A Social Perspective on the Neolithic in Western Iran
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Documenta Praehistorica XLIII (2016) A social perspective on the Neolithic in western Iran Hojjat Darabi Department of Archaeology, Razi University, Kermanshah, IR [email protected] ABSTRACT – While the Neolithic revolution caused gradual basic changes in different dimensions of human life, including social structure, western Iran has so far mostly received attention in terms of the emergence of domestication and sedentarisation. Generally speaking, some evidence, such as architectural elements, burial goods, clay tokens, and scarce artefacts such as obsidian pieces and marble objects not only determine an inter-regional interaction, but also suggest craft specialisation. It is believed that sedentary life and private food storage paved the way for property ownership and that a gradual change from egalitarian to non-egalitarian societies can be seen in the Neolithic of western Iran. IZVLE∞EK – Medtem ko je neolitska revolucija povzro≠ila postopne osnovne spremembe v razli≠nih dimenzijah ≠love∏kega ∫ivljenja, tudi v dru∫beni strukturi, je obmo≠je zahodnega Irana dele∫no po- zornosti predvsem zaradi pojava domestikacije in sedentarizacije. Posplo∏eno, nekateri podatki, npr. arhitekturni elementi, grobni pridatki, glineni ∫etoni in redki artefakti iz obsidiana in marmorja, ne dolo≠ajo le med-regionalne interakcije ampak tudi specializirane obrti. Verjamemo, da sedentar- ni na≠in ∫ivljenja in privatno shranjevanje hrane predstavljata osnovo za privatno lastni∏tvo, in da lahko v ≠asu neolitika na obmo≠ju zahodnega Irana opazujemo postopen prehod med egalitarno in neegalitarno dru∫bo. KEY WORDS – Neolithic; social structure; initial complexity; western Iran Introduction Since the time when Gordon V. Childe (1936) re- archaeology is the archaeology of society, and so en- ferred to the transition from the late Pleistocene to compasses a very wide range of topics (Dark 1995. the early Holocene as the ‘Neolithic revolution’, this 88). Basic questions posed by the social archaeolo- issue has primarily received attention in the light gist concern social order, reproduction and social of changes in subsistence, i.e. foraging to farming. change (Shanks 2005.179). It could be expected In the 1960–70s, processualist archaeologists fo- that alongside subsistence, social structure was cused on the interaction of humans with the envi- changed by the onset of the Holocene, when new ronment which moved forward the economic di- ways of life emerged; nevertheless, the economic mension of the most crucial revolution in human results have been acknowledged much more than history, as Ofer Bar-Yosef (2001) puts it. The Neo- other dimensions of the Neolithic revolution. How- lithic revolution, however, was not only a change ever, some investigations have recently begun to in subsistence from foraging to farming; it also af- explore the nature of changes in social organisation fected the social structure of those people who in this period. Therefore, archaeologists are now took the first steps into a new world that had ne- directing new attention to the social context of Neo- ver been experienced before. In archaeological the- lithic life at the household, community, and region- ory, the central importance of the social emerged al scales (see Pollock et al. 2010; Byrd 1994; 2000; mainly over recent decades (Hodder 2007). Social 2005; Flannery 1972; Voigt 2000; Kuijt 2000; Kuijt, DOI> 10.4312\dp.43.14 283 Hojjat Darabi Goring-Morris 2002; Goring-Morris 2000; Bar-Yo- investigate the social structure of Neolithic commu- sef, Belfer-Cohen 1991; Cauvin 2000). Collectively, nities in western Iran. Chronologically, the period these investigations offer an alternative perspective under discussion coincided with the Transitional on the Neolithic transition by shifting the point of Neolithic through the late Neolithic, c. 9500– 5500 debate from questions of how and when plant and BC. As taking a regional social perspective is diffi- animal domestication occurred to what the nature cult, the targeted archaeological finds might seem of Neolithic social organisation was throughout this to be limited. However, I attempt to present those period, and how might these social frameworks have archaeological data that are interpretable in investi- been linked with new systems of food production gating social structure at the regional level. (Kuijt 2000.311–312). On the one hand, the exami- nation of the social structure of early Neolithic soci- Archaeological evidence eties is restricted mainly to the Levant (see Flannary 1972; Byrd 1994; 2000; Kuijt 2000; Kuijt, Goring- As archaeologists, we are concerned with how social Morris 2002; Ali 2010) and Anatolia (Rosenberg, structure extends into material culture, what types Redding 2000; Bleda, Marciniak 2006; Pearson et of materials are usually targeted, and to what extent. al. 2013; Wright 2014), since the data set for the re- In this regard, many types of data and different atti- gion is the strongest across the Near East. On the tudes have been employed to try to reconstruct so- other hand, some other areas, like western Iran, cial structure: burial, settlements, artefacts, and hu- have been very poorly targeted in this regard, al- man remains (Dark 1995.88). However, within a though new evidence sheds new light on the Neoli- regional context, different materials could be taken thisation process in the region (see Darabi 2012; into account. Moreover, each archaeological period 2015; Matthews et al. 2013a; 2013b; Riehl et al. may require a particular artefact assemblage. There- 2012; 2013; 2015). In western Iran, however, pre- fore, settlement patterns, human burials, architec- vious investigations mainly focused on the subsis- tural remains, and artefacts such as tokens, figuri- tence issue and, thus, the social consequences of the nes, stone tools, and marble objects are briefly dis- Neolithisation process are largely overlooked. This cussed here. In addition, subsistence will also be resulted from the fact that the region was initially partly addressed. It is believed that all these, and targeted by researchers who concentrated primarily possibly more, evidence should be investigated as on early domestication (see Braidwood 1960; 1961; an ‘inter-woven whole’ to gain insights into the so- Braidwood et al. 1961; Hole et al. 1969; Mortensen cial structures of societies living in the early Holo- 1974; 2014; McDonald 1979; Smith 1972; 1976; cene era (Fig. 1). To better understand the diachro- Pullar 1990), while it should be seen as a geogra- nic change and continuity of social structure, one phic-cultural zone wherein early socio-cultural deve- might prefer to place the issue within chronological lopments were established as an inter-connected ‘whole’ in the early Neolithic. Therefore, this article should be regarded as an introduc- tion to the social consequen- ces of Neolithisation and the social indications of Neolithic societies in western Iran. This is dealt with on a general re- gional scale, so the elucida- tion of the social daily life of any particular Neolithic site – as already applied to Toll-e Bashi, Fars (see Pollock et al. 2010) – is not attempted here. In fact, a social inter- pretation of some archaeolo- gical finds from Neolithic con- texts is discussed in order to Fig.1. Map showing the location of the main Neolithic sites in western Iran. 284 A social perspective on the Neolithic in western Iran (sub)periods. However, it should be noted that Neoli- As a result of changing from seasonal occupation to thic archaeology of the region explicitly suffers from semi-sedentism, an increase in population must have limited archaeological evidence, especially in terms occurred in the early 9th millennium BC. Therefore, of the social dimension. This obliges us to discuss the the environmental resources were not sufficient to issue in details from the Transitional Neolithic (c. feed the whole population in the small valleys or 9500–8000 BC) through the Neolithic period (8000– intermountain plains such as Konjan Cham or Kur- 5500 BC). However, some archaeological evidence tavij, where Chogha Golan and Sheikh-e Abad were concerning these periods is presented below. respectively established. This resulted in the diver- sification of people across western Iran in a way that Although any examination of the transitional peri- led to an increase in the number of sites. However, od requires attention to the preceding Late-Epipaleo- later pressures on resources paved the way for an lithic time, our information is mostly restricted to alternative solution, i.e. food management and, sub- the lithic tradition which limits our understanding sequently, the beginning of the Neolithic period. of social structure. In general, we may assume the However, the area of the sites is not determined. At hunter-gatherer groups were ‘small bands’ mostly Asiab, the surface finds suggested that the site might occupied with economic concerns (see Bender 1978). have extended over an area of approx. 2ha (Howe 1983). As Asiab seems to have also been reoccupied The evidence associated with the Transitional Neo- during a later period, perhaps the late 8th millenni- lithic period is limited in western Iran. The time um BC, the precise area of the Transitional Neolithic span that we are concerned with involves a gradual occupation is unclear. In addition, the site might change from a migratory to semi-sedentary lifestyle have been horizontally extended through time. Ex- from the mid-10th millennium BC onward, when the cavations at Asiab, however, revealed different finds, climate improved at the end of the Younger Dryas such as bone objects, stone tools, stone implements, (Darabi 2012; 2015). The scarcity of evidence might obsidian tools, marble objects and human burials. be the result of the seasonality of occupations, which Some of these might date to a later phase; however, left shallow deposits, or they were buried by later recent excavation at the site can be helpful in this sediment or occupations. However, it seems that respect. some sites, such as Sheikh-e Abad and Chogha Go- lan, were seasonally inhabited in the mid-10th mil- One of the most important signatures characteristic lennium BC.