Chia Jani 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 historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...

n Iran's Kermanshah Province. It is located near the village of Palang Gerd, on the Qouchemi stream, which flows to the Ravand River about south, in the south central part of the Islamabad Plain in the west-central

Zagros Mountains The Zagros Mountains ( ar, جبال زاغروس, translit=Jibal Zaghrus; fa, کوه‌های زاگرس, Kuh hā-ye Zāgros; ku, چیاکانی زاگرۆس, translit=Çiyakani Zagros; Turkish: ''Zagros Dağları''; Luri: ''Kuh hā-ye Zāgro ...

Excavation

The site was discovered by Kamyar Abdi during archaeological surveys of the plain in 1999. The site dates to the early ( Aceramic) and middle

Neolithic period The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several pa ...

. Parts of the site are washed off by the Qouchemi stream and damaged due to the expansion of agricultural land. Its lithic industry is characterized by bladelet production, some of which are made from obsidian. Other notable materials include the so-called "tadpole ware" (ca 6000 BC) of the middle Neolithic period and plano-convex bricks reported from early to middle Neolithic sites in the region, including Ganj Dareh and the nearby ''Sarab, Asiab'' about 60km northeast, and Jarmo, in

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

, to the northwest. Plans for excavations at Chia Jani, funded by a grant from the

National Geographic Society The National Geographic Society (NGS), headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational organizations in the world. Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, ...

, came to a halt with the 2003 invasion of Iraq that rendered Islamabad Plain, only from the Iraqi border, unsafe for an international archaeological expedition.

Relative chronology

References

*Abdi, K., 2000 ''Islamabad'' 1999. Iran 38:162. *Abdi, K., 2003 "The Early Development of Pastoralism in the Central Zagros Mountains", ''Journal of World Prehistory'', Vol. 17, No. 4: 395-448

External links

Dartmouth Department of Anthropology
{{Neolithic Southwest Asia 1999 archaeological discoveries Neolithic sites of Asia Former populated places in Iran Archaeological sites in Iran