Journal of Archaeological Studies

The Central Zagros received pioneering research on the emergence of early agricultural and village life by R. Braidwood in 1959-60. However, later shifts in research toward the Levant ... Read More The Central Zagros received pioneering research on the emergence of early agricultural and village life by R. Braidwood in 1959-60. However, later shifts in research toward the Levant put the Central Zagros in shadow for several decades until recently, when investigations have once again highlighted its key place in the Neolithization processes in West Asia. Unlike the Levant, where a protracted change from the Epipaleolithic to the Neolithic is seen, the border line between these two periods is evidently sharp in the Central Zagros suggesting that unprecedented features appeared during the first two millennia of the Holocene, a foundational time that is poorly known in the region. In light of new evidence, this period is addressed here under the chronological term ‘Transitional Neolithic’ (ca. 9800-8000 BCE). Current datasets suggest that, following an environmental improvement at the end of the Younger Dryas, local communities engaged in short-term inhabitations, collective or communal ceremonies, and had an increasing reliance on the wild progenitors of early domestic plant and animal species. This time span’s close interactions with natural resources provided people with growing ecological knowledge. We may think of longer occupation in desirable places and thereby population increases in the 9th millennium BCE. This instead could have gradually resulted in an environmental depression, however, caused either by population growth or by possible unfavorable climatic events. Archaeological evidence shows that from the mid-9th millennium BCE on, a change happened in subsistence strategies toward low-level food production. In fact, this was an eco-cultural event that broadened the human diet. The central Zagros saw multiple creative behaviors during both the early and late phases of the Transitional Neolithic, providing people with a robust foundation for the succeeding truly Neolithic way of life that took shape during the 8th millennium BCE

A Survey of Origin and Production of the PPN Shell Beads from Ali Kosh, Deh Luran Plain

Hafez Ghaderi; Hojjat Darabi

Volume 13, Issue 3 , September 2021, , Pages 193-210

https://doi.org/10.22059/jarcs.2020.298646.142856

Abstract

During Neolithic time, increasing knowledge and various interactions paved the ground for the new experiments and products as well as spread of commodities and different ideas. Across ... Read More During Neolithic time, increasing knowledge and various interactions paved the ground for the new experiments and products as well as spread of commodities and different ideas. Across the Near East, Neolithic archaeology has mostly focused on the beginning of domestication and sedentary life. Intensive interaction and exchange between societies, however, is amongst outcomes of Neolithization process that resulted in diffusion of some materials such as obsidian. To date, most of the researchers have taken the issue of long-distance contact in the light of geographical diffusion of obsidian, while various materials and commodities were exchanged via wide networks. In this regard, objects made of seashells are of particular importance. As a result of recent excavation at Ali Kosh, a great number of different beads of shell and stone was found...along with seated burials dated to the second half of the 8th millennium BC. Tiny disc-shaped samples constitute the most common beads in the assemblage. They were previously known as stone beads. However, our recent examination shows that they are mostly made of a kind of bivalve sea shell known as Spondylus sp. It seems that such beads were produced on the Pesian Gulf shores, as the closest habitat of the shell, and then were transported or exchanged as finished goods. As evidenced by the recent stratigraphy and human isotopic analysis inhabitants of Ali Kosh had a high level of mobility. This highlights the role of interaction and exchange networks through which beads were diffused across lowlands of southwestern Iran. Accordingly, the site yielded remains of 18 levels indicating subsequent short-term occupations. Furthermore, as by the isotopic analysis, some of the buried individuals seem to have emigrated from shorelines to the site. This highlights the role of interaction and exchange networks through which beads were diffused across lowlands of southwestern Iran. Prevalence of shell beads at Ali Kosh reminds us that obsidian was not the only main exchanged material in the early Neolithic. The main focus of the present article is investigation of production and origin of oyster beads from the pre-pottery Neolithic levels at Ali Kosh, Deh Luran Plain

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Author = Hojjat Darabi

The Creative Millennia: Highlighting the Transitional Neolithic (ca. 9800-8000 BCE) in the Central Zagros, Iran

Abstract

A Survey of Origin and Production of the PPN Shell Beads from Ali Kosh, Deh Luran Plain

Abstract