On the Stone Age archaeobotany of the Zagros Mountains

Abstract

I present two archaeobotanic assemblages from the Stone Age in the Zagros Mountains of Iran and describe what part of the vegetation was like in their vicinity. Environmental conditions signalled by the recovered taxa are investigated and their impact on the way people occupied the sites. The Upper Palaeolithic cave Ghar-e Boof, was in a favourable setting in the landscape for camping and revealed evidence for the consumption of vetch pulses. The tell Chogha Golan formed out of consecutive visits of Pre-Pottery Neolithic date that suggest its setting also enabled good access to resources and nourishment in the surrounding area. Due to the incompleteness of its excavation, various interpretations of the mode of residence and subsistence strategies during the midden occupation are compatible with its particular plant record. The assemblage does not let one distinguish between possible site use, habitation patterns and subsistence activities as either sedentary/agricultural or nomadic/hunter-gatherer. Because of the close resemblance in vegetation composition with the cave and comparable contemporary sites further West in the Levant, the validity of a weed community in the midden horizons is debated. Although inter-band relationships became more complex during the midden’s development, I hypothesise the visitors/occupants continued the hunting and gathering strategies and mobile traditions of the Upper Palaeolithic. The botanic record at both sites reflects their local surrounding vegetation and the results of hunter-gatherer subsistence activities, without that this agency seriously impacted the deposition of the wild flora from the encountered habitats.