Dur is a Persian word for far, and Tappeh Dur, the far mound, is one of those cheerful names that tell you a village once stood on the edge of someone's territory. It lies on the plain of Soltaniyeh in Zanjan province, among fields of wheat and barley, one more low rise in a country of low rises.
Start with the ground itself. Mud-brick walls, when they collapse, leave a characteristic yellow-grey earth, and among it you can find bits of fired pottery, often with painted bands or burnished surfaces. Old ploughing breaks the surface and turns up fragments, and after a rain the colours stand out. Look for the flat pieces of grinding stone, black flint blades used in sickles and the gleam of a glazed fragment from later periods. All of these are small pieces of life: a pot for water, a blade for harvest, a grinder for bread.
The location tells another story. The plain is watered by seasonal streams from the surrounding hills and by wells, and it offered grazing and soil for early farmers. When the Ilkhans arrived in the fourteenth century, they found a land already scored by centuries of human use. The mounds, the dome and the dry watercourses form a single record, though most visitors see only the dome. Taking time with the mounds, even for twenty minutes, deepens the visit.
Access is by farm track, and the surface can be rough. In dry weather a small motorcycle manages easily, but after rain the clay becomes sticky and slippery. The nearest towns for fuel and food are Zanjan to the north-west, about thirty-seven kilometres, and Abhar in the opposite direction, just a little further. Spring is the best season, with green wheat and singing larks, but late autumn has a beautiful light. Bring water and food, and leave every sherd where you find it, so that the next visitor can read the same page.