Abstract
Tall-i Bakun A is a small Chalcolithic site (ca. the late fifth to early fourth millennium cal. B. C.) situated in the Kur river basin of the southern Zagros. The excavated northern building complex (hereafter Building Unit A) has been recognized as an administrative quarter because of the presence of many impressed clay sealings, while central and southern areas as a pottery workshop.
The uncovered material from Building Unit A, however, included not only administration-related objects, but also pottery production tools and various domestic artifacts. Thus it would not make sense to propose a single funcfion for this unit.
This article attempts to reconstruct various activities at Building Unit A, using the published in situ objects, and to propose a new interpretation on the nature of the Chalcolithic society at this mound. It suggests that Building Unit A consists of at least six to seven households and this household cluster is stratified by some craft and administrative activities. Although we have little information about central and southern excavated areas, three to five household clusters of the same scale may also have existed within the site. The overall evidence seems to indicate that the differentiation of labor occurred within the household cluster rather than between them.
