The Riverine Landscape of Formative and Archaic Susiana (SW Iran); A Suggestion Based on Recent Geoarchaeological Evidence

The settlement evolution of the Early Neolithic period is considered a milestone in the human cultural history.While the archaeological implications of this period are discussed extensively, the landscape of Early Neolithic Iran has remained underrepresented, mostly due to lack of geoarchaeological investigations. The early periods Formative and Archaic Susiana, attested in several sites in the Susiana plain in southwestern Iran, are of utmostimportance as they bear witness to the first implications of standardization of material culture and intra-regional organization. This paper summarizes our current understanding of these periods as well as their landscape in the seventh and sixth millennia BCE. Then, it proposes a preliminary reconstruction of the landscape in this period based on recent geoarchaeological investigations by the author, applying a combination of different methods such as remote sensing, GIS analysis, and original geoarchaeological data including sediment cores, soil profiles, as well as laboratory analyses including sedimentological and chemical analyses (and lithological description in the field) and OSL dating. The results widen our perspective regarding the region’s hydrology. The Early Neolithic landscape of Susiana seems to have been different from the current one, primarily due to the tangible changes in watercourses and the noticeable differences in the surface soil and vegetation. The results further confirm thatheavy sedimentation of later periods covers most of the surface of this buried landscape including now buried watercourses and small wetlands.

Keywords:

Iran , Susiana , Neolithic , Geoarchaeology , Riverine Landscape , Early Holocene