Jar ca. 1600-1200 B.C. Iran This globular jar has a ring base, a ridge around its shoulder and an everted rim. It is made of a buff clay, with dark brown horizontal lines on the shoulder. It was found in a grave at Kamterlan II, a mound in Luristan in the Zagros Mountains of western Iran. Although it had been a settlement in the late third millennium B.C., by the second millennium the site had become a cemetery. It is difficult to say what purpose this bowl served, or even to determine whether it was a special funerary item or an object of everyday use. The raised ridge at the shoulder might suggest that the shape of this vessel imitates a metal prototype.It is often thought that the inhabitants of Luristan in this period were pastoral nomads, who moved with their herds from the high valleys of the Zagros during the summer to lowland pastures in the winter. This theory arises from the dearth of evidence for settlements, and the occurrence of isolated cemetery sites. At the same time, t