Abstract:

After the eve of domestication of some wild species of cereal grains as well as sheep, goat, and pig in the Iranian central Zagros Mountains in the 2nd half of the 8th millennium BC, the process of Neolithization and sedentism began with earnest outside of this core region. This initial Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) phase appeared in Lowland Susiana, in the province of Khuzestan, southwestern Iran, and in highland province of Fars around 7200 BC. While the Pottery Neolithic (PN) phase in Susiana developed into a set of regionally uniform material culture, the contemporary PN landscape in Fars developed into a mosaic of regional cultures with both related and unrelated ceramic tradition. Yet, from the onset of PN, these early communities had inter-regional connection, as the presence of Persian Gulf shells, copper, and obsidian in many of these early settlements indicate. This mosaic of different ceramic traditions eventually developed into two distinct pottery traditions with specific geographic distribution in northern and southeastern Fars.

Keywords: