Issues in the Study of Palaeoclimate and Palaeoenvironment in the Early Holo¬cene of the Central Zagros, Iran

Abstract

This paper reviews some of the key issues in the study of palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironment in the early Holocene of the Central Zagros. It also considers palaeocological research in this and other regions of the Near East, as well as preliminary results from new collaborative excavation and research at the early Neolithic sites of Sheikh-e Abad and Jani in Kermanshah province. The paper concludes with an outline of issues and directions for future research on Holocene palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironment in the Central Zagros. The three key issues in the study of the early Holocene climate and environment examined in this paper are (1) local and regional variation in the nature and rate of climatic change after the end of the Ice Age (2) responses by plant and animal populations to these changes, and (3) and human settlement patterns and ecological strategies.

A late Holocene molluscan-based palaeoenvironmental reconstruction from southern Mesopotamia: Implications for the palaeogeographic evolution of the Arabo-Persian Gulf

“…In Lake Zeribar this is based on isotopic data (Stevens et al, 2001), although the interpretation of the isotopic data has been challenged by some (e.g. Jones and Roberts, 2008;Matthews et al, 2013). If the period from ca.…”

La complejidad social en el Neolítico del Próximo Oriente: nuevas evidencias en el registro arqueológico

“…Por lo tanto, la jornada de trabajo no estaría centrada sólo en las tareas agrícolas y cazadoras-recolectoras y, quizás, podría observarse que empezaba a surgir el germen de unos segmentos de la población que pudieron llevar más tarde a la aparición de las clases sociales. de Matthews, 2008y Matthews, 2013).…”

New insights into the spatial organization, stratigraphy and human occupations of the Aceramic Neolithic at Ganj Dareh, Iran

“…BC (95.4%) at Asiab [ 16 ] and the Early Neolithic deposits dated to 10,100–9140 cal. BC (95.4%) at Sheikh-e Abad [ 12 ]. At that time, Ganj Dareh would have likely been used by still mobile foragers as a seasonally task site, possibly as a pistachio nut processing station [ 48 , 49 ].…”

“…Much of this research was focused specifically on the 'economic' aspects of the Neolithization process, in particular as it concerned the process of animal domestication [8][9][10]. Changing political conditions largely brought an end to this early phase of research, which would resume at the turn of the 21 st Century with new field projects (e.g., [11][12][13][14]) and reexcavations of several major sites identified during the first wave of research [15,16]. Importantly, new research spearheaded by Iranian archaeologists is bringing to light important new data on areas that had been explored using different theoretical and methodological frameworks (e.g.…”