In 1967 a small survey team from the Peabody Museum, Harvard University located a large prehistoric mound. Tepe Yahya (or Hill of John ), in southeastern Iran roughly halfway between the provincial capital of Kerman and the port city of Bandur Abbas. Excavations at the site commenced in 1968 and cultural chronology for the area was slowly devised and refined over the succeeding five field seasons. Two section drawings illustrate the critical subdivisions.