The Dehlora@n plain is best known for the excavations conducted at several prehistoric sites, which elucidated the origins and development of sedentary agricultural villages and towns in the region, and for surveys documenting the history of settlement into the modern era. As a relatively small and remote rural area, it has always been affected by political, economic, and technological developments in the adjacent regions of K¨u@zesta@n, the Zagros mountains, and Mesopotamia. Beginning as early as the 3rd millennium B.C.E. and throughout its subsequent history it was under the political control of kingdoms in one or another of these regions. Although no cuneiform texts have been found at any of the Dehlora@n sites, the most prominent mound, Tepe Musiyan (Mu@s^a@n), is possibly to be identified as ancient Urua, an Elamite city known from Mesopotamian texts (Carter and Stolper, p. 212 n. 275). As early as the 3rd millennium Dehlora@n may have been on a trade route linking the Zagros mountains with Mesopotamia; in the 1st millennium the route linking the Achaemenid capitals of Susa and Ecbatana passed through the region (Gautier and Lampre, p. 59; Carter and Stolper, p. 150, including earlier references; for the Persian period, see Olmstead, passim).

The plain had a different character when people first established villages there in the 8th millennium B.C.E. Flash floods deposited silt over the entire plain, constantly regenerating its fertility and creating seasonal marshes, which abounded with fish, attracted game and migratory fowl, and provided moist, easily tilled soil for the first agriculturalists. By 4000 B.C.E., however, the marsh had deteriorated to about half its original size (Kirkby), a change reflected in the botanical remains from ¿Al^koæ (q.v.) and Tepe Sabz, both situated on the edge of the original marsh and abandoned as it retreated (Helbaek; Woosley and Hole). The pattern of settlement implies that villages were moved in response to changing environmental conditions; as long as possible they were situated to take advantage of high water tables, and the villagers did not resort to irrigation for watering crops (Helbaek).

Deposition of silt across the plain continued into the 2nd millennium, at which time it had accumulated to a depth of ca. 4 m. Then rivers began to cut the channels that are apparent today, leaving much of the plain difficult to farm without irrigation (Kirkby). The local inhabitants adapted by moving their relatively small villages and towns as need arose and by practicing transhumant herding. Despite notable fluctuations the population remained relatively low until the Sasanian and early Islamic periods, when every available land surface was farmed, long canals were constructed across the plain, and water-driven mills were strategically located (Neely, 1974). At that time the population may have reached 20,000-25,000 (a density of 75/km2). Following this enormous investment in agriculture, which was probably carried out by imperial edict, residents largely abandoned the plain around 1250 C.E., perhaps as a result of environmental degradation and political instability, leaving it in the hands of nomadic pastoralists down to the present (Neely, 1974, p. 36).

In the early 20th century the plain was occupied by two distinct tribal and ethnic groups. Nomadic Lors, speakers of an Indo-European language closely related to Persian, occupied the plain in winter and migrated to mountain pastures in the summer; tribal Arabs migrated between the poor summer pastures in the Tigris river basin and Dehlora@n, replacing the Lors there during the summer months (personal observation). From the 18th century Dehlora@n was the winter headquarters of the "wa@l^ of Poæt-e Ku@h," a tribal leader descended from a K¨oræ^d^ ata@beg originally appointed by the Safavid shah ¿Abba@s I (996-1038/1588-1629) in 1004/1596 to govern Loresta@n (Amanolahi; Lorimer; Mortensen). The ruins of the fort of the last wa@l^, GÚola@m-RezÂa@ (r. until 1304 ˆ./1925), lie atop Ùo@g@a@ Saf^d (q.v.). In the 20th century a customs post was installed close to the site, near the border crossing at Baya@t. During the 1920s the British exploited a tar seep lying about 6.5 km east of the town and constructed a narrow-gauge railway to move the bitumen to market (local informants; cf. Lorimer, p. 62). At that time petroleum geologists carried out a series of seismic soundings and established the presence of a major oil deposit straddling the international border, but, partly because the neighboring K¨u@zesta@n oilfields are larger, producing wells were never bored. After World War II the tribal inhabitants were settled in villages. The village of Dehlora@n, which had a military post, grew into a small town of Kurdish and Lor families. Dehlora@n was invaded and taken by Iraqi forces on the first day of the war between Persia and Iraq in 1980.

The first archeological exploration in Dehlora@n was conducted by a French archeological mission in 1903 (see DÉLÉGATIONS ARCHÉOLOGIQUES FRANÇAISES), under the direction of J.-E. Gautier and Georges Lampre, who dug trenches at Tepe Mu@s^a@n, Tepe K¨az^na, and Tepe ¿Al^koæ. The French encountered difficulties with the local tribes, however, and abandoned further work there.

Exploration was resumed in 1961, when Frank Hole and Kent Flannery did a cursory survey of the plain and dug a sounding at ¿Al^koæ. They followed up in 1963 with more extensive excavations at ¿Al^koæ and Tepe Sabz, a village of the 5th millennium B.C.E.; they also briefly reexamined one of the old French trenches at Mu@s^a@n. In 1968 Henry Wright excavated at Tepe Farrokòa@ba@d, a site occupied in the 5th-2nd millennia. During the winter of 1969-70 Hole excavated 6th-millenium layers at Ùoga@ Saf^d while James Neely conducted an intensive survey of sites in the plain and Michael Kirkby studied its geomorphological history. Collectively these projects have elucidated the archeological sequence from the first settlements in the 8th millennium B.C.E. into the modern era. The construction of this sequence, based on limited stratified soundings at several sites and on intensive surveys of the plain, incorporated changes in artifacts, architecture, faunal and floral remains, settlement patterns, irrigation works, and population sizes. As a result Dehlora@n is one of the best-known archeological regions of Persia.

Bibliography: S. Amanolahi, The Tribes of Iran I. The Tribes of Luristan. Bakhtiari, Kuh Gilu and Mamasani, Human Relations Area Files, New Haven, Conn., 1988. ¿A. Baya@t, Koll^ya@t-e jo@g@ra@@f^a@-ye tÂab^¿^ wa ta@r^kò^-e Èra@n, Tehran, 1367 ˆ./1988, pp. 449-53. E. Carter, Elam in the Second Millennium B.C. The Archaeological Evidence, Ph.D. diss., The University of Chicago, 1971. Idem and M. W. Stolper, Elam. Surveys of Political History and Archaeology, Near Eastern Studies 25, Berkeley, Calif., 1984. Farhang-e jo@g@ra@f^a@÷^-e Èra@n (a@ba@d^ha@), Tehran, 1367 ˆ./1988. J.-E. Gautier and G. Lampre, "Fouilles de Moussian," Me‚moires de la De‚le‚gation en Perse 8, 1905, pp. 59-149. H. Helbaek, "Plant Collecting, Dry-Farming, and Irrigation Agriculture in Prehistoric Deh Luran," in F. Hole, K. V. Flannery, and J. A. Neely, eds., Prehistory and Human Ecology of the Deh Luran Plain, Memoirs of the Museum of Anthropology 1, Ann Arbor, Mich., 1969. pp. 383-426. F. Hole, ed., Studies in the Archaeological History of the Deh Luran Plain, Memoirs of the Museum of Anthropology 9, Ann Arbor, Mich., 1977. Idem, ed., Archaeological Perspectives on Western Iran, Washington, D.C., 1987. Idem, K. V. Flannery, and J. A. Neely, eds., Prehistory and Human Ecology of the Deh Luran Plain, Memoirs of the Museum of Anthropology 1, Ann Arbor, Mich., 1969. F. Hole and M. Shaw, Computer Analysis of Chronological Seriation, Rice University Studies 53, Houston, Tex., 1967. M. Kirkby, "Land and Water Resources of the Deh Luran and Khuzistan Plains," in F. Hole, ed., Studies in the Archaeological History of the Deh Luran Plain, Memoirs of the Museum of Anthropology 9, Ann Arbor, Mich., 1977, pp. 251-88. D. L. R. Lorimer, A Report on Pusht-i-Kuh, 1908, unpublished. Markaz-e a@ma@r-e Èra@n, Sar-æoma@r^-e ¿omu@m^-e nofu@s o maskan. AÚba@n-ma@h-e 1355. ˆahresta@n-e Dehlora@n, Tehran, 1358 ˆ./1979. I. D. Mortensen, Nomads of Luristan, New York, 1993. J. A. Neely, "The Deh Luran Region," Iran 8, 1970, pp. 202-03. Idem, "Sassanian and Early Islamic Water-Control and Irrigation Systems on the Deh Luran Plain, Iran," in T. E. Downing and M. Gibson, eds., Irrigation's Impact on Society, Anthropological Papers 25, Tucson, Ariz., 1974, pp. 21-42. Idem and H. T. Wright, Early Settlement Patterns on the Deh Luran Plain, Technical Reports of the Museum of Anthropology 26, Ann Arbor, Mich., 1994. A. T. Olmstead, History of the Persian Empire, Chicago, 1948. C. Renfrew, "Sources and Supply of the Deh Luran Obsidian," in F. Hole, K. V. Flannery, and J. A. Neely, eds., Prehistory and Human Ecology of the Deh Luran Plain, Memoirs of the Museum of Anthropology 1, Ann Arbor, Mich., 1969, pp. 429-33. Idem, "The Later Obsidian of Deh Luran—The Evidence of Chogha Sefid," in F. Hole, ed., Studies in the Archaeological History of the Deh Luran Plain, Memoirs of the Museum of Anthropology 9, Ann Arbor, Mich., 1977, pp. 289-311. A. Woosley and F. Hole, "Pollen Evidence of Subsistence and Environment in Ancient Iran," Pale‚orient 4, 1978, pp. 59-70. H. T. Wright, "A Consideration of Interregional Exchange in Greater Mesopotamia, 4000-3000 B.C.," in E. Wilmsen, ed., Social Exchange and Interaction, Anthropological Paper 46, Ann Arbor, Mich, 1972, pp. 95-105. Idem, ed., An Early Town of the Deh Luran Plain. Excavations at Tepe Farukhabad, Memoirs of the Museum of Anthropology 13, Ann Arbor, Mich., 1981. Idem and G. A. Johnson, "Population, Exchange and Early State Formation in Southwestern Iran," American Anthropologist 77, 1975, pp. 267-87. H. T. Wright et al., "Early Fourth Millennium Developments in Southwestern Iran," Iran 13, 1975, pp. 129-48.

(FRANK HOLE)