محمد بهرامی

During the last decade, researchers embarked on several archaeological surveys and excavations in Luristan and they could unearth 29 Neolithic sites there. The current paper, taking into accounts the Geographic Information System (GIS) and Settlement Analysis, tries to analyze the role of environment on the aforementioned Neolithic sites. The study indicates that Neolithic communities chose foraging as the most important way of their livelihood. Water and food resources, wild plants, and animals were found impressive in the site-catchment process. All of the 29 Neolithic settlements are located at the altitudes between 500 and 2000 meters above sea level. These altitudes cover the southern, central, and northern parts of Luristan, the region that enjoys semi-arid climates, cool winters and hot summers, where pastoral livestock has been common. There are many rivers at these heights, but locals often disposed of using springs water. The distance from 26 sites to the springs is about 300 meters.

Two important points have been the motivations of the writers of this article. The first motivating factor is the importance of the Neolithic Period especially the phase of shifting from Epi-Paleolithic to Neolithic in nowadays archaeological argumentation. The second factor is the importance of Khorramabad valley at the Paleolithic period and the abundance of early Chalcolithic sites and having no knowledge about the valley’s archaeology in Neolithic Period. Exploring two important sites namely Roāhol and Merijelo and finding three sites namely Sarab Kotela, Kohele and Kharmanjā Haft Cheshmeh in this valley, have opened promising horizons for archaeologists to understand the cultural changes of the Neolithic period. Surveying the surface findings and studying on the settlement layers of these sites have provided an opportunity for initial recognition of the existence of social life in Neolithic period in the valley. The general archaeological researches on central Zagros and specific researches on Khorramabad valley and also identifying and preliminary surveying of two under- discussion sites have created a proper opportunity for proposing a new mission to excavate the sites and to conduct systematic compact survey on Khorramabad valley. This article reviews the literature of archaeological studies on central Zagros and Khorramabad valley briefly and propounds the theories of beginning of food production and Neolithisation, proposes key questions and presupposition corresponding to the writers’ suggestive plan.

This study investigates the effects of summative, formative, and combined assessments on the development of listening and reading comprehension skills on advanced Iranian EFL learners. Data were collected from 40 advanced EFL learners, aged 19 to 35, from intact classes at a higher education institute, divided into three experimental groups, each receiving one of the assessment types (summative, formative, or a combination of both), along with a control group. Learners’ progress in listening and reading comprehension was measured over a four-month period using pre- and post-tests administered at the end of the term. Data analysis involved ANOVA, ANCOVA, and post hoc LSD tests. The findings of this longitudinal study revealed that while the combined application of formative and summative assessments had a significant positive impact on listening comprehension, neither assessment type alone contributed to improvement in this area. In contrast, the results showed that all forms of assessment—whether summative, formative, or combined—led to notable improvements in reading comprehension. These results highlight the differential effects of assessment types on listening and reading skills, suggesting implications for assessment practices in EFL contexts.

As AI-driven tools gain prominence in informal language assessment, high-stakes proficiency exams such as the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) continue to depend on trained human raters to ensure fairness, genre sensitivity, and construct validity. This study examines how raters’ linguistic backgrounds—specifically English L1 and Persian L1—affect holistic scoring across writing genres within the IELTS framework. Some experienced EFL teachers (11 English L1, 11 Persian L1), all trained in writing assessment and familiar with IELTS rating procedures, evaluated 150 argumentative and descriptive essays produced by advanced Iranian learners under time-controlled conditions. Scoring was based on the publicly available IELTS Task 2 band descriptors, ensuring standardization and alignment with institutional criteria set by Cambridge Assessment. Findings revealed that while both groups demonstrated overall scoring consistency, English L1 raters applied stricter standards to organization in argumentative writing, whereas Persian L1 raters were more sensitive to grammatical accuracy across both genres. The results underscore the critical role of human raters in detecting discourse-level features not fully captured by AI-based scoring systems. Implications are offered for rater training, assessment fairness, and genre-specific writing instruction in standardized testing contexts.