Kalat-e Shour, Sarayan, evidence of the presence of Pleistocene Population in the Eastern Iranian plateau

Abstract

Despite the unique geographic location of Iran which is situated on the vital pathway for the migration of hominids, unfortunately, not much purposeful research associated with Paleolithic studies and Pleistocenic hominin populations has been carried out. Meanwhile, the Paleolithic studies of Khorasan have a relatively much worse condition, so that there are only a handful of sites attributable to this period of Khorasan, whilst Khorasan due to having a wide range of climatic diversity and great expansion, has high potentials for the presence of hominin populations in this period. Kalat-e Shour settlement was identified and sampled in 2011 during an survey conducted in Sarayan county; the importance of this site, in addition to the dimensions and relatively wide distribution of tools, is that it will allow us to study a site belonging to the mid-Paleolithic period in eastern Iran, which is considered as one of the most unknown and ambiguous areas of Iran during this period. The authors in the current research intended to answer the main research questions as follow: To what extent the Flake Production industries of Lithic artifact could respond to the demands associated with the characteristics of the site's knapping industry and the types of possible uses of the settlement? To which adjacent Site are the lithic artifact of this Site comparable? And to what extent can we deal with the relative chronology of the site according to the morphology of the stone tools obtained from the site? The presence of Levallois technology, Levallois and radial cores, convergent scrapers, Levallois points, and other typical instruments of this period in Kalat-e Shour settlement increase the probability of assigning this site to the Middle Paleolithic era. And on the other hand, they can be compared with the open sites of Iran's central plateau such as Mirk, Chah Jam and Sufi Abad.