New Evidence of a Late Pleistocene Occupation on the Southern Slopes of the Alborz Mountains

ABSTRACT

Most of our knowledge on the Palaeolithic of the Iranian Plateau derives from a scientific focus on the Zagros Mountains. In recent years, several Palaeolithic research projects have been conducted in different parts of Iran, including southern piedmonts of the Alborz Mountains and the Iranian Central Plateau. Here, we present a Palaeolithic occupation in a rockshelter on the southern slopes of the Alborz Mountains. The Palaeolithic artefacts have been recovered from at least three looters' pits at the center of the rockshelter. The site is significant at least for two aspects: firstly, due to the fact that the southern slopes of the Alborz Mountains have not yet been identified for the Palaeolithic, the site provides unique data on the Iranian Plateau. Secondly, the location of the site, and the physiogeographic and lithic analyses of Sorheh are invaluable for the reconstruction of hominin behavior and settlement patterns in this under-researched area.

KEYWORDS:

• Central Iranian Plateau
• Alborz Mountains
• West-Central Zagros
• Middle Palaeolithic
• Levallois

Acknowledgement

The authors are grateful to the Iranian Cultural Heritage, Handicraft and Tourism Organisation of Alborz Province, specially Farzan Ahmadnejad for kind supports. We are in debt to Prof J. Clark and an anonymous reviewer for their valuable and constructive comments and suggestions. Many thanks go to Astrid Bormann for the English proofreading.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Deutsche Froschungsgemeinschaft (DFG): Grant Number GH221/1-1 granted to Elham Ghasidian.

Notes on contributors

Hamid Hariryan

Hamid Hariryan is a doctoral candidate at Bu-Ali Sina Hamedan University in Iran.

Saman Heydari-Guran

Saman Heydari-Guran is a senior researcher in the Neanderthal Museum in Germany and the director of the project: Human Evolution in the Zagros Mountains.

Abbas Motarjem

Abbas Motarjem is associated Prof. at Bu-Ali Sina Hamedan University in Iran.

Elham Ghasidian

Elham Ghasidian is a senior researcher in the Neanderthal Museum in Germany and the director of the project: Southern Caspian Corridor, a biogeographical hominin expansion route.