While the Neolithic revolution caused gradual basic changes in different dimensions of human life, including social structure, western Iran has so far mostly received attention in terms of the ...emergence of domestication and sedentarisation. Generally speaking, some evidence, such as architectural elements, burial goods, clay tokens, and scarce artefacts such as obsidian pieces and marble objects not only determine an inter-regional interaction, but also suggest craft specialisation. It is believed that sedentary life and private food storage paved the way for property ownership and that a gradual change from egalitarian to non-egalitarian societies can be seen in the Neolithic of western Iran.
The article presents the results of a technological analysis of the ceramic samples from Neolithic settlements of Ali Kosh, Mahtaj and Guran (the 7th mill. BC). The use of sheep and goat dung in the ...paste prevailed. While two-layer slabs were applied as the main construction method across the region, a few samples from Guran show the appearance of coil construction around the middle of the 7th millennium BC. First an overall coating with the same clay and red colouring appeared, and later a new type of red slip emerged – a mixture of clay with red pigment.
Significance
Goats were among the first domestic animals and today are an important livestock species; archaeozoological evidence from the Zagros Mountains of western Iran indicates that goats were ...managed by the late ninth/early eighth millennium. We assess goat assemblages from Ganj Dareh and Tepe Abdul Hosein, two Aceramic Neolithic Zagros sites, using complementary archaeozoological and archaeogenomic approaches. Nuclear and mitochondrial genomes indicate that these goats were genetically diverse and ancestral to later domestic goats and already distinct from wild goats. Demographic profiles from bone remains, differential diversity patterns of uniparental markers, and presence of long runs of homozygosity reveal the practicing and consequences of management, thus expanding our understanding of the beginnings of animal husbandry.
The Aceramic Neolithic (∼9600 to 7000 cal BC) period in the Zagros Mountains, western Iran, provides some of the earliest archaeological evidence of goat (
Capra hircus
) management and husbandry by circa 8200 cal BC, with detectable morphological change appearing ∼1,000 y later. To examine the genomic imprint of initial management and its implications for the goat domestication process, we analyzed 14 novel nuclear genomes (mean coverage 1.13X) and 32 mitochondrial (mtDNA) genomes (mean coverage 143X) from two such sites, Ganj Dareh and Tepe Abdul Hosein. These genomes show two distinct clusters: those with domestic affinity and a minority group with stronger wild affinity, indicating that managed goats were genetically distinct from wild goats at this early horizon. This genetic duality, the presence of long runs of homozygosity, shared ancestry with later Neolithic populations, a sex bias in archaeozoological remains, and demographic profiles from across all layers of Ganj Dareh support management of genetically domestic goat by circa 8200 cal BC, and represent the oldest to-this-date reported livestock genomes. In these sites a combination of high autosomal and mtDNA diversity, contrasting limited Y chromosomal lineage diversity, an absence of reported selection signatures for pigmentation, and the wild morphology of bone remains illustrates domestication as an extended process lacking a strong initial bottleneck, beginning with spatial control, demographic manipulation via biased male culling, captive breeding, and subsequently phenotypic and genomic selection.
The multi-proxy evidence from Lake Zeribar indicates the possible impact of the Younger Dryas on Western Iran. By the end of this episode, the region was affected by rising temperatures and ensuing ...environmental enrichment, which could have resulted in changes in the settlement pattern from mobility to more sedentism c. 9500 BC. It is proposed that semi-sedentism led to population growth and ensuing food management in the region, which finally encouraged people to domesticate plants and animals around 8000 BC. This paper will briefly discuss the three ‘why’, ‘how’ and ‘when’ questions in investigating the Neolithisation process in western Iran.
The so-called Triticoid-type grains are known from several prehistoric sites in southwest Asia and their identification has long been unclear. They resemble the grains of wheats and researchers ...suggested they may represent an extinct Triticeae species, possibly closely related to wild crop progenitors. In this study we identify the Triticoid-type grains as
Heteranthelium piliferum
(Banks & Sol.) Hochst. and describe the key identification criteria. The identification is based on morphological analyses of modern and archaeological material from several grass species and was first achieved with well-preserved specimens from Early Neolithic Chogha Golan, Iran. We further examined the Triticoid-type grains from recently excavated samples from Early Neolithic Ganj Dareh, Iran, and archived samples from Late Chalcolithic and Late Bronze Age Tell Brak in northeast Syria, confirming their identification as
H. piliferum
. Based on the study of herbarium specimens at Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, London, we provide a detailed distribution map and review the species’ biology and ecological adaptations. Collected and cultivated herbarium specimens were analysed in order to understand the high phenotypic plasticity of the growth habit, its correlation with environmental variables and its relation to grain size. In order to understand the high morphological variability of the charred Triticoid-type grains from archaeological deposits, we assessed the effects of experimental carbonisation at different temperatures on grains of
H. piliferum
,
Triticum dicoccum
,
T. thaoudar
and
Secale vavilovii
. In light of the present study, we discuss the relevance of
H. piliferum
for reconstructing prehistoric subsistence strategies.
The beginnings of agriculture throughout the Fertile Crescent are still not completely understood, particularly at the eastern end of the Fertile Crescent in the area of modern Iran. Archaeobotanical ...samples from Epipalaeolithic/PPNA Körtik Tepe in southeastern Turkey and from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic sites of Chogha Golan and East Chia Sabz in south western Iran were studied in order to define the status of cultivation at these sites. Preliminary results show the presence of abundant wild progenitor species of crops at the Iranian sites before 10600 cal. B.P.: , and very few wild progenitor species at Körtik Tepe dated to 11700–11250 cal. B.P.: The Iranian sites also indicate size increase of wild barley grain across a sequence of 400 years through either cultivation or changing moisture conditions.
The Samarran phenomenon has been under discussion since the early 20
th
century. Over the past several decades, increasing evidence has indicated that it was geographically distributed in a very ...large area across the Near East. In this regard, the eastward spread of the Samarran phenomenon across the Iranian frontier was little known, because related finds had mostly been recovered in the 1960–70s. This article highlights the discovery of new evidence in the transitional zone that connects the Zagros highlands with the Mesopotamian lowlands. During recent surveys in the plains of Mehran, Meimak, Soumar and Sarpol-e Zahab, a number of sites were found. They yielded ceramics identical with those already reported from nearby late Samarran sites such as Chogha Mami, Songor A and Rihan I. Chronologically, surface materials indicate that these newly found Iranian sites should belong to the late phase of Samarran period, coinciding with the so-called Chogha Mami Transitional (CMT). As seen from the natural setting of the sites along streams, and due to the predominance of nomadic herders in this transitional zone, we may assume that transhumant herders played a role in the eastward spread of the late Samarran phenomenon via the river valleys and that the site's inhabitants might have been familiar with a primitive irrigation system. Furthermore, it is speculated that the cold dry climatic event of 8.2 kya might have resulted in an increased intensity of population in the lowlands. Nevertheless, the subsequent climatic optimum appears to have paved the way for the eastward spread of late Samarran/CMT elements. Regardless of what was the major trigger of such an expansion, however, intensive economic interactions of societies probably played a role in the very early sixth millennium B.C., when natural raw materials such as bitumen were imported from western/southwestern Iran to central/southern Mesopotamia.
Proxy-based paleoclimate reconstructions in the central Zagros region suggest the occurrence of several climatic events during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) to Holocene. The central Zagros region is ...situated in a unique transition zone between mid-latitude temperate climate in the north and sub-tropical arid climate in the south and was affected in different climatic periods by the strengthening and weakening of the Indian monsoons, the inter tropical convergence belt, the westerlies and the low-pressure systems of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean. Our results suggest that a transition occurred from dry and dusty conditions during the LGM to a relatively wetter period with higher carbon accumulation rates in the Early Holocene (11600 cal yr BP). Between 30000 and 19000 cal yr BP, cold and dry climatic conditions with the dominance of Amaranthaceae and semi-desert steppe prevailed in the region. High values of magnetic susceptibility, decrease in organic matter, and increase in allogenic elements indicate the presence of cold and dry climate in the region during the LGM. The Holocene was characterized by relatively less dry and dusty conditions, which is consistent with orbital changes in insolation that affected much of the northern hemisphere. Numerous episodes of high aeolian input spanning a few decades to millennia are prevalent during the Holocene. Dry events identified in the area occurred at 10200, 9200, 8200, 5200, 4200, 3200, 2200, and 1600 cal yr BP. Also Younger Dryas, occurred in the region 12300-11600 years ago, and it was cold and dry period with a decrease amount of pollen and increase in dust.
East Chia Sabz is a PPN site located in the Seimareh Valley, western Iran. 14C dating results indicated that the site was occupied from the early 9th millennium to the early 7th millennium BC. As we ...have very little information about early Neolithic sites in Iran in comparison with the other regions of the Near and Middle East, the site of East Chia Sabz will provide a new benchmark for investigating the Neolithisation process in Iran. It is important to note that further investigation of Chia Sabz will certainly provide more secure information about how and when the Epipaleolithic transition to the Neolithic started in the region. This paper will present the recent excavations at the site, and then, based on the 14C dates, will discuss the site’s importance in western Iran.
In terms of Palaeolithic studies, the Mehran Plain is already known due to the discovery of the Amar Merdeg site in 1999. But in spite of the high potential for occupation in different periods, the ...prehistoric settlement patterns of the plain had not been identified until the present survey in 2010, which resulted in the discovery of 15 Palaeolithic sites. Of these, 9 sites contain both Lower and Middle Palaeolithic remains and 3 more sites are attributed to the Middle Palaeolithic as well 3 sites to Upper Palaeolithic period and beyond. The distribution pattern indicates that easy access to raw materials, which are now visible among the chert pebbles scattered over hillocks on the plains, was the main reason to establish settling.
PDF
