Archaeometric Studies on Neolithic Bullet-Shaped Cores from East Chia Sabz, Seymareh, Luristan

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 Department of Geology, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran.

2 Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Conservation, Art University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran and Research Institute of Cultural Heritage and Tourism, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

The East Chia Sabz site is located on the bank of the Seymareh River in the middle of the Zagros Mountain chain. The site is among the few examples of the acramic Neolithic sites of the 8th millennium B.C. of Zagros which was archaeologically investigated during the rescue archaeological studies of the Seymareh dam. Numerous bullet-shaped cores were unearthed during the archaeological excavation of the site, from which twenty were investigated using XRD and XRF analyses. According to the results, most of the lithic artifacts demonstrate a similar mineralogy and geochemistry and are mainly composed of a cherty material with some impurities of calcite, chlorite, hematite and clay minerals. The presence of these impurities has lowered the cutting quality of these lithic materials. It seems that the cores had been provided from a local source. In this regard, the chert cobbles of the Amiran Formation that are also available from the river beds of the area could have been a significant source.
 

Keywords

References

Aghanabati, A.2006 Geology of Iran. Geological Survey and Mineral Exploration of Iran, 586p (in Persian).
Alavi, M. 2004 Regional stratigraphy of the Zagrosfold- thrust belt of Iran and its proforeland evolution. American Journal of Science , 304:1-20.
Amiri Bakhtiar, H. & K. A. NouraiiNezhad 2014 Stratigraphic Reconsideration of Zagros; The Amiran Formation, Oil and Gas Exploration and Production Monthly Journal, National Iranian Oil Company (in Persian), 118: 37-39.
Budd, D. A. & P. M. Harris 1990 Carbonate siliciclasticmixtures. SEPM Reprint Series, 26, Tulsa: Society
for Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists, 185–204.
Casciello, E; J. Vergés; E. Saura; G. Casini; N. Fernández; E. Blanc; S. Homke & D.W. Hunt 2009 Foldpatterns and multilayer rheology of the Lurestan Province,Zagros Simply Folded Belt, Iran. Journal of the GeologicalSociety,166:947-959.
Darabi, H.; R. Naseri; R. Young & H. Fazeli 2011 Absolute chronology of East Chia Sabz: a Pre-Pottery Neolithic Site in Western Iran. Documenta Praehistorica 38:255-265.
Darabi, H., and Glascock, M. D. 2013 The source of obsidian artefacts found at East Chia Sabz, Western Iran, Journal of
Archaeological Science 40:3804-3809.
Darabi, H. 2014 The Chipped Stone Industry of East Chia Sabz, Seymareh Dam: Technological Changes from Transitional Neolithic to Aceramic Neolithic Time in Western Iran, Pazhuhesh-ha-ye Bastanshenasi Iran (Archaeological Researches of Iran),
Hessari, M.; M. Amiri & S. M. Mirbolouki 2015 East Chia Sabz, the aceramic neolithic village of Seymareh, Zagros cultural distric, In Leili Niakan (ed.)Archaeological researches on the catchment area of the Seymareh dam , Iranian Cultural Heritage Research Institute Press, 25-33 (in Persian with ana English abstract).
Hessari, M. & Y. Nishiaki 2016 Radiocarbon dating of some samples from different sites of Iran , unpublished report, Art University of Isfahan.
Llewellyn, P. G. 1974 1:250,000 geologic map of Ilam-Kuhdasht, Oil Service Company of Iran, Geological and Exploration Devision, Tehran.
S. M. MirBolouki; M. Hessari & K. A. Niknami 2015 The Evolution of the bullet-shaped cores of the workshop No. 3 of the East Chia Sabz site, Seymareh of Luristan, Iran , In: Morteza Hessari (ed.) A Festschrift in honor of Dr. Sadegh Malek Shahmirzadi (2015), Iranian Cultural Heritage Organization, Tehran, Iran (in Persian).
Nasiri, Y.; A. Mahboubi; S. R. Mousavi Harami; A. R. Khazaii & B. Yousefi Yeganeh 2013 Reconstruction of the sedimentary environment of the terigenous siliceous- carbonates of Amiran Formation (Upper Cretaceous-Paleocene) in southwest of Luristan, Quarterly journal of Geology of Iran, Vol. 7, No. 27, 55-74 (in Persian with an English abstract).
Nasiri, Y.; S. R. Mousavi Harami; A. Mahboubi & B. Yousefi Yeganeh 2014 Identification of the constituent minerals of the shales of Amiran Formation and their origin using XRD method , Proceedings of the 32nd geoscience conference, Geological Survey and Mineral Exploration of Iran (inPersian with an English abstract).

Piriaii, A. 1996 Microfacies, petrography, and sedimentary environment of the Amiran Formation,Unpublished MSc thesis, Tarbiat Moalem University, Terhan (in Persian).
Pullar, J.1977 Early cultivation in the Zagros. IRAN 15:15-37.
Seyedein Boroujeni, S. R.2007 Archaeological Survey in the catchment area of the Seymareh Dam. Iranian Center for Archaeological Research, Tehran,Unpublished internal report (in Persian)
Stöcklin, J. & A. Setudehnia 1971 Stratigraphic lexicon of Iran. Geological Survey of Iran, Report No. 18, 376 p.
Zeder, M. A.2000 The Initial Domestication of Goats (Caprahircus) in the Zagros Mountains 10,000Years Ago. Science 5461:2254-2257
Iranian Journal of Archaeological Studies
Volume 6, Issue 1
February 2016
Pages 11-17

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics