پروژه‌ي باستا نشناسي زاگرس مركزي(CZAP) گزارش مقدماتي كاوش و بررسي درتپه‌ي شيخي آباد صحنه و تپه جاني اسلام آباد غرب

central zagros archaeological project 2008 ,excavations at tepe sheikh-e abad and tepe jani,kermanshah province

تپه باستاني شيخي آباد روستاي كرتويج شهرستان صحنه، در برگيرنده ي فرهنگ دوران نوسنگي بدون سفال در غرب ايران است. اين تپه در بررسي هاي باستان شناسي تيم باستان شناسي دانشگاه بوعلي سينا كشف و معرفي گرديد. تاكنون صرفاً چند محوطه معدود باستاني مربوط به دوران نوسنگي در غرب ايران بين دهه هاي 1950 تا 1978 م. مورد كاوش قرار گرفته اند. خوشبختانه پس از حدود 40 سال وقفه ي مطالعاتي، تيم مشترك باستان شناسي ايران- انگليس به سرپرستي يعقوب محمدي فر و روجر متيوس و همكاري پژوهشكده ي باستان شناسي، كار در اين تپه را آغاز نموده اند. تپه ي جاني اسام آبادغرب، محوطه ي ديگري است كه در فصل اول اين پژوهش به جهت تمركز هيات باستان شناسي در تپه ي شيخي آباد و به جهت بُعد مسافت اين دو محوطه به مدت چند روز مورد بررسي، نقشه برداري، عكاسي فتوكرامتري و انجام عمليات مختصر لايه نگاري قرار گرفت و ادامه فعاليت به فصول آينده موكول گرديد. نتايج آزمايش هاي اوليه حاكي از اين بود كه لايه ي تحتاني شيخي آباد متعلق به 9810 ق.م است. عاوه بر اين در لايه هاي سطحي تپه ي شيخي آباد بقاياي يك استقرار روستايي با يك فضاي مقدس شناسايي گرديد.

One key aim of CZAP is to investigate climate change at the end of the Ice Age and in the Early Holocene. A second aim is to study the transformations in human-environment relationships associated with increasing sedentism and management of plants and animals. Cave site near Kurtavij The sites of Sheikh-e Abad and Jani enable comparative study of local and regional variation in palaeoclimate and environment, between the upper cooler Zagros at Sheikh-e Abad, and the lower warmer Zagros at Jani. Sheikh-e Abad is located in the high karstic zone of the Zagros mountains, on a fertile plain at 1,425m asl, surrounded by peaks over 3,000m high, 38km northeast of Kermanshah city. Jani is situated in the lower folded zone on a fertile plain at 1,280m asl, between ridges 1,500m high, 90km to the southwest of Sheikh-e Abad. The site of Ganj Dareh, where there is evidence of the earliest domesticated goat in the world, c. 8,000 cal BC, lies close to these sites, c. 35km south of Sheikh-e Abad. Palaeobotanical, archaeozoological and environmental data from CZAP indicate that the sites of Sheikh-e Abad and Jani were located close to a rich range of ecological zones and resources including plains, wetlands and mountains. Results are being compared to records of climate and environment change over the last 40,000 years from sediment cores from Lake Zeribar, 160km northwest of Kermanshah, at c. 1,300m. At Sheikh-e Abad and Jani there is evidence of substantial long-lasting settlements of Pre-Pottery Neolithic date, with varied subsistence practices, including an emphasis on hunting wild goat and sheep. Micro morphological analysis has identified widespread traces of herbivore dung pre- and post-dating c. 8000 cal BC, which together with zoo archaeology and archaeology enable interdisciplinary investigation of early animal management, independent of changes in bone morphology, which may take 500-1000 years. The use of wild goat and sheep skulls in cultic practices in Building 2 indicates that these animals had a significance beyond economic. There is currently no indication that people at either site engaged in agriculture, relating to cereals, but many of the wild plants available in the surrounding landscape were exploited, including lentils, pistachio and almond. Sheikh-e Abad and Jani are large, enduring sites of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period, inhabited by hunter-foragers rather than farmers, with indications of early animal management. Excavations here illuminate one distinctive pathway in the Early Neolithic taken by human communities of the Fertile Crescent in the millennia after the end of the last Ice Age, with subsistence based on intensified exploitation of wild plants and animals