Neolithic

The little Zab River in northwestern Iran rises from the mountains Piranshehr and flows from the northwest to the southeast direction to join Iraq from Alan passage. The River basin contains a large number of ancient settlements, and its lower area that is close to the Zab River has been the most interesting place for people in the Neolithic Age. An increasing population during Chalcolithic Age led to the dispersion of settlements. These sites are located in the north of this basin, in a valley and a little plain.

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.

A regular hexagon is one of the shapes introduced in Plane Geometry and refers to a hexagon with equal sides wherein the size of each angle is 120 degrees. This geometric shape, which can be quickly drawn today, was constructed over a long period in the millennia BC In the Late Neolithic period in Mesopotamia, the primary geometric shapes, including triangles, quadrilaterals, arcs, and circles, were additionally painted on the surface of pottery ware. Naturally, these shapes had been initially drawn by hand, and the sides of the polygons were not comprised of straight lines, or the circles had not been drawn perfectly. However, in the Chalcolithic age, geometric shapes moved away from handmade forms and approached standard ones. This standardization was not possible without drawing tools. In the meantime, the role of compasses or other objects with a similar use was of utmost importance because drawing a circle with such tools paved the way for drawing regular polygons. In fact, from the Late Neolithic, handmade triangles and arcs in the Near East, the first regular hexagon in the late second or the early first millennium emerged over several thousand years. Constructing this geometric shape with the help of standard circles and arcs has been well documented in the Near Eastern archaeological evidence. On the other hand, regular hexagons have been attributed to the second half of the first millennium in the history of mathematics. Therefore, this study reflected on the construction process of this geometric shape and dated its drawing hundreds of years back.

The lifeways of mobile human societies are a field investigated by anthropologists and archaeologists. Mobility is considered an effective way of foraging and resource production among human societies (for hunter-gatherers, pastoralists, and farmers, respectively). Various classifications regarding the mobility patterns of human societies have been proposed so far. As of today, the majority of archaeologists use Murdock’s multi-purpose classification which divided mobile human societies into four groups: (1) Nomadic societies, (2) semi-nomadic societies, (3) semi-sedentary societies, and (4) sedentary societies. But some societies have characteristics that do not allow them to be placed in one of these groups. For identification of these unclearly defined societies, the authors will refer to 5 criteria of demographic dimensions: Mobility, number of movements, movement distance, residential criteria, and lifeway. For instance, it was not until 2003 that archaeologists began to recognize the intermediate trajectory of nomadic pastoralism from early village-based herding to the formation of full-fledged pastoralism in the western part of Central Zagros. Extensive study of pastoralist communities, however, can be used for the identification of several intermediate stages of the 5 criteria. Current archaeological evidence in most of the early Neolithic sites in Central Zagros such as Qazanchi, Sheikhi Abad, Sarab, Asiab, and Guran, unlike the Levant region which was settled in the Epipaleolithic (Natufian) period, indicates that these sites are seasonal. So how can we explain the mobility of human societies in the proto-Neolithic period of Zagros? As a result, the authors try to use these criteria to identify the intermediate stages of sedentarism in Zagros, from mobile societies in the Epipaleolithic period to sedentary societies in the late Neolithic period. For this purpose, the authors have studied the mobility patterns and residential criteria of human societies in the cultural landscape of Hawraman. The research was conducted in two seasons, in the summer of   2016 and the summer of 2018, respectively. At first glance, the patterns of mobility and lifeways of human societies seemed homogeneous and identical in the cultural landscape of Hawraman. But with a deeper analysis, Four main mobility patterns were identified. The patterns include (1) single-stage agriculturalist residential mobility in Koh-e-Takht, (2) multistage pastoralist residential mobility in Kosalan and Shahu Mountain, (3) logistical mobility (transhumance) in Javeh River, and (4) logistical mobility (based on cultural exchanges) all over the Hawraman. The patterns show that the Zagros societies did not become sedentary in a single stage. Therefore, semi-sedentary societies with residential mobility and semi-sedentary societies with logistical mobility can be placed in the intermediate stages.  

Neolithic and food production from domesticated species has been one of the most important topics discussed and studied about prehistoric archaeology. Since the 1920s, or even much earlier, archaeologists tried to explain this great event that changed human life after millions of years of hunting-gathering. During these years, various theories based on technological, environmental, economic and sustenance, demographic, social, and evolutionary and, in recent decades, ideological, have been proposed by researchers. Some believe that Neolithic and food production is not an absolute and sudden process, but a long-term process, from knowing and choosing of species, management, and domestication of interdependence; this process is called Neolithization. The Neolithization process is not just the adoption of a new way of life due to environmental and demographic changes, but the beginning of human mental and worldviews changes. In this period, human manifests new behaviors, including rituals, which can be seen in burials, handicrafts, and architecture. Placing animal horns (domestic/wild) in the architectural space is one of these ritual behaviors. This symbolic behavior has been found in Fertile Crescent sites, from the Levant in the westernmost to Iran’s easternmost borders. Some researchers believe that this behavior is to gain authority, while some believe that humans tried to use these ways to control the wild in their inner domestic world. In this research, the authors have tried to analyze this type of behavior from the perspective of Neolithization ideological theories.

The body of women has been observed abundantly in the southern Zagros region from the end of the Neolithic period to the first millennium BC, therefore the purpose of this article is to investigate the evolution of the body of women in terms of their form and type of clothing and decorations in order to understand the beliefs and thoughts of the ancient people. In this regard, it has been tried to classify women's figures based on their appearance and motifs such as the type of hair and face makeup, the type of hats and clothes, and the way of showing the female figures that are repeated in prehistoric works, in order to answer our questions regarding the background, reasons for making, execution methods and practical aspects of female figures this research has been performed using descriptive-analytical and documentary method. The results show that the figurines of the copper and stone period in the South Zagros region are primarily stylized and simplified and mostly include one construction method, but in the early Bronze Age and at the same time as the Old Elam period, the figurines grew and became more diverse and complex. And they are made in different shapes and forms. In the Middle Elam period, we see the production of figurines that are realistic and delicate, and diversity can be seen in the way of construction in different situations and the mass production of various figurines.