Botkhane Cave

New Evidence from Nomadic and Semi-Sedentary Communities in the Central Zagros During the Late Chalcolithic Period and the Bronze Age: Kuhdasht, Luristan, Iran

Datos Bibliográficos

ID12120427
AutoresKamal Aldin Niknami (0000-0001-5273-8179, Professor of Methodology of Archaeology at the University of Tehran. His research interests are focused on Iranian landscape, economy and society during early and late antiquity, and involve fieldwork in the north and northwestern provinces of the country. His main interests have always been in Iranian prehistory., autor de correspondencia), Mohammad Amin Mirghaderi (0000-0002-0281-2286, Doctoral student in the archaeology of ancient Iran at the University of Tehran, Iran. He specialises in Bronze Age cultures (1500–3000 bc) with a strong emphasis on the social structure of nomadic peoples during the Bronze Age in the Iranian Central Zagros area. His Ph.D. thesis on the settlement patterns of prehistoric societies in the western Iran is now in progress.), Morteza Garavand (Doctoral student in the archaeology of ancient Iran at the University of Tehran, Iran. He is interested in all aspects of Iranian medieval archaeology, both theoretical and practical.)
Año2017
Volumen21
Número2
Páginas302-325
Fecha de publicación2017-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaNomadic Peoples (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0822-7942 • E-ISSN: 1752-2366
EditorialBerghahn Books (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.3197/np.2017.210207
OpenAlexW2751307414
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2

Years of investigation, of varying degrees, have been undertaken into the semi- sedentary communities in the Near East and especially central Zagros, encompassing ethnology, anthropology and ethno-archaeology. All this research provides useful information regarding the cultural structure of the semi-sedentary communities of central Zagros. However, due to the difficulties in identifying the sites related to this type of livelihood, reconstructing such cultural structures is problematic; thus special strategies are required in archaeological excavation and surveys. Meanwhile, caves and rock shelters preserve some evidence of ancient settlements and can enhance our knowledge about their livelihood patterns and cultural structures. Identifying these settlements is evidently easier than finding settlements in open spaces as they incurred less damage than open sites. Botkhane cave is one of this group of settlements, which reflects various aspects of the semi-sedentary communities' cultural structure in central Zagros. This cave is located 21 kilometres southeast of Kuhdasht city and one kilometre east of Damchehr Qaralivand village in the west of Luristan province. Evidence of settlements from the fourth millennium bc into the historic period have been revealed in this cave during a threat mitigation plan in 2008. Numerous bone remains of humans, goats, horses, rabbits etc. have also been observed. Although the cultural materials in this cave have been displaced, making the stratigraphy process impossible, due to the importance of the discoveries and the strategic location of the cave, all the finds have been collected and documented. The present study aims to introduce the cave's cultural materials and the remains' relative chronology, along with an analytical overview of the cave's function, based on the existing evidence, from the second half of the fourth millennium bc to the end of the Bronze Age

Agriculture · Archaeology · Bronze Age · Cave · Chalcolithic · Excavation · Geography · Human settlement · Livelihood · Period (music · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Eurasian Exchange Networks