Chogha Golan is an aceramic Neolithic

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 ...

in the foothills of 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 ...

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 ...

, about from the right bank of the Konjan Cham River. Located in a

semi-arid A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a aridity, dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below Evapotranspiration#Potential evapotranspiration, potential evapotranspiration, but not as l ...

region about north of Mehran, Chogha Golan is one of the earliest aceramic

Neolithic sites The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide ...

found in Iran. The people of Chogha Golan relied primarily on the exploitation of wild plants and hunting. Chogha Golan is notable for the early presence of domesticated emmer wheat, dating to around 9,800 BP as such the archaeobotanical remains from Chogha Golan shows the earliest record of long-term plant management in Iran.

Archaeology

Chogha Golan was jointly excavated by archaeologists from the

University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (; ), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The University of Tübingen is one of eleven German Excellenc ...

and the in 2009 and 2010. The site consists of a tell with a height of about . Chogha Golan contains of cultural deposits. Archaeologists have divided the site into 11 layers, ''Archaeological Horizons I-XI''. Excavations have unveiled red-painted plaster floors and

mudbrick Mudbrick or mud-brick, also known as unfired brick, is an air-dried brick, made of a mixture of mud (containing loam, clay, sand and water) mixed with a binding material such as rice husks or straw. Mudbricks are known from 9000 BCE. From ...

walls. 10 clay animal figurines were excavated at the site. The excavations at Chogha Golan have recently been renewed by an Iranian team led by Hojjat Darabi.

Archaeobotany

With more than 100,000 analyzed charred botanical items, the high density of seed and chaff remains at Chogha Golan is notable when compared to contemporary sites and even later,

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

sites. 110 different species of plants have been discovered at Chogha Golan. The plant assemblage is dominated by specimens from the

Poaceae Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivate ...

and

Fabaceae Fabaceae () or Leguminosae,International Code of Nomen ...

families: wild

barley Barley (), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikele ...

, '' Aegilops'',

lentil The lentil (''Vicia lens'' or ''Lens culinaris'') is an annual plant, annual legume grown for its Lens (geometry), lens-shaped edible seeds or ''pulses'', also called ''lentils''. It is about tall, and the seeds grow in Legume, pods, usually w ...

, ''

Lathyrus ''Lathyrus'' is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family Fabaceae, and contains approximately 160 species. Commonly known as peavines or vetchlings, they are native to temperate areas, with a breakdown of 52 species in Europe, 30 specie ...

'', ''

Pisum ''Lathyrus'' is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family Fabaceae, and contains approximately 160 species. Commonly known as peavines or vetchlings, they are native to temperate areas, with a breakdown of 52 species in Europe, 30 specie ...

'' and '' Vicia''. In addition to domesticated emmer wheat, the wild varieties of several

Neolithic founder crops The founder crops or primary domesticates are a group of flowering plants that were Domestication, domesticated by early farming communities in Southwest Asia and went on to form the basis of agriculture, agricultural economies across Eurasia. As ...

were discovered at the site: barley,

and

pea Pea (''pisum'' in Latin) is a pulse or fodder crop, but the word often refers to the seed or sometimes the pod of this flowering plant species. Peas are eaten as a vegetable. Carl Linnaeus gave the species the scientific name ''Pisum sativum' ...

. Wild barley was found at every layer at Chogha Golan, starting with ''Archaeological Horizon XI''. Before the appearance of domesticated emmer wheat, wild barley was the predominant cereal found at Chogha Golan, while wheat was rarely found. After around 2000 years, domesticated emmer first appears at ''Archaeological Horizon II'' and is also found in ''Archaeological Horizon I''. After the initial appearance of domesticated emmer wheat, it became the predominant cereal grain found at the site.

Fauna

The faunal assemblage at Chogha Golan is dominated by ungulates (mostly sheep/goat but also gazelle, red deer, pig, and cattle), followed by fish. The remains of tortoise, hedgehog,

red fox The red fox (''Vulpes vulpes'') is the largest of the true foxes and one of the most widely distributed members of the order Carnivora, being present across the entire Northern Hemisphere including most of North America, Europe and Asia, plus ...

, and

Eurasian lynx The Eurasian lynx (''Lynx lynx'') is one of the four wikt:extant, extant species within the medium-sized wild Felidae, cat genus ''Lynx''. It is widely distributed from Northern Europe, Northern, Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe to Cent ...

are also found.

Notes

References

* * * * {{refend 2009 archaeological discoveries Archaeological sites in Iran National works of Iran Prehistoric Iran Neolithic sites of Asia