Humans and fire: changing relations in early agricultural and built environments in the Zagros, Iran, Iraq

Fire-centred studies have recently been highlighted as powerful avenues for investigation of energy flows and relations between humans, materials, environments and other species. The aim in this paper is to evaluate this potential first by reviewing the diverse theories and methods that can be applied to investigate the ecological and social significance of anthropogenic fire, and second by applying these to new and existing data sets in archaeology. This paper examines how fire-centred approaches can inform on one of the most significant step-changes in human lifeways and inter-relations with environment and other species – the transition from mobile hunting-gathering to more sedentary agriculture in a key heartland of change, the Zagros region of Iraq and Iran, c. 12,000–8,000 BP. In the review and case studies multiple links are investigated between human fire use and environment, ecology, energy use, technology, the built environment, health, social roles and relations, cultural practices and catastrophic events

Spatial and temporal analysis of land cover and landscape structure change in Zagros Forests

The Zagros oak forests in Western Iran are critically important to the sustainability of the region. These forests have undergone dramatic declines in recent decades. We evaluated the utility of the non-parametric Random Forest classification algorithm for land cover classification of Zagros landscapes, and selected the best spatial and spectral predictive variables. The algorithm resulted in high overall classification accuracies (>85%) and also equivalent classification accuracies for the datasets from the three different sensors. We evaluated the associations between trends in forest area and structure with trends in socioeconomic and climatic conditions, to identify the most likely driving forces creating deforestation and landscape structure change. We used available socioeconomic (urban and rural population, and rural income), and climatic (mean annual rainfall and mean annual temperature) data for two provinces in northern Zagros. The most correlated driving force of forest area loss was urban population, and climatic variables to a lesser extent. Landscape structure changes were more closely associated with rural population. We examined the effects of scale changes on the results from spatial pattern analysis. We assessed the impacts of eight years of protection in a protected area in northern Zagros at two different scales (both grain and extent). The effects of protection on the amount and structure of forests was scale dependent. We evaluated the nature and magnitude of changes in forest area and structure over the entire Zagros region from 1972 to 2009. We divided the Zagros region in 167 Landscape Units and developed two measures— Deforestation Sensitivity (DS) and Connectivity Sensitivity (CS) — for each landscape unit as the percent of the time steps that forest area and ECA experienced a decrease of greater than 10% in either measure. A considerable loss in forest area and connectivity was detected, but no sudden (nonlinear) changes were detected at the spatial and temporal scale of the study. Connectivity loss occurred more rapidly than forest loss due to the loss of connecting patches. More connectivity was lost in southern Zagros due to climatic differences and different forms of traditional land use.

Geochemical investigation, Oil-Oil and Oil-Source Rock Correlation in the Dezful Embayment, Marun Oilfield, Zagros, Iran

Peer reviewed

Geochemical investigation, Oil-Oil and Oil-Source Rock Correlation in the Dezful Embayment, Marun Oilfield, Zagros, Iran

Peer reviewed

Bronze and iron weapons from Luristan

The 30,000 km2 province of Luristan is situated in western Iran and encompasses the upper valleys of the Zagros Mountains. Even today, local tribesmen inhabit Luristan with their settlement patterns similar to ancient times. Several scientific excavations in the Luristan region have uncovered evidence that this particular region was a major attraction for human settlements from the Paleolithic era onwards. In Ancient Iran, the existence of rich mines together with discoveries made by innovative and inventive artisans spurred the growth of the metalworking culture as an art and a skill among early human communities in Ancient Iran. The art of Luristan can be described as the art of nomadic herdsmen and horsemen with an emphasis on the crafting of small, easily portable objects, among these a number of bronze daggers, swords and other weapons. Throughout its history, Luristan was never an ethnic or political entity because Luristan has been occupied by various tribes and races, throughout its history. Next to Elamites, other tribes who inhabited Luristan were the Hurrians, Lullubians, Kutians, and Kassites. As local tribesmen of Luristan were illiterate, information about their history can only be partially reconstructed from the literature of their southern neighbors: the Elamites and Babylonians. Luristan smiths made weapons for both civilizations. The region was later invaded by Assyrians and finally the Iranians settled the area and absorbed the local tribes. Following an accidental find by the local inhabitants in Luristan in 1928 CE, a number of unlawful diggings reveal a number of metal objects made of bronze and iron that showed a high level of craftsmanship. These objects were offered for sale on the art market with fancy names to hide their origin. The subsequent scientific excavations several decades after the initial discovery provided fascinating information about the culture of Luristan. The metalworking art of Luristan spans a time period from the third millennium BC to the Iron Age. The artifacts from Luristan seem to possess many unique and distinctive qualities, and are especially noteworthy for the apparently endless, intricate diversity and detail that they characteristically depict. The bronze artifacts found in or attributed to Luristan can be each be classed under five separate heads: a) arms and armor, including swords, dirks, daggers, axes, mace heads, spearheads, shields, quiver plaques, protective bronze girdles, helmets; b) implements related to horsemanship, including decorative or ornamental objects for horses as well as bits and snaffles; c) items for personal adornment and hygiene, including anklets, bangles, bracelets, finger rings, earrings and tweezers; d) ceremonial and ritual objects, including talismans, idols, pins, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines; and e) utilitarian objects comprising various vessels and tools, including beakers, bowls and jugs. The scope of this article is limited to a discussion of the bronze and iron weapons made in Luristan. The techniques used for making bronze weapons in Luristan included: casting with open molds, casting with close molds, and casting with lost wax process. For metal sheets used for quiver plaques and bronze protective belts, the hammering technique was used. Edged weapons made in Luristan can be classified into: a) daggers, dirks, and swords with tangs; b) daggers, dirks, and swords with flanges; and c) daggers, dirks, and swords with cast-on hilts. Next to bronze, iron was also used for making weapons such as the characteristic weapon from this area, the iron mask sword.

Critical reappraisal of Late Mesozoic-Cenozoic Central and North Atlantic, Caribbean and Mediterranean evolution

(l) The Pacific basin (Pacific area) may be regarded as moving eastwards like a double zip fastener relative to the continents and their respective plates (Pangaea area): opening in the East and closing in the West. This movement is tracked by a continuous mountain belt, the collision ages of which increase westwards. (2) The relative movements between the Pacific area and the Pangaea area in the W-E/E-W direction are generated by tidal forces (principle of hypocycloid gearing), whereby the lower mantle and the Pacific basin or area (Pacific crust = roof of the lower mantle?) rotate somewhat faster eastwards around the Earth's spin axis relative to the upper mantle/crust system with the continents and their respective plates (Pangaea area) (differential rotation). (3) These relative West to East/East to West displacements produce a perpetually existing sequence of distinct styles of opening and closing ocean basins, exemplified by the present East to West arrangement of ocean basins around the globe (Oceanic or Wilson Cycle: Rift/Red Sea style; Atlantic style; Mediterranean/Caribbean style as eastwards propagating tongue of the Pacific basin; Pacific style; Collision/Himalayas style). This sequence of ocean styles, of which the Pacific ocean is a part, moves eastwards with the lower mantle relative to the continents and the upper-mantle/crust of the Pangaea area. (4) Similarly, the collisional mountain belt extending westwards from the equator to the West of the Pacific and representing a chronological sequence of collision zones (sequential collisions) in the wake of the passing of the Pacific basin double zip fastener, may also be described as recording the history of oceans and their continental margins in the form of successive Wilson Cycles. (5) Every 200 to 250 m.y. the Pacific basin double zip fastener, the sequence of ocean styles of the Wilson Cycle and the eastwards growing collisional mountain belt in their wake complete one lap around the Earth. Two East drift lappings of 400 to 500 m.y. produce a two-lap collisional mountain belt spiral around a supercontinent in one hemisphere (North or South Pangaea). The Earth's history is subdivided into alternating North Pangaea growth/South Pangaea breakup eras and South Pangaea growth/North Pangaea breakup eras. Older North and South Pangaeas and their collisional mountain belt spirals may be reconstructed by rotating back the continents and orogenic fragments of a broken spiral (e.g. South Pangaea, Gondwana) to their previous Pangaea growth era orientations. In the resulting collisional mountain belt spiral, pieced together from orogenic segments and fragments, the collision ages have to increase successively towards the West. (6) With its current western margin orientated in a West-East direction North America must have collided during the Late Cretaceous Laramide orogeny with the northern margin of South America (Caribbean Andes) at the equator to the West of the Late Mesozoic Pacific. During post-Laramide times it must have rotated clockwise into its present orientation. The eastern margin of North America has never been attached to the western margin of North Africa but only to the western margin of Europe. (7) Due to migration eastwards of the sequence of ocean styles of the Wilson Cycle, relative to a distinct plate tectonic setting of an ocean, a continent or continental margin, a future or later evolutionary style at the Earth's surface is always depicted in a setting simultaneously developed further to the West and a past or earlier style in a setting simultaneously occurring further to the East. In consequence, ahigh probability exists that up to the Early Tertiary, Greenland (the ArabiaofSouth America?) occupied a plate tectonic setting which is comparable to the current setting of Arabia (the Greenland of Africa?). The Late Cretaceous/Early Tertiary Eureka collision zone (Eureka orogeny) at the northern margin of the Greenland Plate and on some of the Canadian Arctic Islands is comparable with the Middle to Late Tertiary Taurus-Bitlis-Zagros collision zone at the northern margin of the Arabian Plate.

Care in the community? Interpretations of a fractured goat bone from Neolithic Jarmo, Iraq

A case study of a goat metatarsal exhibiting a complex diaphyseal fracture from Pottery Neolithic Jarmo in the Central Zagros region of the eastern Fertile Crescent is here described and analysed. The Central Zagros is one of the areas with the earliest evidence for goat domestication. The significance of the pathology may be viewed within the context of domestic goat ecology in the landscape of Jarmo, potentially impacting browsing behaviour (goats raise themselves on their hind limbs to browse) and movement with the herd in the landscape (the terrain around Jarmo is very steep in places, which would be difficult for an animal to navigate on three legs). In the light of this, possible levels of care that the Neolithic human community may have afforded this animal are discussed – from a situation where therapeutic intervention may have occurred, to one of stall confinement of the animal to allow the pathology to heal, to a position of simple awareness of the condition – and how this impacts on our understanding of changes in attitudes towards animals through the process of domestication.

Preliminary ethnoarchaeological research on modern animal husbandry in Bestansur, Iraqi Kurdistan: integrating animal, plant and environmental data

This paper presents preliminary results from an ethnoarchaeological study of animal husbandry in the modern village of Bestansur, situated in the lower Zagros Mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan. This research explores how modern families use and manage their livestock within the local landscape and identifies traces of this use. The aim is to provide the groundwork for future archaeological investigations focusing on the nearby Neolithic site of Bestansur. This is based on the premise that modern behaviours can suggest testable patterns for past practices within the same functional and ecological domains. Semi-structured interviews conducted with villagers from several households provided large amounts of information on modern behaviours that helped direct data collection, and which also illustrate notable shifts in practices and use of the local landscape over time. Strontium isotope analysis of modern plant material demonstrates that a measurable variation exists between the alluvial floodplain and the lower foothills, while analysis of modern dung samples shows clear variation between sheep/goat and cow dung, in terms of numbers of faecal spherulites. These results are specific to the local environment of Bestansur and can be used for evaluating and contextualising archaeological evidence as well as providing modern reference material for comparative purposes.

Investigation of the genetic diversity of domestic Capra hircus breeds reared within an early goat domestication area in Iran

Background: Iran is an area of particular interest for investigating goat diversity. Archaeological remains indicate early goat domestication (about 10 000 years ago) in the Iranian Zagros Mountains as well as in the high Euphrates valley and southeastern Anatolia. In addition, mitochondrial DNA data of domestic goats and wild ancestors (C. aegagrusor bezoar) suggest a pre-domestication management of wild populations in southern Zagros and central Iranian Plateau. In this study genetic diversity was assessed in seven Iranian native goat breeds, namely Markhoz, Najdi, Taleshi, Khalkhali, Naini, native Abadeh and Turki-Ghashghaei. A total of 317 animals were characterized using 14 microsatellite loci. Two Pakistani goat populations, Pahari and Teddy, were genotyped for comparison.Results: Iranian goats possess a remarkable genetic diversity (average expected heterozygosity of 0.671 across loci, 10.7 alleles per locus) mainly accounted for by the within-breed component (G(ST) = 5.9%). Positive and highly significant F-IS values in the Naini, Turki-Ghashghaei, Abadeh and Markhoz breeds indicate some level of inbreeding in these populations. Multivariate analyses cluster Iranian goats into northern, central and western groups, with the western breeds relatively distinct from the others. Pakistani breeds show some relationship with Iranian populations, even if their position is not consistent across analyses. Gene flow was higher within regions (west, north, central) compared to between regions but particularly low between the western and the other two regions, probably due to the isolating topography of the Zagros mountain range. The Turki-Ghashghaei, Najdi and Abadeh breeds are reared in geographic areas where mtDNA provided evidence of early domestication. These breeds are highly variable, located on basal short branches in the neighbor-joining tree, close to the origin of the principal component analysis plot and, although highly admixed, they are quite distinct from those reared on the western side of the Zagros mountain range.Conclusions: These observations call for further investigation of the nuclear DNA diversity of these breeds within a much wider geographic context to confirm or re-discuss the current hypothesis (based on maternal lineage data) of an almost exclusive contribution of the eastern Anatolian bezoar to the domestic goat gene pool.

Thermochronological evolution of the Eastern Pontides and the Eastern Anatolian Plateau and NW Lesser Caucasus (Turkey, Georgia, Armenia)

The analysis of apatite fission tracks is applied to the study of the syn- and post-collisional thermochronological evolution of a vast area that includes the Eastern Pontides, their continuation in the Lesser Caucasus of Georgia (Adjara-Trialeti zone) and northern Armenia, and the eastern Anatolian Plateau. The resulting database is then integrated with the data presented by Okay et al. (2010) for the Bitlis Pütürge Massif, i.e. the western portion of the Bitlis-Zagros collision zone between Arabia and Eurasia. The mid-Miocene exhumation episode along the Black Sea coast and Lesser Caucasus of Armenia documented in this dissertation mirrors the age of collision between the Eurasian and Arabian plates along the Bitlis suture zone. We argue that tectonic stresses generated along the Bitlis collision zone were transmitted northward across eastern Anatolia and focused (i) at the rheological boundary between the Anatolian continental lithosphere and the (quasi)oceanic lithosphere of the Black Sea, and (ii) along major pre-existing discontinuities like the Sevan-Akera suture zone.The integration of both present-day crustal dynamics (GPS-derived kinematics and distribution of seismicity) and thermochronological data presented in this paper provides a comparison between short- and long-term deformation patterns for the entire eastern Anatolia-Transcaucasian region. Two successive stages of Neogene deformation of the northern foreland of the Arabia-Eurasia collision zone can be inferred. (i) Early and Middle Miocene: continental deformation was concentrated along the Arabia-Eurasia (Bitlis) collision zone but tectonic stress was also transferred northward across eastern Anatolia, focusing along the eastern Black Sea continent-ocean rheological transition and along major pre-existing structural discontinuities. (ii) Since Late-Middle Miocene time the westward translation of Anatolia and the activation of the North and Eastern Anatolian Fault systems have reduced efficient northward stress transfer.

Geologic-hydrologic setting and surface sedimentology in the Persian Gulf

1. Morphology and sedimentation The deepest parts of the Persian Gulf lie off the Iranian coast. Several swells separate the Persian Gulf into the Western Basin, the Central Basin and the Strait of Hormuz, which leads without noticeable morphological interruption onto the Biaban Shelf; the latter gradually drops off towards the continental slope, which itself has a strongly subdivided morphology. The sediment distribution in the Western Basin runs parallel to the basin's axis to a depth of 50 -60 m. This is caused by the shallow and uniform slope of the Iranian coast into the Western Basin, by clear exposure of the area to the Shamal-Winds and by tidal currents parallel to the basin's axis. Most other parameters also show isolines parallel to the coast line. Data from the sediment analyses show a net transport which extends out along the Central Swell: coarse fraction > 63 µ, total carbonate content, carbonate in fine fractions < 2 µ, 2-6 µ and 20-63 µ, calcite-aragonite ratios in the fine fractions 2-6 µ and 20-63 µ and quartz-dolomite ratios in fine fraction 2-6 µ. At least the uppermost 10-40 m of this sediment is late Holocene. This implies sedimentation rates of several meters per 1000 years. The slope from the Iranian coast into the Central Basin (max. depth 100 m) is generally steeper, with interspersed islands and flats. Both facts tend to disturb a sediment dustribition parallel to the basin's axis over extensive areas and may preclude any such trend from being detected by the methods and sample net used. The spatial distribution of the coarse fraction, however, seems to indicate sediment transport at greater water depths perpendicular to the basin's long axis and along the steepest gradients well into the Central Basin. The flats of the Central Basin have a sediment cover distinctly different from those of the deeper basin areas. Characteristic parameters are the extremely high percentages of coarse grained sediments, total content of carbonate CO2 over 40, low total organic carbon content, (however values are high if calculated on the basis of the < 63 µ fraction), low total N-content, and low C/N ratios. These characteristics probably result from the absence of any terrigenous material being brought in as well as from exposure to wave action. Finest terrigenous material is deposited in the innermost protected part of the Hormuz Bay. In the deep channel cut into the Biaban Shelf which carries the Persian Gulf out-flow water to the Indian Ocean, no fine grained sediment is deposited as shown by grain size data. 2. Geographic settings and sedimentation Flat lands border the Arabian coast of the Persian Gulf except for the Oman region. The high and steep Zagros Mountains form the Iranian coastline. Flat topography in combination with generally low precipitation precludes fluviatile sediment being added from the South. Inorganic and biogenic carbonates accumulating under low sedimentation rates are dominant on the shallow Arabic Shelf and the slopes into the Western and Central Basins. The fluviatile sediment brought in from the Iranian side, however decisively determine the composition of the Holocene sediment cover in the Persian Gulf and on the Biaban Shelf. Holocene sediments extend 20-30 km seaward into the Western Basin and about 25 km on to the Biaban Shelf. As mentioned before, sedimentation rates are of several meters/1000 years. The rocks exposed in the hinterland influence the sediments. According to our data the Redbeds of the Zagros Mountains determine the colour of the very fine grained sediments near the Iranian Coast of the Persian Gulf. To the West of Hormuz, addition of carbonate minerals is particularly high. Dolomite and protodolomite, deposited only in this area, as well as palygorskite, have proven to be excellent trace minerals. To the East of Hormuz, the supply of terrigenous carbonates is considerably lower. Clay minerals appear to bring in inorganically bound nitrogen thus lowering the C/N ratio in these sediments especially off river mouths. 3. Climate and sedimentation The Persian Gulf is located in a climatically arid region. This directly affects sedimentation through increased wind action and the infrequent but heavy rainfalls which cause flash floods. Such flash floods could be responsible for transporting sedheats into the Central Basin in a direction perpendicular to the Gulf's axis. Eolian influx is difficult to asses from our data; however, it probably is of minor importance from the Iranian side and may add, at the most, a few centimeters of fine sediment per 1000 years. 4. Hydrology and sedimentation High water temperatures favor inorganic carbonate precipitation in southern margin of the Gulf, and probably on the flats, as well as biogenic carbonate production in general. High evaporation plus low water inflow through rivers and precipitation cause a circulation pattern that is typical for epicontinental seas within the arid climate region. Surface water flows in from the adjoining ocean, in this case the Indian Ocean and sinks to the bottom of the Persian Gulf mainly in the northern part of the Western Basin, on the "Mesopotamischer Flachschelf" ard probably in the area of the "Arabischer Flachschelf". This sinking water continually rejuvenates the bottom out-flow water. The inflowing surface water from the Indian Ocean brings organic matter into the Persian Gulf, additional nutrients are added by the "fresh" upwelling waters of the Gulf of Oman. Both nutrients and organic matter diminish very rapidly as the water moves into the Persian Gulf. This depletion of nutrients and organic matter is the reasonfor generally low organic carbon contents of the Persian Gulf sediments. The Central Swell represents a distinct boundary, to the west of which the organic carbon content are lower than to the east when sediment samples of similar grain size distribution are compared. The outflow carries well oxygenated water over the bottom of the Persian Gulf and the resulting oxidation further decreases the content of organic matter. In the Masandam-Channel and in the Biaban-Shelf channel, the outflowing water prevents deposition of fine material and transports sediment particles well beyond the shelf margin. The outflowing water remains at a depth of 200-300 m depending on its density and releases ist suspending sediment load to the ocean floor, irrespectative of the bottom morphology. This is reflected in several parameters in which the sediments from beneath the outflow differ from nearby sediments not affected by the outflowing water. High carbonate content of total samples and of the individual size fraction as well as high aragonite and dolomite contents of individual size fractions characterize the sediment beneath the outflowing water. The tidal currents, which avt more or less parallel to the Gulf's axis, favor mixing of the water masses, they rework sediments at velocities reported here. This fact enlarges to a certain degree the extent of our interfaces which are based on only a few sample points (Persian Gulf and Biaban Shelf one sample per 620 km**2, continental slope one sample per 1000 km**2). The water on the continental slope shows and oxygen minimum at 200-1200 m which favors preservation of organically-bound carbon in the sediment. The low pH-values may even permit dissolution of carbonate minerals.