Resumen de Typology and socio-economic implications ot entomological finds from some ancient near-eastern sites

Lorenzo Costantini, Maurizio Tosi, Augusto Vigna-Taglianti

• Once screening and floatation systems have been adopted in an excavation, most ancient sites in the Near East and Iran have been providing us with well-preserved remains of insects and other arthropods to an extent as large as in turf deposits of western Europe. The present paper is based on results from floatation works carried out at Shahr-i Sokhta (Sistan, Iran), Tepe Hasanlu (Azerbaijan) and Tel Baroda in Ctesiphon. Among others is here discussed the better feasibility of hand-operated floatation techniques for the specific recovery of insect remains. Primarily on the basis of the Shahr-i Sokhta finds the authors enlist the genera or species mostly frequent in a protohistorical assemblage and their utility to the reconstruction of early environment and economy