The Early Neolithic Of The Eastern Fertile Crescent

Analysis of the transition to sedentary farming in the Fertile Crescent and the establishment of Neolithic culture based on major excavations in Iraq.

The Eastern Fertile Crescent region of western Iran and eastern Iraq hosted major developments in the transition from hunter-forager to farmer-herder lifestyles through the Early Neolithic period, 10,000-7000 BC. Within the scope of the Central Zagros Archaeological Project, excavations have been conducted since 2012 at two Early Neolithic sites in the Kurdistan region of Iraq: Bestansur and Shimshara. Bestansur represents an early stage in the transition to sedentary, farming life, where the inhabitants pursued a mixed strategy of hunting, foraging, herding and cultivating, maximizing the new opportunities afforded by the warmer, wetter climate of the Early Holocene. They also constructed substantial buildings of mudbrick, including a major building with a minimum of 65 human individuals, mainly infants, buried under its floor in association with hundreds of beads. These human remains provide new insights into mortuary practices, demography, diet and disease.

This volume brings together the latest results and discussions from research carried out in the eastern Fertile Crescent, the so-called hilly flanks, and adjacent regions, as well as providing key historical perspectives on earlier fieldwork in the region. The emergence of sedentary food producing societies in southwest Asia ca. 10,000 years ago has been a key research focus for archaeologists since the 1930s. This book provides a balance to the weight of work undertaken in the western Fertile Crescent, namely the Levant and southern Anatolia. This preference has led to a heavy emphasis on these regions in discussions about where, when and how the transition from hunting and gathering to plant cultivation and animal domestication occurred. Chapters assess the role of the eastern Fertile Crescent as a key region in the Neolithization process in southwest Asia, highlighting the key and important contributions people in this region made to the emergence of sedentary farming societies. This book is primarily aimed at academics researching the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture in southwest Asia. It will also be of interest to archaeologists working on this transition in other parts of Eurasia.

The period c. 10,000-5000 BC witnessed fundamental changes in the human condition with societies across the Fertile Crescent shifting their alignment from millennia-old practices of seasonally mobile hunting and foraging to year-round sedentism, plant cultivation and animal herding. The significant role of Iran in the early stages of this transition was recognised more than half a century ago but has not been to the fore of academic consciousness in recent decades. In the meantime, investigations into Neolithic transformation have proceeded apace in all other regions of the Fertile Crescent and beyond. Here, 18 studies attempt to redress that balance in re-assessing the role of Iran in the early neolithisation of human societies. These studies, many of them by Iranian scholars, consider patterns of change and/or continuity across a variety of topographical landscapes; investigate Neolithic settlement patterns, the use of caves, animal exploitation and environmental indicators and present new insights into some well-known and some newly investigated sites. The results re-affirm the formative role of this region in the transition to sedentary farming.

Plant and animal domestication was important in revolutionising the Greater Mesopotamian region. Archaeological evidence has been used to assess and trace the transformation from mobile foragers to the emergence of urban centres. However, the significance of changing stone tool technologies has received little attention in this regard. Koslowski uses lithic evidence to identify and describe various cultures within this region and to trace their development. He studies the raw materials, methods of knapping, types of blanks, retouched pieces and the function of various artefacts. 'His pioneering volume will be appreciated by many who devot their research to achieving a better understanding of the evolutionary threshold that inevitably heralded the emergence of urban civilizations'.

The period c. 10,000-5000 BC witnessed fundamental changes in the human condition with societies across the Fertile Crescent shifting their alignment from millennia-old practices of seasonally mobile hunting and foraging to year-round sedentism, plant cultivation and animal herding. The significant role of Iran in the early stages of this transition was recognised more than half a century ago but has not been to the fore of academic consciousness in recent decades. In the meantime, investigations into Neolithic transformation have proceeded apace in all other regions of the Fertile Crescent and beyond. Here, 18 studies attempt to redress that balance in re-assessing the role of Iran in the early neolithisation of human societies. These studies, many of them by Iranian scholars, consider patterns of change and/or continuity across a variety of topographical landscapes; investigate Neolithic settlement patterns, the use of caves, animal exploitation and environmental indicators and present new insights into some well-known and some newly investigated sites. The results re-affirm the formative role of this region in the transition to sedentary farming.

This book presents a study of Neolithisation and the chronological sequence of Neolithic cultures in the Near East. Focusing on the years between 10,500 and 6200 BC, the authors start with empirical data in an attempt to reveal not only cultures, but the territorial limits of these cultures --their borders--and their possible interactions with time. The geographical zone covered comprises the two branches of the area known traditionally as the Fertile Crescent, as well as the steppe/desert zone which they encompass. A full Appendix presents a catalogue and find distribution sites. Preface by F. Hole.

The dawn of the Neolithic Era ushered in major changes in the way people lived. In fact, these changes were so sweeping that the transition from the Mesolithic Era to the Neolithic Era is referred to as the Neolithic Revolution. The beginnings of agriculture and the domestication of animals both date from this period. These changes to the food supply led people to settle in permanent communities, which, in turn, led to organized societies and social hierarchy. This book examines the factors that could have led to this revolution and the archaeological evidence of which changes happened where and when.