Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1 Assistant Professor in Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
2 Assistant professor, Department of Archeology, Faculty of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism, University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Iran
3 M.A. Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Prehistoric investigations in the southeastern region of the Caspian Sea commenced more than a century ago, resulting in the identification of several prominent archaeological sites, notably the caves of Kamarband, Hotu, Komishan, and Altappeh. These caves have become well-known for their rich archaeological deposits, spanning from approximately 16,000 years ago in the Mesolithic period to the Historic period. Hotu Cave, situated on a cliff along the northern slope of the Alborz mountain range, gained significant attention following its initial excavation in the 1950s by Carleton S. Coon. Excavations conducted over two field seasons lasting nine weeks each revealed valuable insights into the region's prehistoric occupation. In 2021, a team led by Hasan Fazeli from the University of Tehran undertook the re-excavation of Hotu Cave, unearthing 124 archaeological contexts spanning from the Mesolithic to the Historic period. Among the notable findings were 1,539 chipped stone artifacts, predominantly crafted from locally sourced Behshahr chert. The chipped stone assemblage from Hotu Cave exhibits distinctive characteristics indicative of different periods, including pressure removal technique evident in blade-lets and sickle trapezoids dating back to the Neolithic period, alongside ubiquitous scrapers and notched-denticulated tools found across all layers. Technological shifts within the chipped stone assemblage, observed during the recent excavations, reflect changes in subsistence patterns inferred from archaeozoological research on animal remains. However, the interpretation of these technological and subsistence changes is nuanced, as it remains unclear whether they occurred locally and gradually or resulted from external influences, such as demographic movements or the diffusion of ideas from neighboring regions. The chronological gap between the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods complicates the determination of the precise mechanisms driving these transformations solely based on material evidence from Hotu Cave. Further interdisciplinary research integrating archaeological, chronological, and environmental data is warranted to elucidate the dynamics of cultural change in this region during the transition from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic period
Keywords
Main Subjects
Abdi, K., G. Nokandeh, A. Azadi, F. Biglari, S. Heydari, D. Farmani, A. Rezaee, and M. Mashkour. “Tuwah Khoshkeh: A Middle Chalcolithic Mobile Pastoralist Camp-site in the Islamabad Plain, West Central Zagros Mountains, Iran.” Iran, Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies 40 (2002): 43-74.
Alishar Kyzy, S. and S.V. Schnaider, 2021. Tecno-Typological Characteristic of Dam-Dam-Cheshmeh-1 Lithic Assemblage. Universum Humanitarium 2021 (2): 9-31 (in Russian).
Andrefsky, W., 1994. Raw Material Availability and the Organization of Technology. American Antiquity 59(1): 21-34.
Andrefsky, W., 1998. Lithics: Macroscopic Approaches to Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University.
Angel, J. L., 1952. The Human Skeletal Remains from Hotu Cave, Iran. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 96 (3): 258-269.
Berillon, G., A. Asgari Khaneghah, P. Antoine, J-J. Bahain, B. Chevrier, V. Zeitoun, N. Aminzadeh, M. Beheshti, H. Ebadollahi Chanzangh and S. Nochadi, 2007a. Discovery of New Open-air Paleolithic localities in Central Alborz, Northern Iran. Journal of Human Evolution 52: 380-387.
Berrillon, G., A. Asgari Khaneghah; B. Chevrier; V. Zeitoun; M. Beheshti; P. Antoine; J.J. Bahain; F. Ramirez Rozzi; S. Noshadi; H. Ebadollahi, 2007b. Mousterian in Central Alborz, Palaeoanthropological Program on the Moghanak Locality (Damavand, Tehran). Archaeological Reports 7: 59-72.
Biglari, F., 2012b. The Development of the Paleolithic Archaeology in Iran, in: Hassanzadeh, Y. & Miri, S. (eds.), Eighty Years of Iranian Archaeology, vol. 2, Tehran: 7-48 (in Persian).
Binford, L. R., 1979. Organization and Formation Processes: Looking at Curated Technologies. Journal of Anthropological Research 35 (3): 255-273.
Bonilauri, S.; B. Chevrier; A. Asgari Khaneghah; M. Abolfathi; R. Ejlalipour; R. Sadeghi Nejad and G. Berillon, 2020. Garm Roud 2, Iran: Bladelet Production and Cultural Features of a Key Upper Palaeolithic Site, South of the Caspian Sea. Compte Rendus Palevol 20 (4): 823-837.
Braidwood, R. J. and B. Howe, 1960. Prehistoric investigation in Iraqi Kurdistan, Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilizations 31. Chicago; Illinois: The University of Chicago Press.
Chatters, J. C., 1987. Hunter-gatherer adaptations and assemblage structure. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 6: 336-75.
Chevrier, B.; G. Berillon; A. Asgari Khaneghah; P. Antoine; J.-J. Bahian and V. Zeitoun, 2006. Moghanak, Otchounak, Garm Roud 2: nouveaux assemblages Paléolithique dans le nord de l’Iran, premiers caractérisations typo-technologiques et attributions chrono-culturelles. Paléorient 32(2): 59-79.
Conolly, J., 2010. The 1994 Knapped Stone Assemblage from Jeitun. In D. Harris, ed. Origins of Agriculture in Western Central Asia: An Environmental-Archaeological Study. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, pp. 180-185.
Coolidge, J., 2005. Southern Turkmenistan in the Neolithic, A Petrographic Case Study. Oxford: Archaeopress.
Coon, C. S., 1957. The Seven Caves: Archaeological Explorations in the Middle East. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Coon, C.S., 1951. Cave Explorations in Iran, 1949. Philadelphia: The University Museum, University of Pennsylvania.
Coon, C.S., 1952. Excavations in Hotu Cave, Iran, 1951, A Preliminary Report. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 96 (3): 231-249.
Crowfoot, J. The Flint Industry. In Tall-e Bakun A, Season of 1932 (Oriental Institute Publications 59), edited by Alexander Langsdorff and Donald E. McCown, 75-80. Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 1942.
Dashtizadeh, A., 2005. A Survey of Neolithic Cave Sites of Kazeroun. In Zare, S. (ed.), Proceedings of the Second Conference of Young Iranian Archaeologists, pp. 25-48. Tehran: Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization. [in Persian].
de Groene, D.; H. Fazeli Nashli, H. and R. Matthews, 2023. The Epipalaeolithic-Neolithic Transition in North-eastern Iran: Zooarchaeological Evidence from the Southern Shores of the Caspian Sea. Antiquity 2023: 1-16. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2023.37
de Morgan, J., 1907. Le plateau Iranien pendant l’époque pléistocène. Revue de l’Ecole d’Anthropologie de Paris 17: 213-216.
Derevianko, A.P.; M. Zeidi; A. Zenin; S.A. Gladyshev and A.I. Krivoshapkin, 2013. Report of the Archaeological Iran-Russian Expedition in Southern Littoral Caspian Sea. Iran Archaeology 4: 8-22 (in Persian).
Domanski, M. and J. Webb, 2007. A Review of Heat Treatment Research. Lithic Technology 32(2): 153-194.
Dupree, L., 1952. The Pleistocene Artifacts of Hotu Cave, Iran. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 96 (3): 250-257.
Fazeli Nashli, H., 2021. Report on the Sounding for Specification of the Limits of the Sites of Hotu and Kamarband Cave and excavation at Stratigraphical Trench at Hotu. Unpublished Report, Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization of Mazandaran.[in Persian].
Fazeli Nashli, H., M.W. Gregg, E. Marinova, R. Bendrey, S. Balescu, L. Forget Brisson, M. Lamothe, J. Thomalsky, H. Nazari and S. Maleki in press. Pre-agricultural Plant and Animal Management and the Emergence of low-level Food-production on the Southern Coastal Plain of the Caspian Sea during the Early Holocene, in J. Thomalsky, M. Kunst, H. Fazeli Nashli, M. Reindel and P. Kaulicke (eds.) From Sedentarization to the Complex Society: Settlement, Economy, Environment, Cult. Proceedings of the workshops in Lisbon, Tehran and Lima (Menschen, Kulturen, Traditionen, vol. 21): 365-395. Berlin: German Archaeological Institute.
Garrod, D., 1930. The Palaeolithic of Southern Kurdistan, Excavations in the Caves of Zarzi and Hazar Merd. Bulletin of the American School of Prehistoric Research 6: 8-43.
Ghasidian, E., 2021. Southern Caspian Corridor: A Biogeographical Hominin Expansion Route. In Heydari-Guran, H. and Ghasidian, E. (Eds.), Palaeolithic of Iran 1, pp. 214-232. Tehran: The Research Institute of Cultural Heritage and Tourism.[in Persian].
Gregg, M.W. and C. Thornton, 2012. A Preliminary Analysis of Prehistoric Pottery from Carleton Coon’s Excavations of Hotu and Belt Caves in Northern Iran: Implications for Future Research into the Emergence of Village Life in Western Central Asia. International Journal of Humanities 19 (3): 56-94.
Heydari, S., 2004. Stone Raw Material Sources in Iran, Some Case Studies. In Persien Antike Pracht: Bergbau, Hadwerk, archeolgie (Katalog der Ausstellung des Bochum: Deustsches Bergbau-Museums Bochum von 28. November 2004 bis 29 Mai 2005, T. Stollner; R. Slotta; A. Vatandoust (eds.), pp. 124-129, Bochum: Deutsches Bergbau Museum.
Jayez, M. 2012. Techno-Typological Analysis of Komishan Lithic Industries and its Comparability with the Epipalaeolithic Industries from Zagros Region. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Tarbiat Modarres University.[in Persian].
Jayez, M., 2019. The Latest Lithic Industry of Zagros Pleistocene: Ambiguities and Contradictions in Zarzian Studies. Iran Quaternary 5(1): 79-103.[in Persian].
Jayez, M., 2021. A Typo-technological Analysis of Chipped Stone Assemblage from the Mesolithic Site of Altappeh, Mazandaran, Iran (the Archive of the National Museum of Iran). Universum Humanitarium 2021(2): 49-57.
Jayez, M. 2022. What Has Been Done and What Has to Be Done: Statistical Assessment of Iranian Paleolithic Research 1906-2021. Iranica Antiqua 57: 173-215.
Jayez, M. and H. Vahdati Nasab, 2016. A separation: Caspian Mesolithic VS Trialetian lithic industry: A research on the excavated site of Komishan, southeast of the Caspian Sea, Iran. Paléorient 42 (1): 81-100.
Jayez, M. and H. Vahdati Nasab, 2020. Assessing Relative Chronology via Identification of Knapping Techniques: The Case Study of Blade and Bladelet Production in Komishan Cave, Mazandaran, Iran. Journal of Archaeological Science 12(1): 59-80.[in Persian].
Jayez, M. and H. Vahdati Nasab, 2022. A Brand New Thing: Bladelet Production Techniques and Methods in Caspian Mesolithic and Neolithic Chipped Stone Industries. In Nishiaki, Y.; Maeda, O. and Arimura, M. (eds.), Tracking the Neolithic in the Near East, Lithic Perspectives on Its Origins, Development and Dispersals, pp. 545-559. Sidestone Press, Leiden.
Kark, S., 2013. Effects of Ecotones on Biodiversity. In Levin, S.A. (ed.), Encyclopedia of Biodiversity III, pp. 142-148. San Diego, California, London: Elsevier Inc.
Keraudren, B. and C. Thibault, 1973. Sur les formations plio-Pleistocènes du littoral Iranien de la mer Caspienne. Paléorient 1 (2): 141-149.
Korobkova, G. F., 1996. The Djeitunian Industry, Southern Turkmenistan. In H. G. Gebel and S. K. Kozlowski, eds. Neolithic Chipped Stone Industries of the Fertile Crescent, and their Contemporaries in adjacent regions. Berlin: Ex Orient, pp. 37-56.
Kozlowski, S. K., 1994. Chipped Neolithic Industries at the Eastern Wing of the Fertile Crescent (Synthesis Contribution). In Gebel, H. G. and S. K. Kozlowski, eds. Neolithic Chippes Stone Industries of the Fertile Crescent. Berlin: Ex Orient, pp. 143-172.
Kozlowski, S. K., 1996. The Trialetian ‘Mesolithic’ Industry of the Caucasus, Transcaucasia, Eastern Anatolia, and the Iranian Plateau. In H. G. Gebel and S. K. Kozlowski, eds. Neolithic Chipped Stone Industries of the Fertile Crescent, and their Contemporaries in adjacent regions. Berlin: Ex Orient, pp. 161-170.
Kozlowski, S. K., 1999. The Eastern Wing of the Fertile Crescent: Late Prehistory of Greater Mesopotamian Lithic Industries. Oxford: Archaeopress.
Lazaridis et al., 2016. Genomic Insights into the Origin of Farming in the Ancient Near East. Nature 536 (7617): 419-424.
Leroy, S.A.G.; A. Amini; M.W. Gregg; E. Marinova; R. Bendrey; Y. Zha; A. Naderi Beni and H. Fazeli Nashli, 2019. Human Responses to Environmental Change on the Southern Coastal Plain of the Caspian Sea during the Mesolithic and Neolithic Periods. Quaternary Science Reviews 218: 343-364.
Manca, L., Mashkour, M., Shidrang, S., Averbouh, A. and Biglari, F., 2018. Bone, Shell Tools and Ornaments from the Epipalaeolithic Site of Ali Tappeh, East of Alborz Range, Iran. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 21: 137-157.
Mahfroozi, A., 2003. Preliminary Report of Survey and Excavations in the East of Mazandaran. Archaeological Reports 2: 263-03.[in Persian].
Mashkour, M.; J. Chahoud; A. Mahfrouzi, 2010. Faunal Remains from the Epi-Paleolithic site of Komishan Cave and its Dating, Preliminary Results. Iranian Archaeology 1: 32-37.
McBurney, C.B.M., 1964. A Preliminary Report on Stone Age Reconnaissance in NE Iran. Proceedings of Prehistoric Society 30: 382-399.
McBurney, C.B.M., 1969, The Cave of Ali Tappeh and the Epipalaeolithic in NE Iran. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 34: 385-413.
Mortensen, A. P., 1975. Survey and Soundings in the Holailan Valley, 1974. In F. Bagherzadeh, ed. Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Symposium on Archaeological Survey in Iran, Tehran: Iranian Center for Archaeological Research, pp. 1-12.
Mortensen, A. P., 1993. Paleolithic and Epipaleolithic Sites in the Hulailan Valley, Northern Luristan. In D. I. Olszewski and H. L. Dibble, eds. The Palaeolithic Prehistory of The Zagros-Taurus. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, pp. 159-186.
Neeley M.P. and Barton M.C., 1994. A New Approach to Interpreting late Pleistocene Microlith Industries in Southwest Asia. Antiquity 68(259): 275-288.
Neeley, M. P., 2002. Going Microlithic: A Levantine Perspective on the Adoption of Microlithic Technologies. In R. G. Elston and L. Kuhn, (ed.), Thinking Small: Global Perspectives on Microlithization. Arlington, VA: American Anthropological Association, pp. 45-55.
Nishiaki, Y., 2019. The Neolithic-Chalcolithic Transition in Southwestern Iran: Examining Blade Production Technology at Tall-i Bakun B, Fars. Archaeology, Journal of the Iranian Center for Archaeological Research 3(4): 1-5.
Nishiaki, Y., M. H. Taheri, and A. Sardari, 2018. Lithic Industry of the Early Chalcolithic in the Southwest Zagros: New Insights from the Middle Bakun Site of Tol-e Mash Karim, Iran. Ancient Near Eastern Studies 55: 125-141.
O’Connell, J. F., 1977. Aspects of Variation in Central Australian Lithic Assemblages. In R. V. S. Wright, ed. Stone Tools as Cultural Markers: Change, Evolution and Complexity. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, pp. 269-81.
Olszewski, D. I., 1993a. Zarzian Microliths from Warwasi Rockshelter, Iran: Scalene Triangles as Arrow Components. In G. L. Peterkin; H. M. Bricker; P. Mellars, eds. Hunting and Animal Exploitation in the Late Palaeolithic and Mesolithic of Eurasia. Arlington, VA: American Anthropological Association, pp. 199-205.
Olszewski, D. I., 1993b. The Zarzian Occupation of Warwasi Rockshelter: Iran. In D. I. Olszewski and H. L. Dibble, eds. The Palaeolithic Prehistory of the Zagros-Taurus. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, pp. 207-236.
Pelegrin, J., 2012. New Experimental Observations for the Characterization of Pressure Blade Production Techniques. In The Emergence of Pressure Blade Knapping: From Origin to Modern Experimentation, edited by Pierre M. Desrosier, pp. 465-500. New York: Springer.
Rahmati, S.M. and A. Mahfroozi, 2007. A Survey of the Open Site of Speh Meleh, Rostam Kola. Archaeology 5: 103-107.[in Persian].
Ramazanpour, H.; K. Niknami and S. Alibaigi, 2021. Reconstruction of Post-Palaeolithic Stone Tools Production Systems Based on A Case Study from Panj-Berar Site, Southeast of Caspian Sea. Pazhohesh-ha-ye Bastanshenasi Iran 31: 7-30.[in Persian].
Rosenberg, M., 2003. The Epipalaeolithic in the Marvdasht. In N. F. Miller and K. Abdi, eds. Yeki bud yeki nabud, Essays on the Archaeology of Iran in Honor of William M. Sumner. Los Angles: The Costen Institute of Archaeology, University of California; The American Institute of Iranian Studies and the University of Pennsylvania, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, pp. 98-108.
Sarraf, M.R., 1988. Report on the Visiting Komishan Cave. Unpublished report, Archive of the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization of Iran.[in Persian].
Schnaider, S.V.; S. Alisher Kyzy; G.I. Markovsky, 2020. Geometric Microliths as a Cultural Marker in Western Central Asia. In Problems of Archaeology, Ethnography, Anthropology of Siberia and Neighboring Territories, pp. 308-315. Novosibirsk: Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. [in Russian].
Schnaider, S.V.; S. Alisher Kyzy; A.Y. Tamara; A. Bujilova; N. Berezina and S. Rigaud, 2021. The Human Cultures in South-eastern Caspian Region in Final Pleistocene-Holocene Period. Archaeological Research in Asia 28: 100318.
Sievert, A. K. and K. Wise, 2001. A Generalized Technology for a Specialized Economy: Archaic Period Chipped Stone at Kilometer 4, Peru. In W. Andrefsky, ed. Lithic Debitage, Context, Form and Meaning. Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press, pp. 80-105.
Smith, P., 1986. Palaeolithic Archaeology in Iran. Philadelphia: University Museum, University of Pennsylvania.
Tavakoli Zaniani, A., 2023. A Research on Technology and Subsistence of Neolithic in Eastern Plains of Mazandaran based on the Chipped Stones from Excavation 2020 of Touq Tepe, Neka, Mazandaran. Unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Mazandaran.[in Persian].
Tsunki, A.; M. Zeidi; K. Ohnuma, 2007. Proto-Neolithic Caves in the Bolaghi Valley, South Iran. Iran 54: 1-22.
Uerpmann H. and W. Frey, 1981. Die Umgebung von Gār-e Kamarband (Belt-Cave) und Gār-e ‘Ali Tappe (Beh-šahr, Māzandarān, N-Iran) heute und im Spätpleistozän”, In Beiträge zur Umweltges chichte des Vorderen Orients (Contributions to the Evironmental History of Soutwest Asia), W. Frey and H. Uerpmann (eds.), 134-190, Wiesbaden: Reichert.
Vahdati Nasab, H., 2011. Palaeolithic Archaeology in Iran. International Journal of Humanities 18(2): 63-87.
Vahdati Nasab, H. and M. Jayez, 2011. A Typo-Technological Research on the Chipped Stone Assemblage of Komishan Cave, Mazandaran (with A Revision of Trialetian Lithic Industry). Bastansheansi va Tarikh 50: 56-78.[in Persian].
Vahdati Nasab, H.; M. Jayez; A. Hojabri Nobari; F. Khademi Nadooshan; H. Ilkhani and A. Mahfroozi, 2011. Komishan Cave, Mazandaran: An Epipalaeolithic and Later Site on the Southern Caspian Sea. Antiquity (323), (Project Gallery). http: // antiquity. ac. Uk / projgall / nasab 328/.
Vahdati Nasab, H., S. Shirvani and S. Rigaud, 2019. The Northern Iranian Central Plateau at the end of the Pleistocene and early Holocene: the emergence of domestication. Journal of World Prehistory 32(3): 287-310.
Vahdati Nasab, H., M. Nikzad, M. Jayez, M. Hashemi, Z. Knapp, N. Sykes, M. Zareh Khalili, H. Ilkhani Moghaddam, F. Bakhtiari Nasab and D. I. Olszewski, 2020. Komishan Cave: A Mesolithic and Later Settlement on the Southeastern Shore of the Caspian Sea, IRAN. Ancient Near Eastern Studies 57: 97-125.
Wahida, G., 1981. The Re-excavation of Zarzi, 1971. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 47: 19-40.
Wahida, G., 1999. The Zarzian Industry of the Zagros Mountains. In W. Davies and R. Charles, eds. Dorothy Garrod and the Progress of the Palelolithic Studies in the Prehistoric Archaeology of the Near East and Europe. Oxford: Oxbow Books, pp. 181-208.
Yaroshevich, A.; D. Nadel and A. Tsatskin, 2013. Composite projectiles and hafting technologies at Ohalo II (23ka, Israel): Analyses of impact fractures, morphometric characteristics and adhesive remains on microlithic tools. Journal of Archaeological Science 40(11): 4009-4023.
)