ABSTRACT
Distinctive material culture attributes of the early transcaucasian culture (ETC) include mudbrick and wattle and daub architecture in circular and rectilinear forms and handmade pottery, in red or black tones often highly burnished and decorated with incised and applied geometric and naturalistic motifs. Yanik Tepe on the eastern shores of Lake Urmia to the west of Tabriz is effectively the type site for the Iranian ETC, giving its name to the designation “Yanik Sphere” employed by some scholars. A substantial construction of large stones surmounted by mudbrick upper courses served either as a defensive perimeter wall or possibly as a platform leading to an elevated communal area in the centre of the settlement. Significant evidence for ETC presence comes from the region of the Qazvin plain to the west of Tehran. ETC architecture in Iran is generally modest in scale, with a range of circular and rectilinear structures.
