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Tepe Sialk

archaeological site in Kashan, Iranian national heritage site

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 18, 2026
Entity authorityQ1581555 ↗
Source-derived summary

Tepe Sialk (Persian: تپه سیلک) is a large ancient archeological site (a tepe, "hill, tell") in a suburb of Kashan, Isfahan province, central Iran, close to the Fin Garden. The culture that inhabited this area has been linked to the Zayandeh River Culture.

History

A joint study between Iran's Cultural Heritage Organization, the Louvre, and the Institut Francais de Recherche en Iran also verifies the oldest settlements in Sialk to date to around 6000–5500 BC. The Sialk was built around 3000 BC.

Sialk, and the entire area around it, is thought to have originated as a result of the pristine large water sources nearby that still run today. The Cheshmeh-ye Soleiman (Solomon's Spring) has been bringing water to this area from nearby mountains for thousands of years. The Fin garden, built in its present form in the 17th century, is a popular tourist attraction. It is here that the shahs of the Safavid Empire would spend their vacations away from their capital cities. It is also here that Abu Lu'lu'a, the Persian assassin of the second caliph Umar (r. 634–644), is popularly believed to have been buried. All these remains are located in the same location where Sialk is.

Chalcolithic Age

The northern mound (Tepe) is the oldest; the occupation dates back to the end of the seventh millennium BC. The mound is composed of two levels: Sialk I (the oldest), and Sialk II.

Sialk I

In the Early Chalcolithic (c. 8.2-7.4 ka BP), Sialk I is inhabited from around 6000 to 5500 BCE.

Architecture.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Tepe Sialk” as archaeological site in Kashan, Iranian national heritage site. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Tepe, Sialk and archaeological.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current 255-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The linked authority record independently contributes the date -7000. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Tepe, Sialk and archaeological providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Tepe Sialk”, the useful work is to connect “archaeological site in Kashan, Iranian national heritage site” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1581555. Authority coordinates are 33.969, 51.405. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Tepe Sialk” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.