The Iranian stretch of the river basin of the Lower Zab is a poorly known area. This area runs through the Sardasht district, the Piranshahr district, and a part of the Baneh district which geographically are located in the western strip of the Zagros mountains in northwestern Iran (Fig. J!). Politically, the area is situated in the south of West-Azarbaijan Province and in the northern area of the Kurdestan Province. 417 This area of the Zagros Mountains, based on its environmental and biological features, has been of interest to humans from prehistoric to contemporary times.418 Its location in the Lower Zab River Basin, and its proximity to the Urmia Lake Basin in the north and Mesopotamia in the west, gives it great importance for archaeological studies. Archaeological surveys of the central part of the Sardasht district in the southern area of the Lower Zab river basin were made in spring and summer . Our surveys aimed to identify new Iron Age sites and to review known sites in the area based on the evidence from the site of Rabat. During our archaeological survey of the central Sardasht district, a significant number of archaeological sites, from the prehistoric to the Islamic periods, were identified and registered.
