Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 44 (1) 2016 document link DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2016.44.1.027-038

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CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN THE LATE PLEISTOCENE LITHIC INDUSTRIES OF THE CENTRAL ZAGROS: A TYPO-TECHNOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF LITHIC ASSEMBLAGES FROM GHAR-E KHAR CAVE, BISOTUN, IRAN

S. Shidrang¹, F. Biglari², J.-G. Bordes¹, and J. Jaubert¹

¹Universite de Bordeaux,Batiment B8, Allee Geoffroy Saint Hilaire, CS 50023, 33615 PESSAC CEDEX, France

²National Museum of Iran, 30 Tir St., Emam Khomaini Ave., Tehran, Iran

This paper presents a typo-technological analysis of the lithic assemblages from the 1965 test excavation of Khar Cave in Kermanshah region of Central Zagros, Iran. Khar Cave is one of the rare excavated Paleolithic sites in Zagros region with a stratifi ed sequence encompassing archaeological materials from both MIS 2 and MIS 3. The research is based on the typo-technological characteristics of artifacts from both parts of the Khar Cave lithic assemblage, which are stored in the National Museum of Iran and in Montreal University, and have not been properly studied in terms of technology. The paper addresses the issue of the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition in Zagros; technological characteristics of Baradostian/Zagros Aurignacian industries; and the possibility of industrial evolution from the late Baradostian to the early Zarzian. Despite the small size of the assemblage, the analysis illustrates a sequence of changes and continuity in core-reduction strategies and tool-production in Khar Cave, beginning in the Late Middle Paleolithic to Epipaleolithic. However, from the current state of data, the paper concludes that our technological data supporting the hypothesis of Middle-to-Upper-Paleolithic continuity in Zagros are insuffi cient, and we can neither confi rm nor reject the possibility of a gradual transition in this region.

Keywords: MP-UP Transition, Zagros Mousterian, Baradostian, Zagros Aurignacian, Zarzian, Central Zagros

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