Towards Understanding the Early Neolithic in the Zagros Mountains - Results of New Investigations of the Austro-Iranian Team in Ilam Province, Iran (original) (raw)
2022, TRACKING THE NEOLITHIC IN THE NEAR EAST - Lithic Perspectives on Its Origins, Development and Dispersals
In October 2018 a joint Austro-Iranian survey project was initiated in the Sirvan-Chardavol district of the Ilam province in central-west Iran with an aim to set up the basis for the investigation of long-term occupations in the central Zagros. This paper presents the first outcomes of the pilot survey study carried out by the prehistoric part of the team and focuses on lithic assemblages documented in the valleys of the two tributaries of the Seymareh River. Techno-typological studies of chipped stone artefacts recorded in the course of the survey provide new insights into the occupation of the Sirvan-Chardavol Valleys, which can be attributed to the periods from the Middle Palaeolithic until the Bronze Age. Preliminary results suggest the lack of permanent Early Neolithic settlements in the Sirvan Valley and can be contrasted to the evidence of the neighbouring Chardavol Valley. Initial identification of possible Neolithic find scatters provides a contribution to the research in the highlands of the central Zagros, and it outlines the potential for the future excavations of short-term and long-term occupations in the region, which differentiate in their geomorphological and geographical setting, but also in terms of the use of raw materials, which likely influenced the Neolithic chipped stone tool production patterns.
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Flaked stone assemblages of the Late Ceramic Neolithic to Chalcolithic periods from the Zagros region (sixth and fifth millennium BC) have been collectively assigned to a single industry, termed the Post-Mlefaa- tian. This paper argues for its potential spatio-temporal variability, with reference to a lithic assemblage of the Early Chalcolithic (Middle Bakun) period recently excavated at the site of Tal-e Mash Karim in the highland plateau of southwest Iran. One important finding of this study is that the Post-Mlefaatian is divisible into at least two phases, distinguishable by a shift in the core reduction method. The preferential use of conical cores for pressure blade production in the early Post-Mlefaatian was replaced by the predominant use of unifacial cores in the later phase, to which the Mash Karim assemblage belongs. This technological shift occurred after the Late Ceramic Neolithic, apparently more or less coincidently with the significant cultural transformation at the onset of the Chalcolithic period in the highland plateau of the southwest Zagros. A regional survey indicates that a comparable shift occurred in the lithic industry of the Susiana lowlands as well, where the Chalcolithic cultural transformation is believed to have proceeded earlier. These findings provide new insights into testing the current hypothesis that interaction with the Susiana lowlands played a substantial role in the Neolithic-Chalcolithic transition in the highland plateau, which has been discussed in the current literature from ceramic perspectives alone.
Flaked stone assemblages of the Late Ceramic Neolithic to Chalcolithic periods from the Zagros region (sixth and fifth millennium BC) have been collectively assigned to a single industry, termed the Post-Mlefaa-tian. This paper argues for its potential spatio-temporal variability, with reference to a lithic assemblage of the Early Chalcolithic (Middle Bakun) period recently excavated at the site of Tale Mash Karim in the highland plateau of southwest Iran. One important finding of this study is that the Post-Mlefaatian is divisible into at least two phases, distinguishable by a shift in the core reduction method. The preferential use of conical cores for pressure blade production in the early Post-Mlefaatian was replaced by the predominant use of unifacial cores in the later phase, to which the Mash Karim assemblage belongs. This technological shift occurred after the Late Ceramic Neolithic, apparently more or less coincidently with the significant cultural transformation at the onset of the Chalcolithic period in the highland plateau of the southwest Zagros. A regional survey indicates that a comparable shift occurred in the lithic industry of the Susiana lowlands as well, where the Chalcolithic cultural transformation is believed to have proceeded earlier. These findings provide new insights into testing the current hypothesis that interaction with the Susiana lowlands played a substantial role in the Neolithic-Chalcolithic transition in the highland plateau, which has been discussed in the current literature from ceramic perspectives alone.
Deeper Insights Into the Lithic Raw Materials on the Iranian Plateau: West-Central Zagros Mountains
Iranian Journal of Archaeological Studies, 2024
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