Zagros Epipaleolithic Principal sites Zarzi Palegawra Warwasi Pa Sangar Gar-i-Khar map Zarzian sites Deb Zarzian sites in the Zagros map Barados-Zarzian Smith Baradostian & Zarzian Sites Zarzi photo Palegawra cave At Zarzi – Bruce Howe, Linda Braidwood, et al Palegawra Cave Zarzi Palegarwa Wahida’s map of Sulaimaniyah District and Zarzi-Palegawra The Zagros •Mountain environment (Iraq-Iran) •Most known sites in caves and rock shelters •No permanent settlements •Little or no ground stone •Cultural sequence: Baradostian (Aurignacian), Zarzian, “Pre-pottery Neolithic” • • Zarzi and Palegawra •Excavated by Dorothy Garrod in 1928 and Ghanim Wahida in 1971. Garrod-1 Zarzi Garrod plan Zarzi Garrod section Garrod’s plan and section of Zarzi Natufian Layer B Zarzii Wahida sections Wahida’s plan and section – Note sloping strata Zarzi-Wahida fig 3 Zarzi lithics Zarzi lithics-2 Garrod’s first description of Zarzian lithics Palegawra flint Palegawra Zarzian lithics Warwasi •Excavated in 1959 by Bruce Howe •A rockshelter that overlooks the Kermanshah Valley – an ecotone •Elevation is ca. 1500 m •Has sequence – posibly continuous –Mousterian, Baradostian, Zarzian •Hunting look-out for game on the plain below rockshelter Warwasi rockshelter Warwasi-6 Warwasi-Bruce and Liz Bruce Howe and Liz Morris at Warwasi, 1959 Warwasi in trench Warwasi- trench-1 Warwasi excavation trench in 1959 paleo prehist Deb Olzsewski Warwasi Zarzi (Deb) Warwasi-Zarzian-1 Deborah Olzsewski’s analysis of the lithics Garrod’s (1953) speculations •Kebaran: blunted-back blade;other types as in UP, but smaller; few bone tools •Zarzian is quite different from Levantine UP and, with a few shouldered points and Gravette-type backed blades, reminds of the Gravettian of the Ukraine •“May not the Zarzi culture…proved to have evolved…from the Russian source?” Pa Sangar •Excavated by Frank Hole and Kent Flannery in 1963 •A rockshelter in the Khorramabad Valley of the Central Zagros, near the town of Khorramabad •Sequence of Late Baradostian-Zarzian • • PA from below Pa Sangar rockshelter during excavation in 1963 PS-digging-1 PS skeleton Pa Sangar burial Excavation in three adjacent rectangles PS shells PS shells-2 Shells found in Zarzian layers in Pa Sangar Pa Sangar lithics Zarzian lithics from Pa Sangar Smith's KR lithics Zarzian lithics from the Central Zagros Smith's Epi Caspian Epipaleolithic lithics from the Caspian region Questions •Is there more variability in the Baradostian-Zarzian than recognized? •Why is this set of industries so homogeneous as compared with the Levant? •Why are Baradostian and Zarzian restricted to the central and northern Zagros? •Is there continuity between Baradostian and Zarzian (as Hole says) or a substantial gap? •Does a “broad spectrum” adaptation begin with the Zarzian? •Does the Zarzian play a role in the emergence of agriculture?