Editing Medes (section)

== Archaeology ==
[[File:Ecbatane - excavated house.jpg|thumb|Excavation from ancient Ecbatana, Hamadan, Iran]]
The discoveries of Median sites in [[Iran]] happened only after the 1960s.<ref name="stronach-EIr-288">{{Harvnb|Stronach1982|p=288}}</ref> Prior to the 1960s, the search for Median archeological sources has mostly focused in an area known as the "Median triangle", defined roughly as the region bounded by [[Hamadan]] and [[Malayer]] (in [[Hamadan province]]) and [[Kangavar]] (in [[Kermanshah province]]).<ref name="stronach-EIr-288"/> Three major sites from central western Iran in the [[Three-age system|Iron Age III period]] (i.e. 850–500 BC) are:<ref name=Young-p449>{{Harvnb|Young|1997|p=449}}</ref>
* [[Noushijan Tappe|Tepe Nush-i Jan]] (a primarily religious site of Median period),
:The site is located 14&nbsp;km west of Malāyer in Hamadan province.<ref name="stronach-EIr-288"/> The excavations started in 1967 with [[David Stronach]] as the director.<ref>{{Harvnb|Stronach|1968|p=179}}</ref> The remains of four main buildings in the site are "the central temple, the western temple, the fort, and the columned hall" which according to Stronach were likely to have been built in the order named and predate the latter occupation of the first half of the 6th century BC.<ref name="stronach-EIr-290"/> According to Stronach, the central temple, with its stark design, "provides a notable, if mute, expression of religious belief and practice".<ref name="stronach-EIr-290"/> A number of ceramics from the Median levels at Tepe Nush-i Jan have been found which are associated with a period (the second half of the 7th century BC) of power consolidation in the Hamadān areas. These findings show four different wares known as "common ware" (buff, cream, or light red in colour and with gold or silver mica temper) including jars in various size the largest of which is a form of ribbed [[pithos|pithoi]]. Smaller and more elaborate vessels were in "grey ware", (these display smoothed and burnished surface). The "cooking ware" and "crumbly ware" are also recognized each in single handmade products.<ref name="stronach-EIr-290">{{Harvnb|Stronach|1982|p=290}}</ref>
* [[Godin Tepe]] ([[Godin Tepe#Level II|Godin Tepe's Level II]]: a fortified palace of a Median king or tribal chief),
:The site is located 13&nbsp;km east of Kangāvar city on the left bank of the river Gamas Āb". The excavations, started in 1965, were led by T. C. Young, Jr. According to [[David Stronach]], the evidence shows an important [[Bronze Age]] construction that was reoccupied sometime before the beginning of the [[Iron Age|Iron III]] period. The excavations of Young indicate the remains of part of a single residence of a local ruler which later became quite substantial.<ref name="stronach-EIr-288"/> This is similar to those mentioned often in Assyrian sources.<ref name=Young-p449/>
* [[Babajan, Lorestan|Babajan]] (probably the seat of a lesser tribal ruler of Media).
:The site is located in northeastern [[Lorestan]] with a distance of roughly 10&nbsp;km from [[Nurabad, Lorestan|Nūrābād]] in Lorestan province. The excavations were conducted by C. Goff in 1966–69. The second level of this site probably dates to the 7th century BC.<ref>{{Harvnb|Henrickson|1988|p=?}}</ref>
These sources have both similarities (in cultural characteristics) and differences (due to functional differences and diversity among the Median tribes).<ref name=Young-p449/> The architecture of these archaeological findings, which can probably be dated to the Median period, show a link between the tradition of columned audience halls often seen in the [[Achaemenid Empire]] (for example in [[Persepolis]]) and [[Safavid Iran]] (for example in [[Chehel Sotoun]] from the 17th century AD) and what is seen in Median architecture.<ref name=Young-p449/>

The materials found at Tepe Nush-i Jan, Godin Tepe, and other sites located in Media, together with the Assyrian reliefs show the existence of urban settlements in Media in the first half of the 1st millennium BC which functioned as centres for the production of handicrafts and also of an agricultural and cattle-breeding economy of a secondary type.<ref>{{Harvnb|Dandamayev|Medvedskaya|2006|p=?}}</ref> For other historical documentation, the archaeological evidence, though rare, together with Assyrian cuneiform records makes it possible, regardless of Herodotus' accounts, to establish some of the early history of the Medians.<ref>{{Harvnb|Young|1997|p=448}}</ref>