Eastward expansion of the Neolithic from the Zagros: Obsidian provenience from Sang-e Chakhmaq, a late 8th-early 7th millennia BCE Neolithic site in northeast Iran

Abstract

The West Mound of Tappeh Sang-e Chakhmaq, dated to c. 7100/7000 to 6700/6600 BCE, in the northeast region of Iranian Plateau, is one of the earliest known Neolithic villages east of Zagros Mountain that provides evidence of round-year occupation with mud brick architecture. Provenience studies have been conducted on seven pieces of obsidian artefacts, recovered from the 2009 sounding of the site. The analyses of the obsidian artifacts were done by Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). The results show that all samples were extracted from Bingöl B and Bingöl A outcrops in west of the Lake Van, eastern Anatolia. The West Mound samples have important implication for the spread of the Neolithic from Zagros eastwards during the 8th millennium BCE or earlier.