two mounds (North and South), separated by about 600 m, and two nearby cemeteries, A and B, located approximately 3 km southwest of the city of Kashan.
The Sialk Mounds lie on the western edge of the Central Iranian Great Desert, at the eastern foothills of the Karkas Mountains, whose highest peak reaches 3,895 m. Flanked by major geographic barriers to the east and west, the site occupied a strategic position along an important ancient trade route running parallel to the Kashan Fault.
The adult individual, standing approximately 170 cm tall, was buried in a large ceramic jar alongside animal bones. The jar had a base diameter of 45 cm, a maximum diameter of 150 cm, a wall thickness of 2 cm, and a preserved height of approximately 55 cm. (Javad Hosseizadeh, Arkadiusz Sołtysiak, 2017)
The later phases of Sialk cemetery (V-VI) has archaeological ties to the Iron Age site of Dinkha Tepe (Oscar White Muscarella, 1974), which is associated with Hurrian-speaking populations. Artifacts from the "Zagros Graveyard" near Sanandaj also show affinities with Sialk B (Sialk VI), including S-shaped bronze wire objects interpreted as earrings (Shelir Amelirad, B. Overlaet, and Ernie Haerinck, 2012).
Reconstruction commissioned by @shoresh03