Some Thought on the Protohistoric Period in Dinkha Tepe, Iran

The site of Dinkha Tepe, situated in the central part of the Oshnaviyeh Plain, is one of the most interesting but still least studied sites in the Orumiyeh basin area. Dinkha Tepe, excavated stratigraphically in 1966 and 1968, bears evidence of a main phase of occupation ranging from the Middle Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age, and it is often linked to the better-known site of Hasanlu, suggesting that Dinkha Tepe was a centre belonging to its political sphere. The aims of the present paper are multiple. Firstly, we intend to provide evidence supporting the idea that the two sites should be instead considered as sort of independent “city-states”; secondly, we would like to propose a new interpretation on the relations among Dinkha Tepe and the Mesopotamian plains, and thirdly, we intend to suggest an unusual way of looking at the interactions of the site with the Urartian state.