Bisitun Cave (also called "Hunter's cave", Bisotun arsi Bisetoun

urdish Urdish, Urglish or Urdunglish, a portmanteau of the words ''Urdu'' and '' English'', is the macaronic hybrid use of South Asian English and Standard Urdu. In the context of spoken language, it involves code-switching between these languages wher ...

Bisitoun, or Behistoun) is an

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or recorded history, historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline ...

of prehistoric human habitation in the

Zagros Mountains The Zagros Mountains are a mountain range in Iran, northern Iraq, and southeastern Turkey. The mountain range has a total length of . The Zagros range begins in northwestern Iran and roughly follows Iran's western border while covering much of s ...

in the

Kermanshah province Kermanshah province () is one of the 31 provinces of Iran, bordering Iraq. Its capital is the city of Kermanshah. According to a 2014 segmentation by the Ministry of Interior (Iran), Ministry of Interior, it is the center of Regions of Iran ...

, north-west

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. Bisitun Cave is one of five caves situated at the base of The Rock of Bisitun, a high cliff within the Chamchamal Plain. It was first excavated in 1949 by Carlton Coon, and is notable for the discovery of

Mousterian The Mousterian (or Mode III) is an Industry (archaeology), archaeological industry of Lithic technology, stone tools, associated primarily with the Neanderthals in Europe, and with the earliest anatomically modern humans in North Africa and We ...

stone tools of the

Middle Paleolithic The Middle Paleolithic (or Middle Palaeolithic) is the second subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Africa and Asia. The term Middle Stone Age is used as an equivalent or a synonym for the Middle P ...

, as well as the remains of 109 identifiable species of Pleistocene mammals, and hominid remains. Harold Dibble described the stone tools as having strong Levallois components. All artefacts are apparently from the same period. It has not been possible to discern a geological age of the Middle Paleolithic levels at Bisitun Cave. However, the relative abundance of ''

Cervus ''Cervus'' is a genus of deer that primarily are native to Eurasia, although one species occurs in northern Africa and another in North America. In addition to the species presently placed in this genus, it has included a whole range of other s ...

'' in the deposits suggests a nearby woodland, and such vegetation is indicative of a warmer later Pleistocene phase. In Southwestern Asia in general, the Middle Paleolithic falls between the Later Middle Pleistocene (

Marine Isotope Stage Marine isotope stages (MIS), marine oxygen-isotope stages, or oxygen isotope stages (OIS), are alternating warm and cool periods in the Earth's paleoclimate, deduced from Oxygen isotope ratio cycle, oxygen isotope data derived from deep sea core ...

6/7) and the middle of the Last Glacial (mid Marine Isotope Stage-3). Therefore the age of Bisitun Cave is likely to fall within this period also.

Hominin remains

Coon described two hominid remains from the site, a maxilliary upper incisor and a radius shaft fragment, both from a layer designated F+. These remains were listed but never described fully for the palaeontological community. When they were finally re-examined four decades later, the incisor was found to be

bovid The Bovidae comprise the family (biology), biological family of cloven-hoofed, ruminant mammals that includes Bos, cattle, bison, Bubalina, buffalo, antelopes (including Caprinae, goat-antelopes), Ovis, sheep and Capra (genus), goats. A member o ...

in origin, rather than hominin. The radius fragment was found to show Neanderthal affinities, as it is mediolaterally expanded at the interosseus crest.

Hominin remains

See also

References

Further reading