Carinated jar ca. 3000-2250 B.C. Iran This biconical pottery vessel has a sharp edge around its middle where the two halves of the vessel were joined. It also has an abrupt shoulder and a wide, flaring rim. It is made of grey clay using a potters wheel, and decorated with several horizontal registers of hatching.This vessel was excavated at Tureng Tepe in what is today northeastern Iran, near the modern city of Gorgan. During the Bronze Age Tureng Tepe was a large settlement, possibly even with a mudbrick palace at the center of town. In this period the dead were buried under the floors of houses, indicating perhaps a belief that they continued to play an important role in family affairs. Pottery vessels such as this one were placed in these graves. The shape of this vessel provides no hint of what it was used for. Possibly it was a drinking vessel, to be used with a straw, but this is only a guess. It also unclear whether these vessels were used on a daily basis or specifically for f