Functional analysis of the lithic assemblages from the middle and upper paleolithic sites of khorramabad valley (western iran), with special reference to kaldar cave
- Autores: Laxmi Tumung
- Directores de la Tesis: Andreu Ollé Cañellas (dir. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universitat Rovira i Virgili ( España ) en 2019
- Idioma: español
- Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Deborah Barsky (presid.), Antonella Pedergnana (secret.), Marta Arzarello (voc.)
- Programa de doctorado: Programa de Doctorado Erasmus Mundus en Cuaternario y Prehistoria por la Universidad Rovira i Virgili; Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle(Francia); Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro(Portugal) y Università degli Studi di Ferrara(Italia)
- Materias:
- Enlaces
- Tesis en acceso abierto en: TDX
- Resumen
The PhD research derive from the need to check the feasibility of the functional studies (use-wear and residues) on the Middle and Upper Paleolithic lithic assemblages of the Khorramabad Valley sites of western Iran. This research is a part of the “Khorramabad Project” started in 2009, which was a goal–oriented multi-disciplinary research towards the understanding of the Middle to Upper Paleolithic Transition in the Zagros Mountains and its implication in global debate on this regard. In 2011-12, four sites (Kaldar Cave, Gilvaran Cave, Ghamari Cave, Gar Arjeneh rock shelter) of Khorramabad Valley was test excavated to check the potential of the sites to answer the above mentioned aim. Later in 2014-15, Kaldar Cave was excavated in larger scale which led to the discovery of cultural remains associated to the Anatomical Modern Human (AMH) with the oldest C14 date of 54,600-36,000 cal BP in western Asia, as well as the Neanderthal made industry in the basal layer.
For this research, I used the Kaldar Cave lithic assemblage as the main case study for functional studies with comparison to other sites. The research is developed in two main parts: 1) Methodology and 2) archaeological application.
For the methodology part of the research, an excavation protocol was adapted which was functional study friendly to minimise the modern contaminations in the site and the results was compared between the lithic artefacts recovered from two seasons of excavation in the Kaldar Cave. For this research, I applied a non-invasive multi-analytic approach to identify the use-wear and residues. For the functional analysis, Optical Light Microscope (OLM), 3D digital microscope (3D DM) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) was used to identify the traces. Here, for first time I assess the potential of the 3D digital microscope for functional studies on stone and shell tools, and its complementary aspect with the other two microscopes. For the residue analysis, SEM with EDX, FTIR and μXRD was applied to test which method is best suited for the identification of the archaeological residues. By using these multi-techniques, two type of reference collection of modern day residue (bone and adhesive material) was built to identify the archaeological residues (mainly, bone and black residue).
This thesis embodies seven articles which are the back bone of this research. Four articles published in high impact journals and discuss mainly about the two seasons of excavation in the Khorramabad Valley sites; lithic technology to understand the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic transition; dating problem for the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic sites in the Zagros Mountains, flora and earliest evidence of Prunus sp. in the sites of Kaldar and Gilvaran. Another article is an accepted manuscript for a monograph which deals with the preliminary functional analysis result of the Upper Palaeolithic lithic assemblage of Kaldar Cave. Other two are prepared manuscripts based on the multi-analytic approach for the functional analysis results to identify the archaeological use-wear and residues.
