Identifying the origins of obsidian artifacts in the Deh Luran Plain (Southwestern Iran) highlights community connections in the Neolithic Zagros

Abstract

Exchange networks created by Neolithic pastoral transhumance have been central to explaining the distant transport of obsidian since chemical analysis was first used to attribute Near Eastern artifacts to their volcanic origins in the 1960s. Since then, critical reassessments of floral, faunal, and chronological data have upended long-held interpretations regarding the emergence of food production and have demonstrated that far-traveled, nomadic pastoralists were more myth than reality, at least during the Neolithic. Despite debates regarding their proposed conveyance mechanisms, obsidian artifacts’ transport has received relatively little attention compared with zooarchaeological and archaeobotanical lines of investigation. The rise of nondestructive and portable instruments permits entire obsidian assemblages to be traced to their sources, renewing their significance in elucidating connections among early pastoral and agricultural communities. Here we share our findings about the obsidian artifacts excavated from the sites of Ali Kosh and Chagha Sefid in the southern Zagros. In the 1960s and 1970s, 28 obsidian artifacts from the sites were destructively tested, and the remainder were sorted by color. Our results emphasize a dynamic, accelerating connectivity among the Early and Late Neolithic communities. Here we propose and support an alternative model for obsidian distribution among more settled communities. In brief, diversity in the obsidian assemblage accelerated diachronically, an invisible trend in the earlier studies. Our model of increasing population densities is supported by archaeological data and computational simulations, offering insights regarding the Neolithic Demographic Transition in the Zagros, an equivalent of which is commonly thought to have occurred around the world.

Increasing obsidian diversity during the Chalcolithic Period at Yeghegis-1 Rockshelter (Armenia) reveals shifts in land use and social networks

“…We use two orders of Hill numbers ( q D) to calculate diversity metrics: one based on the weighted geometric mean (q = 1; each type is equally weighted by abundance) and the other on the weighted arithmetic mean (q = 2; abundant types are given added emphasis) 43 . When q = 1, the resulting index is mathematically related to the Shannon-Wiener and the Simpson diversity indices, which previously have been applied in similar contexts 44,45 . With q = 2, the results emphasize the frequently used sources (which, we propose, mainly reflect summer pastures) over rarer ones (which, we propose, reflect social connections).…”

Current developments and future directions in archaeological science

“…The development of relatively inexpensive portable XRF (pXRF) units has facilitated archaeologists’ capacity to nondestructively generate elemental data from artifacts and raw materials in a unique way. Frahm and Carolus ( 45 ) analyzed a large number of obsidian artifacts from Neolithic sites in the Near East using pXRF to determine the geological origin of the raw materials. Their findings shed important light on how connections among communities intensified in the region over time, as evidenced by increasing diversity in obsidian sources.…”

Field morphological identification of the most important Acrididae nymphs of cereal crops in Iran

“…That event is the commencement of primary land-based civilization and cultivation of cereals (Abbo et al, 2013). Shortly after, the Stone Age humans in other parts of the world also began to practice agriculture and locust problems emerged (Frahm & Carolus, 2022). Cereals were grown in the fertile crescent from Palestine and Lebanon to Syria, Iraq and Iran (Milić et al, 2022) and many times in other fertile parts of the world, in polyphyletic domestication, progressively made the exploiter humans to identify insects and consequently their classification was noticed (Snir et al, 2015).…”