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| Chogha Golan | |
|---|---|
| Name | Chogha Golan |
| Map type | Iran |
| Location | Zagros Mountains, Ilam Province, Iran |
| Type | Settlement |
| Epochs | Early Neolithic |
| Archaeologists | Marcel Otte, Sonia Shidrang |
| Condition | Excavated |
Chogha Golan is an Early Neolithic tell settlement in the Ilam Province of western Iran, situated in the foothills of the Zagros Mountains near the Karkheh River catchment. The site provides stratified deposits spanning early domestication episodes and hunter-gatherer to early farming transitions, contributing to debates on plant and animal management among contemporaneous sites such as Ganj Dareh, Ali Kosh, and Jarmo. Chogha Golan's assemblages have informed regional syntheses including work by the Permanent Delegation of Iran to UNESCO, comparative studies with the Fertile Crescent, and models developed by researchers associated with institutions like the University of Tehran and the French National Centre for Scientific Research.
The mound lies within the Dehloran County landscape adjacent to seasonal streams feeding into the Tigris River basin, occupying a tactical position between highland and lowland zones referenced in surveys by teams linked to the Iranian Cultural Heritage Organization and European collaborators from the Université libre de Bruxelles. Topographically it overlooks alluvial plains used contemporaneously by sites such as Chogha Bonut and the Central Zagros sequence. Stratigraphy reveals occupation layers, pavements, hearth features, and refuse deposits comparable to deposits recorded at Çatalhöyük and Aşıklı Höyük in Anatolia.
Excavations began under the direction of archaeologists associated with the Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique and Iranian partners, employing stratigraphic trenching, micromorphology, and flotation techniques developed in tandem with laboratories at the British Museum and the Smithsonian Institution. Fieldwork integrated radiocarbon dating protocols refined by the International Radiocarbon Laboratory community, Bayesian chronological modeling influenced by scholars at the University of Oxford, and GIS mapping routines paralleling projects at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Collaborative teams included specialists in lithics, archaeobotany, and zooarchaeology from institutions such as the University of Chicago and the École pratique des hautes études.
Stratigraphic and radiocarbon evidence situates the sequence at Chogha Golan within early Holocene Neolithic phases overlapping broadly with the Pre-Pottery Neolithic and regional aceramic horizons contemporaneous with Jericho, Dhra' and Iranian sites like Ganj Dareh Tepe. Phases are delineated by changes in architecture, hearth placement, lithic typology, and botanical remains akin to phased transitions recognized by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World.
Macrobotanical assemblages recovered via flotation demonstrate wild and early managed populations of cereals and pulses, with taxa identifications cross-referenced using reference collections from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and comparative sequences from Tell Abu Hureyra and Çayönü. Faunal remains indicate exploitation of caprines and wild ungulates with butchery patterns analyzed in partnership with laboratories at the Natural History Museum, London and the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The data contribute to debates advanced by scholars such as Ofer Bar-Yosef, David R. Harris, and Ian Hodder on plant domestication and herd management.
Lithic industries at Chogha Golan include bladelet production, notched points, and ground stone implements paralleling tools from Zawi Chemi, Tell Sabi Abyad, and Shanidar Cave contexts; typological analyses reference collections from the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara. Ceramic scarcity in early levels aligns the site with aceramic Neolithic traditions observed at Çatalhöyük and Aşıklı Höyük, while later phases show nascent ceramic adoption resembling assemblages from Tepe Yahya and Susa. Use-wear and residue studies were coordinated with specialists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology and the University of Pennsylvania Museum.
Evidence indicates a mixed subsistence economy combining targeted foraging for wild cereals and legumes with intensified hunting and opportunistic management of caprines, mirroring transitional economies reported at Ali Kosh, Ganj Dareh, and Tell Halula. Spatial analyses of domestic structures and waste disposal echo settlement organization patterns documented in the Zagros Neolithic and broader Near East sequences, informing mobility models advocated by researchers at the University of Cambridge and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Chogha Golan figures prominently in reconstructions of early plant cultivation and proto-farming in western Iran, contributing empirical datasets that inform theoretical frameworks proposed by scholars including Peter Bogucki, Bruce D. Smith, and Melinda A. Zeder. Its multi-proxy evidence—integrating archaeobotany, zooarchaeology, lithic analysis, and radiocarbon chronologies—anchors comparative narratives linking the Zagros to the broader Fertile Crescent domestication trajectories and to debates about independent centers of plant and animal management championed in literature from institutions like the National Museum of Iran and the Institute for Advanced Study.
Category:Archaeological sites in Iran Category:Neolithic sites in Asia