Abstract:
The Zagros Mountains lie not far away from the junction of Africa,
southwestern Asia, and Europe. During the late Pleistocene, the presence of rich
archaeological and paleoanthropological records has confirmed that during the
Late Pleistocene, these mountains and their valleys constituted biographic
corridors and migration routes for different groups of hominins, including
Neanderthals and Anatomically Modern Humans (AMHs). Despite the strategic
location of the southern Zagros of Iran, alongside the Mesopotamian plains and
the Persian Gulf, the region has remained considerably understudied in
comparison to the central and northern Zagros. Since 2004, the Tübingen-Iranian
Stone Age Research Project (TISARP) team has focused on investigating and
documenting the Paleolithic record of the Dasht-e Rostam region, in Fars
Province (Iran). Excavations at Ghar-e Boof have revealed one of the longest
Pleistocene sequences in the Zagros Mountains, which ranges from ca. 81 to 35
kya, and has demonstrated the potential of the southern Zagros to provide new
insights on settlement dynamics, techno-cultural adaptations, and the timing of
Middle and Upper Paleolithic transition. Yet, little is known about the foraging
conditions and subsistence strategies of the MP and early UP hominins that lived
across the region. Here I summarize the results of the zooarchaeological and
taphonomic analyses of the Late Pleistocene faunal assemblages from Ghar-e
Boof in order to reconstruct the paleoenvironment and hominin subsistence
strategies, and examine changes in prey choice and site occupation intensity
through time. In addition, I discuss the archaeological implications of my
investigation within the context of the Middle-to-Upper Paleolithic transition
across Eurasia.
Based on the representation of small vertebrate taxa and their ecological
requirements, the landscape surrounding Ghar-e Boof was mainly dominated by
warm, dry conditions, open meadows, and rocky slopes. Despite the aridity, there
were also some water sources nearby, and the vegetation cover consisted mostly
of grass and shrubs. Even though the environmental conditions of the Zagros are
very diverse due to their complex topography, the available paleoenvironmental
evidence from the region indicates that both MP and UP hominins inhabited and
exploited similar mosaic environments across the entire range of the Zagros
Mountains. Changes in the small mammal record of Ghar-e Boof point to a shift towards colder and/or dryer conditions around 48-45 kya, which seems to be
coeval with the Heinrich event 5, and may have impacted demographic turnovers
and cultural adaptations regionally.
I also demonstrated that the different hominins that occupied Ghar-e Boof
during the Late Pleistocene maximized their foraging efforts by targeting the
higher-ranked prey available in the nearby landscape, namely caprines. MP and
UP foragers also harvested tortoises and hunted gazelles for dietary purposes,
and on occasion they exploited carnivores, most likely for their pelts. Although
there is no unequivocal evidence for the use of small, fast-moving prey during the
MP at Ghar-e Boof, early UP Rostamian hunter-gatherers did hunt partridges,
and possibly fish. My research has shown that even if hominins relied mainly on
ungulates to meet their daily nutritional demands of meat and marrow during the
MP and early UP, their animal subsistence practices were more diversified than
previously recognized in the Zagros. The use of different types of prey and
resources allowed people of different sexes, ages, and diverse skills to actively
contribute to the subsistence economy of the group.
From a diachronic perspective, the exploitation of lower-ranked animals,
mostly partridges, relative to small, slow-moving, or easy-to-capture tortoises
increased over time. The shift in prey choice does not appear to be the result of
environmental changes. Additionally, the adoption of a new technology and more
efficient procurement methods might have lowered the capture costs of
partridges. However, there is also an increase in site occupation intensity over
the sequence, which can be tied to either larger groups of people living at the
site, longer periods of occupation, more frequent visits, or a combination of some,
if not all, of these possibilities. Changes in occupation intensity and subsistence
strategies at Ghar-e Boof are consistent with resource intensification due to
population growth and higher hunting pressures during the early UP, similar to
what many scholars have suggested for other parts of Eurasia, such as the
Levant and the Balkans. Thus, my research evinces the complex interplay of
shifts in demography, technology, socioeconomic decisions, mobility, and
occupational patterns that accompanied the onset of the early UP cultural
traditions and the definitive arrival of AMHs across the Zagros Mountains and the
rest of Eurasia.
Zagros Mountains, Pleistocene, Upper Paleolithic, Middle Paleolithic, Prey Choice Model, Site Occupation intensity