The Late Aceramic Neolithic Flaked Stone Assemblage from Tepe Rahmatabad, Fars, South-West Iran

Abstract

Recent excavations at Tepe Rahmatabad (Fars Province, south-west Iran) yielded an aceramic Neolithic lithic assemblage from contexts dating from the later half of the eighth to the early seventh millennium BC. The techno-typological analysis presented here assigns it to one of the south-easternmost examples of the early M'lefaatian industry. This discovery demonstrates that Fars was a part of the large cultural sphere known as the ‘East Wing of the Fertile Crescent’ during the earlier Neolithic period. At the same time, the data from Rahmatabad, along with data previously obtained from other late (Tall-i Mushki) and post-M'lefaatian (Tall-i Jari B) sites, help to elaborate the reconstruction of the Neolithic sequence from the early, late and post-M'lefaatian in the Fars. This sequence, which is contextualised by secure radiocarbon dates, provides a basis for evaluating comparable sequences in other parts of the Zagros region.