Subsistence Economy of the Late Neolithic Society of Tepe Khaleseh

Valipour, Hamid Reza; Mollasalehi, Hekmatollah; Bakhtiyarvand Bakhtiary, Artism; Fazeli, Seyedeh  Masoumeh; Whitlam, Jade; Gręzak, Anna

doi:10.22059/jarcs.2022.309355.142921

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

¹ Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Literature and Human Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.

² Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Literature and Human Sciences, University of Tehran, Iran.

³ Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Literature and Human Sciences,University of Tehran, Iran.

⁴ Graduated from the Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Mohaghegh Ardabili University, Ardabil, Iran.

⁵ Postdoctoral member of the British Academy of Oxford University.

⁶ Department of Bioarchaeology, Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw.

https://doi.org/10.22059/jarcs.2022.309355.142921

Abstract

One of the most important subjects regarding the Neolithic period is the change of the subsistence economy in the societies of this period compared to the previous periods. The most direct evidence of subsistence economy within the archaeological contexts are plant and animal remains. Regarding this specific subject, other cultural materials such as pottery, architecture, and tokens are considered indirect evidence. In this article, we studied and analyzed the food consumption of the people living in the Neolithic site of Tepe Khaleseh in the Zanjan Province of northwest Iran (Valipour et al., 2012, 2013) based on direct and indirect evidence obtained from archaeological excavations. Analysis of the archaeobotanical assemblage has also permitted a reconstruction of the subsistence economy at the site and the results presented here, have significantly broadened our understanding of plant and animal management in northern Iran during the Late Neolithic. Tokens, lithic, bone tools, and architectural spaces also have been used in addition to animal bones and plant remains. It seems due to the rich environmental food resources in this region and based on a self-sufficient economy during the three phases of settlement in the late Neolithic period they have evolved from a society with an equal structure in the first stage, to a society with individual ranks in the third stage, therefore, the production organization has evolved from household production to household industries.

Keywords

References

Afshin, Yadullah. 1994. Iran's Rivers, Jamab Consulting Engineers Company, Ministry of Energy, Tehran. [In Persian].

Bogaard, A., M. Charles, A. Livarda, M. Ergun, D. Filipovic, and G. Jones. 2013, The Archaeobotany of Mid-Later Neolithic Occupation Levels at Çatalhöyük. In Humans and Landscapes of Çatalhöyük: Reports from the 2000-2008 Seasons, edited by I. Hodder. Los Angeles: Monographs of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California.

Charles, M., and A. Bogaard. 2010, Charred Plant Macro-Remains from Jeitun: Implications for Early Cultivation and Herding Practices in Western Central Asia. In Origins of Agriculture in Western Central Asia, edited by D.R. Harris, 150–65. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum.

Costantini, L., and B. Allchin. 1983, The Beginning of Agriculture in the Kachi Plain: The Evidence of Mehrgarh. In South Asian Archaeology 1981, 29–33. Cambridge: Cambrdige

University Press.

Costantini, L., and R. H. Dyson. 1990, The Ancient Agriculture of the Damghan Plain: The Archaeobotanical Evidence from Tepe Hissar. In Economy and Settlement in the Near

East. Analyses of Ancient Sites and Materials, edited by Naomi F. Miller, Vol. Supplement to volume 7. MASCA Research Papers in Science and Archaeology. Philadelphia, PA: MASCA, University Museum.

Davoudi, Hossein. 2011. Typology of Tepe Khalseh pottery, master's thesis, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Department of Archeology, University of Tehran. [In Persian].

Fazli Nashli. Hassan. Hengameh Ilkhani, Armine Markousian and Amir Beshkani, 2007 A, preliminary report on the excavation and stratification of Chahar Boneh in the Qazvin plain, 2006, Archaeological Reports (7), The 9th Annual Symposium on Iranian Archaeology, Tehran: Research Center for ICHHTO Iranian Center for Archaeological Research, volume 1, pp. 353-375. [In Persian].

Fazli Nashli, Hassan. Hengameh Ilkhani, Armine Markousian and Amir Beshkani, 2007 B. preliminary report on the excavation and stratification of Ibrahim Abad, Qazvin Plain, 2006, Archaeological Reports (7), The 9th Annual Symposium on Iranian Archaeology, Tehran: Research Center for ICHHTO Iranian Center for Archaeological Research, volume 1: 375-406. [In Persian].

Fazeli Nashli, H., H., Beshkani, A., Markusian, A., Ilkhani, H., Abbasnegad Seresti, R., 2009, the Neolithic to Chalcolithic Transition in the Qazvin Plain: Iran. AMIT, Vol. 14, pp. 1-21.

Fazeli, Seyedah Masoumeh, 2020. Typology, Classification and The Study of Clay Tokens (Probably numerical) from Tepeh Khaleseh( Khoram Darreh), master's thesis, Mohaghegh Ardabili University. [In Persian].

Fuller, D. Q. 2014, Charred Remains from Tappeh Sang-e Chakhmaq, and a Consideration of Early Wheat Diversity on the Eastern Margins of the Fertile Crescent. In The First Farming Village in Northeast Iran and Turan: Tappeh Sang-e Chakhmaq and Beyond, edited by A. Tsuneki, 33–36. Tsukuba: Research Center for West Asian Civilization, University of Tsukuba.

Gręzak, A., Sołtysiak, A., Valipour, H. R., Davoudi, H., 2010, Tepe Khaleseh, Season 2009: Short Field work report. Bioarchaeology of the Near East, Vol. 4, pp. 58–63.

Hovsepyan, R., and G. Willcox.2008, The Earliest Finds of Cultivated Plants in Armenia: Evidence from Charred Remains and Crop Processing Residues in Pise from the Neolithic Settlements of Aratashen and Aknashen.” Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 17 (December 2008): S63–71.

Miller, N. F. 1993, Preliminary Archaeobotanical Results from the 1989 Excavation at the Central Asian Site of Gonur Depe, Turkmenistan. International Association for the Study of the Cultures of Central Asia. Information Bulletin 19 (1993): 149–63.

Miller, N. F. 1999, Agricultural Development in Western Central Asia in the Chalcolithic and Bronze Ages. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 8 (1999): 13–19.

Miller, N. F. 2003, The Use of Plants at Anau North. In A Central Asian Village at the Dawn of Civilization, Excavations at Anau, Turkmenistan, Fredrik T. Hiebert, 127–38. University Museum Monograph 116. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

Rice, P. M., 1987, Pottery Analysis: A Sourcebook. Chicago and London, the University of Chicago press.

Steward, Julian H. 1955, Theory of Culture Change. The Methodology of Multilinear evolution. University of Illinois Press, Urbana.

Sadri, Farshid. 2001. a perspective on the process of rural development in Abhar and Khorramdareh, master's thesis in the field of geography and rural planning, faculty of literature and humanities, department of geography, University of Tehran. [In Persian].

Valipour, Hamid Reza, 2009. Preliminary report of the first season of the excavation at Tapeh Khalseh (Khorram Dareh), Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization, Iranian Center for Archaeological Research (unpublished). [In Persian].

Valipour, H. R., Davoudi, H., Hoseinzadeh Sadati, J., Fazeli Nashli, H., 2012, Tepe Khaleseh: Archaeological evaluation of a late Neolithic site in north-western Iran. Antiquity, Vol. 086, Issue 331.

Valipour, H. R., Davoudi, H., Mostafapour, I., Grezak, A., 2013, Tepe Khaleseh, A Late Neolithic Site in Zanjan Province. In book: The Neolithisation of Iran, R. Matthews and H. Fazeli Nashli (eds.), The book will be published by Oxbow Books.

Valipour, Hamidreza, Hossein Davoudi and Iman Mustafapour (in press). preliminary report of the first season of the excavation at Tapeh Khalseh Khorramdareh, Zanjan province. [In Persian].

Voigt, M. M., 1976, Haji Firuz Tepe: An Economic Reconstruction of a Sixth Millennium Community in Western Iran. Ph.D. dissertation in Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania.

White, Leslie A., 1959, The Evolution of Culture: The Development of Civilization to the Fall of Rome. McGraw-Hill.

Whitlam, J., 2015, “Plant Use and Neolithic Societies of the Eastern Fertile Crescent, c.10,000-5500 BC.” PhD, thesis University of Reading, UK,

Whitlam, J., Valipour, H. R., Charles, M., 2019, Cutting the Mustard: New Insights into the Plant Economy of Late Neolithic Tepe Khaleseh (Iran), Vol. 58, No. pp. 149-166.

Zeder, Melinda A. 1994. After the Revolution: Post-Neolithic Subsistence in Northern Mesopotamia. American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 96, No. 1 (Mar., 1994): 97-126

فهرست نمونه‌های مراحل سکونتی/معماری در تپه خالصه مطابق با ترانشه‌ها

Table 1. List of samples from the architectural phases in Tepe Khaleseh according to the trenches (Whitlam 2015)

Journal of Archaeological Studies

Subsistence Economy of the Late Neolithic Society of Tepe Khaleseh

References

References

Volume 15, Issue 1 - Serial Number 32
April 2023
Pages 325-353

Subsistence Economy of the Late Neolithic Society of Tepe Khaleseh

References

References

Volume 15, Issue 1 - Serial Number 32April 2023Pages 325-353

Volume 15, Issue 1 - Serial Number 32
April 2023
Pages 325-353