R10 - From Zagros to Alborz and Beyond: Formative and Adoptive Neolithic Lifeways on The Iranian Plateau

Session Organisers: Hojjat Darabi, Hassan Fazeli Nashli

Category: Near East

Session Abstract: Since the 1940-50s, the Neolithic period in Iran has been sporadically explored by a number of archaeologists. Following the pioneering work by R. Braidwood in the central Zagros in 1959-60, attention was given to question-oriented investigations, especially on the onset of domestication and sedentary life. Subsequent political instabilities put research in hiatus for about three decades. This severely limited our understanding of Iran’s Neolithic in comparison to other regions of Western Asia. In the last two decades, however, not only have some previously excavated sites or collections been re-evaluated, but new archaeological activities have also been undertaken. As recently suggested by aDNA data, an important approach to better understand the emergence and spread of the Neolithic lifestyle on the Iranian plateau is the inter-regional connections between the western and central parts of Asia. Current evidence points to a distinct pattern of Neolithic eco-cultural zones that interacted intensively with their neighbors via networks through which ideas, raw materials or commodities circulated and were transported. However, little is known about the possible impact of climatic or demographic factors on the development of the Neolithic lifestyle throughout Iran. Moreover, it remains unclear to what extent the secondary centers/learning or adoptive zones were influenced by the primary/formative ones. With the main goal of addressing the above issues, this session aims to bring together researchers to present the latest available data on the emergence and development of Neolithic lifeways in Iran, a region that encompasses a mosaic of diverse Neolithic cultures but is still only vaguely known. It is expected that the session can contribute to our better understanding of the extent to which Neolithic societies were in contact throughout the Iranian plateau and its neighbors, and how Neolithic lifeways are most likely to have evolved across this vast region linking the western parts of Asia with the central parts.

Room: J

05/11/2024

Start Time - End Time	Authors	Title
10:00 - 10:15	Tobias Richter	Doing it Their Way: The Zarzian and Natufian Compared
10:15 - 10:30	Joseph Harris	The Zagros in the Epipaleolithic to Neolithic Transition: The Braidwood assemblages from Asiab and Gird Chai
10:30 - 10:45	Yoshihiro Nishiaki	Tell Seker al-Aheimar, Northeast Syria, in the context of the East Wing of the Neolithic Fertile Crescent
10:45 - 11:00	Arkadiusz Soltysiak	Burial customs and social identity in the eastern part of the Fertile Crescent during the late Pre-Pottery Neolithic: a comparison of Nemrik 9 (Iraq) and Ali Kosh (Iran)
11:00 - 11:15	Julien Riel-Salvatore, Silvia Gazzo, Stéphanie Falardeau	The funerary treatment of Burial 39 from Ganj Dareh

Lunch Break

Start Time - End Time	Authors	Title
13:00 - 13:15	Michael Brandl, Hojjat Darabi, Christoph Hauzenberger, Peter Filzmoser, Barbara Horejs	Tracing Lithic Resource Management: A Geochemical Chert Provenance Pilot Study at East Chia Sabz, Iran
13:15 - 13:30	Andrea Ricci, Ahmad Azadi, Daniele Moscone	Neolithic in the Mountains: new evidence of early sedentism in Kohgiluyeh, southwestern Iran (HighStepLands)
13:30 - 13:45	Natalia Petrova, Anna Babenko, Hojjat Darabi, Tobias Richter	The origins of pottery technology and its connections with house-building technology in the Central Zagros
13:45 - 14:00	Sanaz Shirvani	Patterns of Deliberate Breakage in Zoomorphic Figurines from Ganj Dareh
14:00 - 14:15	Dlshad A. Marf	Symbolism on the Upper Mesopotamian and Zagros Prehistoric Ceramics

Coffee Break

Start Time - End Time	Authors	Title
14:45 - 15:00	Mohammad Hossein Azizi Kharanaghi	Southern Iran During Pre-Pottery Neolithic Period
15:00 - 15:15	Morteza Khanipour	Development of the Fars Cultural zone during the Neolithic Period, Iran
15:15 - 15:30	Nasir Eskandari	Look to the East: Southeastern Iran in the Pottery Neolithic Period
15:30 - 15:45	Jan Lentschke	Holocene landscapes changing and his impacts of potential early farming grounds in the Beshahr area (NE-Iran)
15:45 - 16:00	Soudeh Eftekhari, Hassan Fazeli Nashli, Stefano Campana, Dimitrios Alexakis	Landscape reconstruction of North Central Plateau of Iran during Neolithic period by integration satellite images, digital elevation model and gis

Coffee Break

Start Time - End Time	Authors	Title
16:30 - 16:45	Hassan Fazeli Nashli	Report of the recent excavations of Mesolithic and Neolithic Caves in the southeastern of the Caspian Sea
16:45 - 17:00	Mozhgan Jayez	Lithics: From Mesolithic to Neolithic in the southeast of the Caspian Sea
17:00 - 17:15	Seyyed Kamal Asadi Ojaei, Rahmat Abbasnejad Seresti	New Insights After Seventy Years: From the Mesolithic to the Pottery Neolithic in the Northern Iran
17:15 - 17:30	Fatemeh Naderi, Roger Matthews, Judith Thomalsky, Hassan Fazeli Nashli, Mojtaba Safari	The Emergence of Complex Ritual Systems during the Mesolithic Period in the South-eastern Caspian Sea
17:30 - 17:45	Xinying Zhou, Hassan Fazeli Nashli, Mojtaba Safari	Early Holocene cereal consumption and climatic influences on the southern coast of the Caspian Sea

07/11/2024

Start Time - End Time	Authors	Title
10:00 - 10:15	Roya Khazaeli, Hossein Davoudi, Hassan Fazeli Nashli	Animal Resource Exploitation during the Transitional Neolithic in the Southeastern Shore of the Caspian Sea: Preliminary Report on the Faunal Remains from Komishani Tepe, Mazandaran, Iran
10:15 - 10:30	Rahmat Abbasnejad Seresti	The Caspian Neolithic Software: New Excavations at Two Pottery Neolithic Sites
10:30 - 10:45	Mojtaba Safari, Hassan Fazeli Nashli, Roger Matthews, Judith Thomalsky, Hedayat Kalvari Janaki	An Investigation of the Emergence of Pottery Neolithic Period in the Southern Caspian Sea, Based on the New Excavations at Hotu Cave
10:45 - 11:00	Catherine Marro, Rémi Berthon, Alexia Decaix, Judith Thomalsky, Veli Bakhshaliyev	Anatomy of the Kültepe I culture. Its significance for unravelling the formation processes of the Caucasian Neolithic
11:00 - 11:15	Sinan Kılıç	Neolithic Around Lake Van, Eastern Turkey

Lunch Break

Start Time - End Time	Authors	Title
13:00 - 13:20	Akbar Abedi	Neolithic Iranian Azerbaijan and Lake Urmia: Regional Interactions and Influence; The position of North-Western Iran in the West Asian Neolithic Studies
13:20 - 13:40	Ferran Antolín, Pauline Scheiffele	New archaeobotanical evidence of early farming practices south of Lake Urmia (Iran)
13:40 - 14:00	Judith Thomalsky	Transit(s), transect(s) and transmission(s): explaining neolithic heterogeneity in NW-Iran
14:00 - 14:45	All Participants	Final Remarks