رحمت عباس نژاد سرستی

Lorestan’s Balageriveh, is a lowland passage area, located in between two rivers, Dez and Kashkan in South Central Zagros; the area itself is divided into three parts, northern, southern and central. In previous studies in Lorestan, a form of complete shift was depicted from sedentary lifestyle to a mobile one, in transition between Late Chalcolithic and Middle Bronze Age. Central Balageriveh is important to be studied on this matter due to its’ central position between Susiana, Central Zagros, Bakhtiyari region, Posht Kouh and Mesopotamia, and paleoclimatology and archaeological studies which have been done in this region. Due to above reasons, we have grounded our study on paleoclimatology and archaeological data, about transition process from Chalcolithic Cultures to Bronze Age, change of settlement patterns and the role of socio-economical and environmental changes in this pattern alteration. Results of this research illustrated that long-time climatic change which occurred in the middle of 4th millennium B.C. in the region, cannot be regarded as the cause of the complete cultural gap and the change of settlement pattern at the time. Instead, it seems that with the collapse of Uruk System and its commercial organization, the areas like Balageriveh which were intermediary in this commercial network, lost their function. When people like Kura-Araxes, on whom some would put the blame of Uruk collapse as they were mobile pastoralists, settled in some areas which the previous power had lived, the commercial paths withered and Balageriveh’s intermediary role diminished and instead due to socio-political reasons, the lowland characteristics of the area became highlighted and the change in settlement pattern occurred.