Hafted sickle blade. Chert and bitumen. 2700–2600 BC. Tepe Farukhabad, Deh Luran Plain, Iran. Near Eastern Archaeology, UMMA Expedition. UMMAA 60101.

Curator Henry Wright’s excavations at Tepe Farukhabad in southwestern Iran in the late 1960s provided important insights on economic interactions in the world’s earliest state societies. Farukhabad was a small center on the Deh Luran Plain. The site is located on the margins of several environmental zones and on the northeast fringes of the Mesopotamian Plain. Nearby were important sources of chert, which was used for stone tools, and bitumen (or liquid asphalt), which was used for waterproofing, sealing objects, and hafting, as seen in these flint blades. To create a stone sickle, several flint blades were lined up, adhered with bitumen, and attached to a shaft. The resulting tool was used to harvest cereals or cut reeds.

Back to Day 55 or continue to Day 57.

In honor of the University of Michigan’s 2017 bicentennial, we are celebrating the remarkable archaeological and ethnographic collections and rich legacy of research and teaching at the Museum of Anthropological Archaeology by posting one entry a day for 200 days. The entries will highlight objects from the collections, museum personalities, and UMMAA expeditions. The Kelsey Museum of Archaeology is also posting each day for 200 days on Twitter and Facebook (follow along at #KMA200). After the last post, an exhibition on two centuries of archaeology at U-M opens at the Kelsey. Visit the exhibit—a joint project of the UMMAA and the Kelsey—from October 18, 2017 to May 27, 2018.