Vessel ca. 5000-4500 B.C. Iran This squat, round vessel has a narrow, flat base and a wide mouth. It is made of a pale orange clay with reddish brown painted decorations in a zigzag pattern. It was made by hand, and perhaps finished on a slow potters wheel. Less than half of the entire vessel survives; the missing portions have been restored with plaster and paint.This vessel was excavated at Dalma Tepe in northwestern Ian in 1961. Since the excavations were very brief, it is difficult to say much about the site, but it appears to have been a settlement during the Chalcolithic period (ca. 5000-4500 B.C.). The flat base of this vessel suggests it was intended to be placed on a surface, like a table or a floor. The size (the rim is more than five inches in diameter) makes it somewhat too large to be a cup, but perhaps it was intended for use with a straw. Alternatively, it might have been a small bowl, used for solid food.During the first half of the fifth millennium B.C., pottery of th