The Early Neolithic of the Eastern Fertile Crescent  
Excavations at Bestansur and Shimshara, Iraqi Kurdistan
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ISBN: 9781789255270
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The Eastern Fertile Crescent region of western Iran and eastern Iraq hosted major developments in the transition from hunter-forager to farmer-herder lifestyles through the Early Neolithic period, 10,000-7000 BC. Within the scope of the Central Zagros Archaeological Project, excavations have been conducted since 2012 at two Early Neolithic sites in the Kurdistan region of Iraq: Bestansur and Shimshara. Bestansur represents an early stage in the transition to sedentary, farming life, where the inhabitants pursued a mixed strategy of hunting, foraging, herding and cultivating, maximising the new opportunities afforded by the warmer, wetter climate of the Early Holocene. They also constructed substantial buildings of mudbrick, including a major building with a minimum of 65 human individuals, mainly infants, buried under its floor in association with hundreds of beads. These human remains provide new insights into mortuary practices, demography, diet and disease during the early stages of sedentarisation. The material culture of Bestansur and Shimshara is rich in imported items such as obsidian, carnelian and sea-shells, indicating the extent to which Early Neolithic communities were networked across the Eastern Fertile Crescent and beyond. This volume includes final reports by a large-scale interdisciplinary team on all aspects of the results from excavations at Bestansur and Shimshara, through application of state-of-the-art scientific techniques, methods and analyses. The net result is to re-emphasise the enormous significance of the Eastern Fertile Crescent in one of the most important episodes in human history: the Neolithic transition.
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The Eastern Fertile Crescent region of western Iran and eastern Iraq hosted major developments in the transition from hunter-forager to farmer-herder lifestyles through the Early Neolithic period, 10,000-7000 BC. Within the scope of the Central Zagros Archaeological Project, excavations have been conducted since 2012 at two Early Neolithic sites in the Kurdistan region of Iraq: Bestansur and Shimshara. Bestansur represents an early stage in the transition to sedentary, farming life, where the inhabitants pursued a mixed strategy of hunting, foraging, herding and cultivating, maximising the new opportunities afforded by the warmer, wetter climate of the Early Holocene. They also constructed substantial buildings of mudbrick, including a major building with a minimum of 65 human individuals, mainly infants, buried under its floor in association with hundreds of beads. These human remains provide new insights into mortuary practices, demography, diet and disease during the early stages of sedentarisation. The material culture of Bestansur and Shimshara is rich in imported items such as obsidian, carnelian and sea-shells, indicating the extent to which Early Neolithic communities were networked across the Eastern Fertile Crescent and beyond. This volume includes final reports by a large-scale interdisciplinary team on all aspects of the results from excavations at Bestansur and Shimshara, through application of state-of-the-art scientific techniques, methods and analyses. The net result is to re-emphasise the enormous significance of the Eastern Fertile Crescent in one of the most important episodes in human history: the Neolithic transition.
Table of contents
  • Cover
  • Title
  • Copyright
  • Contents
  • Contributors
  • Preface and Acknowledgements
  • PART 1: INTRODUCTION: 1. The Neolithic transition in the Eastern Fertile Crescent: project themes, aims and objectives
    • Roger Matthews, Wendy Matthews, Amy Richardson and Kamal Rasheed Raheem
  • PART 2: ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL FIELDWORK: 2. Excavation, recording and sampling methodologies
    • Amy Richardson, Roger Matthews and Wendy Matthews
  • 3. Palaeoclimate and environment of the Iraqi Central Zagros
    • Matt Bosomworth, Dominik Fleitmann and Maria Rabbani
  • 4. Intensive field survey in the Zarzi Region
    • Roger Matthews, Wendy Matthews, Amy Richardson and Kamal Raeuf Aziz
  • 5. Fluxgate gradiometry survey at Bestansur
    • David Thornley
  • 6. Geoarchaeological borehole, sediment and microfossil analyses at Bestansur
    • Maria Rabbani, Alessandro Guaggenti, Chris Green, Rob Batchelor and Wendy Matthews
  • 7. Ethnoarchaeological research in Bestansur: insights into vegetation, land-use, animals and animal dung
    • Sarah Elliott, Robin Bendrey, Jade Whitlam and Kamal Raeuf Aziz
  • 8. Conservation
    • Jessica S. Johnson
  • 9. Excavations and contextual analyses: Bestansur
    • Amy Richardson, Roger Matthews, Wendy Matthews, Sam Walsh, Kamal Raeuf Aziz and Adam Stone
  • 10. Excavations and contextual analyses: Shimshara
    • Wendy Matthews, Roger Matthews, Kamal Raeuf Aziz and Amy Richardson
  • 11. Radiocarbon dating of Bestansur and Shimshara
    • Pascal Flohr, Roger Matthews, Wendy Matthews, Amy Richardson and Dominik Fleitmann
  • PART 3: MICRO-CONTEXTUAL AND BIOARCHAEOLOGICAL APPROACHES: 12. Sustainability of early sedentary agricultural communities: new insights from high-resolution microstratigraphic and micromorphological analyses
    • Wendy Matthews
  • 13. Integrated micro-analysis of the built environment and resource use: high-resolution microscopy and geochemical, mineralogical, phytolith and biomolecular approaches
    • Wendy Matthews, Aroa García-Suárez, Marta Portillo, Chris Speed, Georgia Allistone, Ian Bull, Jessica Godleman and Matthew Almond
  • 14. Microarchaeology: the small traces of Neolithic activities
    • Ingrid Iversen
  • 15. Animal remains and human-animal-environment relationships at Early Neolithic Bestansur and Shimshara
    • Robin Bendrey, Wim Van Neer, Salvador Bailon, Juan Rofes, Jeremy Herman, Mel Morlin and Tom Moore
  • 16. Early Neolithic animal management and ecology: integrated analysis of faecal material
    • Sarah Elliott with contributions from Wendy Matthews and Ian Bull
  • 17. Bestansur molluscs: regional context and local activities
    • Ingrid Iversen
  • 18. The charred plant remains from Early Neolithic levels at Bestansur and Shimshara
    • Jade Whitlam, Charlotte Diffey, Amy Bogaard and Mike Charles
  • 19. Human remains from Bestansur: demography, diet and health
    • Sam Walsh
  • PART 4: MATERIAL CULTURE AND COMMUNITY ARCHAEOLOGY: 20. Early Neolithic chipped stone worlds of Bestansur and Shimshara
    • Roger Matthews, Amy Richardson and Osamu Maeda
  • 21. Material culture and networks of Bestansur and Shimshara
    • Amy Richardson
  • 22. Ground stone tools and technologies
    • David Mudd
  • 23. Public archaeology at Bestansur
    • Rhi Smith, Othman Fattah, Hero Salih, Hawar Hawas, Mathew Britten, Amy Richardson and Wendy Matthews
  • PART 5: THEMATIC SYNTHESIS AND DISCUSSION: 24. The Neolithic transition in the Eastern Fertile Crescent: thematic synthesis and discussion
    • Wendy Matthews, Roger Matthews, Amy Richardson and Kamal Rasheed Raheem
  • Bibliography
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