Discovery of Neolithic, Paleolithic hand cuttings in Anjiri Cave, Fars Prov

RICHT quoted head of the archeological team in Anjiri Cave, Sonia Shidrang saying the first exploration season in the cave, located in Marv Dasht in Fars Province, started with a focus on understanding the sequence of Paleolithic establishments, their chronology and interdisciplinary studies about it, such as the study of the old climate in the region, geomorphology and analysis of the process of sediment accumulation in late December.

According to IRNA, she added that this season of exploration was conducted with the cooperation of best interdisciplinary Iranian experts both inside and outside the country and Japanese archeologists and the Tokyo University Museum which financed the exploration costs.

Shidrang further remarked that the first exploration season was aimed at speculating and evaluating the conditions of the remaining layers. She added that from the findings in addition to the pottery pieces belonging to the Ilamite era, reference can be made to the stone hand cuttings with the features of the Neolithic and end of the Paleolithic periods together with a considerable amount of animal remains belonging to goats, sheep and cattle.

According to her, the Anjiri Cave is among the big and registered caves in the Marv Dasht region which was identified by the American archeologist Michael Rosenberg in the mid 1350s (1970s) in his explorations of Marv Dasht and was introduced as a Paleolithic location.

Shidrang also noted that the place in the past two decades was surveyed by the Paleolithic researchers of the National Museum and young archeologists of Fars Province and the collection of archeological discoveries was studied.

The researcher stressed that exploration in the case was conducted with many questions in mind such as existence of consistency between the cultures of the Middle and New Paleolithic eras and/or climatic conditions of the place in different eras and chronology of the cultural and environmental changes.

Exploration of the first season in Anjiri Cave of Marv Dasht, Fars Province, was conducted with the permission of the head of the Research Institute of Cultural Heritage and Tourism.