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Early Neolithic occupation of the lowlands of south-western Iran: new evidence from Tapeh Mahtaj

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 November 2020

Hojjat Darabi ,
Pernille Bangsgaard ,
Amaia Arranz-Otaegui ,
Golnaz Ahadi  and
Jesper Olsen
Hojjat Darabi*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, Razi University, Iran
Pernille Bangsgaard
Affiliation:
Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Amaia Arranz-Otaegui
Affiliation:
Centre for the Study of Early Agricultural Societies, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Golnaz Ahadi
Affiliation:
Institute for Archaeological Sciences, University of Tübingen, Germany
Jesper Olsen
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Aarhus, Denmark
*
*Author for correspondence: ✉ hojjatdarabi@gmail.com
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Abstract

The lowlands of south-western Iran have been studied archaeologically since the mid nineteenth century. The Neolithic period, however, was mostly investigated in the 1960s and 1970s, when Early Neolithic settlements were reported in the western plains, positing the idea that the rest of the lowland plains had been populated after the Neolithic period. The excavation at Tapeh Mahtaj in 2015, however, has changed this view. This article provides inter-disciplinary results and discusses the nature of the Early Neolithic in the Iranian south-western lowlands, thereby enabling a better understanding of the emergence of early domestication and sedentism in the region specifically and in the Eastern Fertile Crescent.

Keywords

lowland south-western IranTapeh MahtajEarly NeolithicPersian Gulf rising
Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 95 , Issue 379 , February 2021 , pp. 27 - 44
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Antiquity Publications Ltd.

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