Sedentism and Resource Management in the Neolithic of Western Iran

历史上最重大的变化之一发生在最后一个冰河时代之后，从公元前14000年(所有日期都以公元前为标准)开始，当时人类社区开始在村庄定居，并密集开发他们周围的资源，包括植物和动物。随着时间的推移，人们从流动的狩猎者变成了定居的农民和畜牧者，饲养着驯化的庄稼和动物。通常被称为新石器时代的转变，这种人类状况的根本发展稳步地蔓延到世界大部分地区，并通过盈余积累和社会分化最终导致城镇、城市和帝国的出现，从而塑造了现代世界。西南亚(也称为中东或近东)是这些发展最早发生的地区之一。近几十年来，通过在土耳其、伊拉克、叙利亚、约旦和以色列的发掘，人们对该地区的新石器时代的发展进行了大量的研究，这表明了当地从狩猎者到农民的发展轨迹有很大的差异。自20世纪70年代以来就没有被调查过的一个地区是伊朗。伊朗早期的工作，特别是在伊朗西部扎格罗斯山脉的工作，对探索新石器时代的转变至关重要，20世纪50-70年代在Asiab、Sarab、Ali Kosh和Ganj Dareh等遗址进行了挖掘。这些研究表明，新石器时代的社区在公元前7900年左右转变为定居的生活方式，并开始使用西南亚最早的烧制陶瓷。对植物和动物遗骸的研究表明，与谷类相比，群落更喜欢使用扁豆、豌豆和坚果，野生山羊被密集猎杀。自1979年以来，几乎没有关于伊朗新石器时代的田野调查，与西南亚和其他地区相比，这一地区的证据现在已经过时了几十年。人们一再表示遗憾的是，现代发掘未能从扎格罗人那里获得新的证据，无法为关于人类进化论和动植物开发与驯化起源的辩论提供新的证据。伊朗重新开放给英国和伊朗的联合研究为调查扎格罗人的新石器时代转型提供了宝贵的机会。中央扎格罗斯考古项目(CZAP)是英国和伊朗的一个项目，重点是新石器时代，由伦敦大学学院、雷丁大学和伊朗的布阿里·新浪大学共同运营。在英国科学院的支持下，2008年在新石器时代早期的两个遗址--阿巴德酋长和贾尼--进行了挖掘，取得了丰硕成果。14C年代表明，这些遗址大约在公元前10,000到7,500年间被占领。其目的是调查伊朗西部新石器时代早期的研究问题。早期的封闭期是如何发生的，是不是从临时性、季节性发展到永久性、终年性的？建筑是如何建造的，早期村落空间是如何使用和社会化的？在这个时代，仪式和人类埋葬在社会凝聚力中扮演了什么角色？采用了哪些畜牧业模式，包括密集狩猎、放牧和驯化扎格罗斯原产于野外的山羊？开发了哪些植物资源？是如何开发的？扎格罗斯新石器时代发展的绝对年表是什么？这些问题将通过对Sheikh-e Aad和Jan.遗址的挖掘来解决。这项研究的结果将对将伊朗扎格罗人置于西南亚新石器时代的转型中具有价值，并将作为应用跨学科方法解决考古问题的典范。这项研究将有助于将我们自己的物种置于生态和社会变化的丰富背景中，这是上一个冰河时代结束后新石器时代转变的特征，上一个冰河时代是人类历史上影响最大的事件之一。

One of the most significant transformations in history took place after the last Ice Age, from c. 14,000 BC (all dates calibrated BC), when human communities began to settle down in villages and to exploit intensively the resources around them, including plants and animals. In time people changed from being mobile hunter-foragers to settled farmers and stock-keepers, with domesticated crops and animals. Often called the Neolithic transformation, this fundamental development in the human condition steadily spread across much of the world and led ultimately, through surplus accumulation and social differentiation, to the emergence of towns, cities, and empires, thus shaping the modern world.One region where these developments occurred early is Southwest Asia (also called the Middle East or Near East). In recent decades there has been much work on Neolithic developments in this region through excavations in Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, and Israel, which have demonstrated the great variability in local trajectories of development from hunter-forager to village-farmer. One area that has not been investigated since the 1970s is Iran. Earlier work in Iran, particularly in the Zagros mountains of western Iran, was of key importance in exploring the Neolithic transformation, with excavations at sites such as Asiab, Sarab, Ali Kosh, and Ganj Dareh in the 1950s-70s. These researches indicated that Neolithic communities changed to sedentary lifestyles and began using fired ceramics, the earliest in Southwest Asia, by c. 7900 BC. Study of the plant and animal remains suggested that communities favoured use of lentils, peas, and nuts over cereals and that wild goat were intensively hunted. There was arguable evidence for domestication of goat by c. 7900 BC.Since 1979 there has been almost no fieldwork concerning the Iranian Neolithic and the evidence from this area is now decades out of date compared to the rest of Southwest Asia and beyond. There have been repeated expressions of regret that modern excavations have been unable to contribute new evidence from the Zagros to the debate on the origins of human sedentism and animal/plant exploitation and domestication.The re-opening of Iran to joint UK-Iranian research provides a valuable opportunity for investigation into the Neolithic transformation in the Zagros. The Central Zagros Archaeological Project (CZAP) is a UK-Iranian programme, focusing on the Neolithic period, run by UCL, University of Reading, and Bu Ali Sina University, Iran. Supported by the British Academy, excavations were conducted in 2008 at two Early Neolithic sites, Sheikh-e Abad and Jani, with highly productive results. 14C dates indicate that the sites were occupied from c. 10,000 to 7500 BC. The objectives are to investigate research questions within the Early Neolithic of western Iran. How did early sedentism take place and did it develop from temporary and seasonal to permanent and year-round? How was architecture constructed and how was early village space used and socialised? What was the role of ritual and human burial in social cohesion at this time? What modes of animal husbandry were employed, including intensive hunting, herding, and domestication of goats, native in the wild to the Zagros? What plant resources were exploited and how? What is the absolute chronology of development in the Zagros Neolithic? These questions will be addressed through excavation at the sites of Sheikh-e Abad and Jani.Results from this research will be of value in situating the Iranian Zagros within the Neolithic transformation in Southwest Asia, and will serve as a model for the application of inter-disciplinary approaches to archaeological questions. The research will assist in placing our own species within a rich context of ecological and social change that characterised the Neolithic transformation following the end of the last Ice Age, one of the most impactful episodes in human history.