Prehistory and Human Ecology of the Deh Luran Plain: An Early Village Sequence from Khuzistan, Iran

517 Pages·1969·40.632 MB·English

by  by Frank Hole, Kent V. Flannery and James A. Neely

PREHISTORY AND HUMAN ECOLOGY OF
THE DEH LURAN PLAIN
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MEMOIRS OF THE MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY
UN IV ER S I TY 0 F MI CH I GA N
NUMBER 1
PREHISTORY AND HUMAN ECOLOGY OF THE DEH LURAN PLAIN
An Early Village Sequence from Khuzistan, Iran
By
FRANK HOLE, KENT V. FLANNERY
JAMES A. NEELY
Paleoethnobotany by Hans Helbaek
Contributions by Cyril S. Smith, Colin Renfrew, I. W. Cornwall
ANN ARBOR
1969
© 1969 by the Regents of the University of Michigan
The Museum of Anthropology
All rights reserved

ISBN (print): 978-1-949098-47-1
ISBN (ebook): 978-1-949098-64-8

Browse all of our books at sites.lsa.umich.edu/archaeology-books.

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For permissions, questions, or manuscript queries, contact Museum publications by
email at [email protected] or visit the Museum website at lsa.umich.edu/ummaa.

FOREWORD
With the appearance of "Prehistory and Human Ecology of the Deh Luran Plain" the
Museum of Anthropology at the University of Michigan begins a new publication series.
The Memoirs of the Museum of Anthropology are designed as a series for major anthro
pological monographs whose size and format require a larger volume than was available in
either the Occasional Contributions or the Anthropological Papers series, also a part of
the Museum's publications.
This first Memoir by Frank Hole of Rice University, Kent V. Flannery of the Universi
ty of Michigan, and James A. Neely of the University of Texas, as the primary authors, is
an excellent example of the need for the Memoir series. One of the important considera
tions in the establishment of the Memoirs is to provide relatively rapid publication
following completion of the manuscript and another is to make the Memoirs available at a
price substantially below that of many comparable publications.
It is appropriate that the new series begins with a report which provides data from Iran
on that important period in Near Eastern prehistory which resulted in the transition from
food gathering to the domestication of plants and animals.
This report is the result of the collaborative effort and support of private and govern
mental institutions, and of a group of individuals who brought their special skills to the
project. The Museum of Anthropology serves as the instrument of this complex research
operation to make available the information recovered from the excavations and the
interpretations provided by the participants.
The Museum of Anthropology and the authors gratefully acknowledge the financial as
sistance provided by income on the endowment of the Horace H. Rackham School of
Graduate Studies of the University of Michigan for a portion of the funds for publication.
June 10, 1968 Dr. James B. Griffin
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PREFACE
The studies reported in this volume were made possible through the willing coopera
tion of many friends, colleagues, and institutions, in America and abroad. It is with
pleasure that we make the following acknowledgements.
The government of Iran, through the offices of the Ministry of Education and the
Archeological Service, granted us permission to conduct surveys and excavations, and
helped us in many ways. We especially thank the General Directors of the Archeological
Service, Mr. Hassan Mashoon and Mr. A. Pourmand; Technical Director, Dr. Ezat 0.
Nagahban; and Director of Excavations, Mr. Sayid M. Khorramabadi, all of whom gave us
valuable assistance and advice. The representatives assigned to us in the field were Messrs.
Mohammad Moushirpour, Abdul Hussein Shahidzadeh, and Bahrami. They lived with us
under often trying conditions, helped in supervising the excavations, and represented the
government's and our interests with local officials.
A number of Americans, resident in Iran, also contributed greatly to the success of our
project. Both Mr. Theodore A. Wertime and Dr. John C. Reinhardt, Cultural Attaches
with the United States Embassy, gave us considerable help in Tehran, and acted as liason
for us with the Iranian Government while we were out of the country.
The Khuzistan Development Service, through its director, Mr. Leo L. Anderson, pro
vided us with facilities for drafting maps in Ahwaz and loaned us a truck (with water
trailer) which made possible our first trip to Deh Luran. Mr. Charles Simkins of KDS
arranged for analyses of soil and water, and gave us much information and advice about
agriculture and related problems in west Iran. Finally, Messrs. Rashidian and Fazli, who
were attached to the Andimeshk office of KDS, welcomed us periodically with hospitali
ty and air conditioning when we arrived, hot and tired, from our desert retreat.
Our morale and health were bolstered more than once when we traveled in the vicinity
of Kermanshah and were able to stay for a few days with the resident missionaries.
Blackie and Harriet Burris and Ed and Belle Jaeger all made us feel very much at home,
and we thoroughly enjoyed their company and good cooking.
The Director of the British School of Persian Studies, Mr. David Stronach, gave us the
benefit of his wide experience in Iranian archeology and the use of his library and
swimming pool. Dr. and Mrs. Joseph Caldwell, Illinois State Museum, visited us briefly in
Deh Luran, briefed us on their excavations and surveys, and supplied much-needed succor
in Tehran at the end of the season.
The work reported here was, of course, supervised by the authors, but we were ably
assisted in the field by our wives-Barbara Hole, Nancy Flannery, and Mary Ann Neely
who actually did most of the processing, labelling and rough-sorting of the artifacts. Their
patience in the face of isolation in a land with blistering heat, dust storms, biting insects,
precarious water supply, tents that leaked and sometimes blew down, and finally freezing
weather, was indeed exemplary.
A special note of appreciation must also go to Mohammad Ali Nargasi, our multilingual
cook and spiritual advisor who, in spite of his own prior hearsay knowledge that Deh
Luran was "the worst place in Iran," accompanied us and managed to survive all the
natural and human hardships which were placed in his way. His son, Mustafa, was surely
the most eager cook's helper, lighter of Coleman lanterns, errand runner and pusher of
recalcitrant Jeeps in west Iran. ·
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