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Do-Ashkaft: a recently discovered Mousterian cave site in the Kermanshah Plain, Iran

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Fereidoun Biglari  and
Saman Heydari
Fereidoun Biglari
Affiliation:
Center for Paleoanthropological and Palaeolithic Research, Iranian Cultural Heritage Organization, Azadi Avenue, Tehran, Iran
Saman Heydari
Affiliation:
Center for Paleoanthropological and Palaeolithic Research, Iranian Cultural Heritage Organization, Azadi Avenue, Tehran, Iran
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Extract

Since Dorothy Garrod’s pioneering work at the Mousterian site of Hazar Merd on the western slopes of the Zagros Mountains in 1928, a number of Middle Palaeolithic sites in the area have been discovered, sampled and, in some cases, partially excavated. Some of these sites are located in the Kermanshah Plain, Central Western Zagros Mountains. These sites include the Hunter’s Cave and Gha-e Khar in Bisotun (Coon 1951: Young & Smith 1966), Kobeh and Warwasi in Tang-e Kenesht (Braidwood 1960), and two sites near Harsin (Smith 1986). All but the last two are among a large number of Palaeolithic localities on the south face of a series of calcareous mountain ranges (Kuh-e Parau/ Bisotun massif) on the northeastern rim of Qara Su basin in the Kermanshah Plain (FIGURE 1).

Following a hiatus in archaeological research after the Iranian Revolution of 1979, an independent series of surveys in the area by the authors led to the discovery of three Mousterian sites at Bisotun in 1986 (Biglari in press). During recent years, we located two more Mousterian sites, including Do-Ashkaft, the subject of this note.

Type
News & Notes
Information
Antiquity , Volume 75 , Issue 289 , September 2001 , pp. 487 - 488
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2001

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References

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