Fars as a Multi-Cultural Zone During the Neolithic Period

Considering the long history of innovations during the Neolithic period in Fars, there remain several fundamental questions that have not been answered. Of these unanswered questions, the most important one concerns that of the chronology of the early Neolithic pottery that would provide insights into the early phases of settlement and production of food in the region. The cultural region of Fars presents various environments that shaped the formation of settlements throughout the prehistoric period. In order to better understand the different cultures of Fars province, it is necessary to study individual regions and valleys to develop a comprehensive analysis. Because the Fars region has not been uniformly investigated archaeologically, many regions such as the Darab Plain, the Qarah Aghaj River basin remain unknown. Therefore, the development and spread of societies have remained largely unknown in relation to other regions. The current study focuses on previous and recent fieldwork conducted by the authors from surveys in Bavanat and Darab, and excavations in Rahmat Abad, Qasr-e Ahmad, Hormangan and Tol-e Sangi to investigate Neolithic cultures in this region. Our findings indicate that the southern part of Fars is different from the north in terms of pottery styles. In the north, instead of local motifs, there are many similarities in style that would be a suggestion for dating. According to zooarchaeological and archaeobotanical evidence, there has been a way of agricultural economy in Rahmat Abad and Formative Mushki periods and goats were domesticated while no domestication processes were practiced. Animal bones, lithic and settlement remains of the Hormangan and Mushki all indicate a subsistence strategy based on hunting during the second half of the seventh millennium BCE, while at the beginning of the sixth millennium BCE there was a shift to farming.

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