Tracking Cultural and Environmental Change (TCEC)
TCEC is a joint Iranian-Danish research project between Razi University, Kermanshah and University of Copenhagen. It aims to investigate the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture, in the central Zagros. Unlike previous investigations which have only focused on single early Holocene sites without studying late Pleistocene sequences, we aim to investigate both time periods simultaneously through survey and sondages at key select sites.
The project will initially last for five years, starting February 2016 and will focus on surveys and excavations in two areas in the central Zagros southeast of Kermanshah in areas that have already been partially investigated by Mortensen and Mortensen and Smith. In particular, we propose to continue and complete the unfinished survey of Mortensen and Smith that ended in 1977, and expand on the work by Mortensen in the Huleilan Valley and further south along the Saimarreh river.
Yeomans, L., Bangsgaard, P., & Ahadi, G. (2021). Perinatal Remains of Livestock: An Under-utilised Line of Evidence for Animal Penning in the Neolithic of Southwest Asia. Environmental Archaeology.
Richter, T., Darabi, H., Alibaigi, S., Otaegui, A. A., Bangsgaard, P., Khosravi, S., Maher, L., Mortensen, P., Pedersen, P. N., Roe, J., & Yeomans, L. (2021). The Formation of Early Neolithic Communities in the central Zagros: an 11,500 year-old communal structure at Asiab. Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 40(1), 2-22.
Richter, T., & Darabi, H. (2021). Revisiting the Hilly Flanks. The Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic Periods in the Eastern Fertile Crescent. Neo-Lithics. A newsletter of southwest Asian lithics research, 21, 21.
Weide, A, Arranz-Otaegui, A, Schmidt, AF, Kim, H, Charles, M, Zeidi, M, Darabi, H, Richter, T & Conard, NJ 2021, 'Identification of the Triticoid-type grains (Poaceae) from archaeobotanical assemblages in southwest Asia as Heteranthelium piliferum (Banks & Sol.) Hochst.', Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, bind 30, s. 657–674.
Daly, KG, Mattiangeli, V, Hare, AJ, Davoudi, H, Fathi, H, Doost, SB, Amiri, S, Khazaeli, R, Decruyenaere, D, Nokandeh, J, Richter, T, Darabi, H, Mortensen, P, Pantos, A, Yeomans, L, Bangsgaard, P, Mashkour, M, Zeder, MA & Bradley, DG 2021, 'Herded and hunted goat genomes from the dawn of domestication in the Zagros Mountains', PNAS, bind 118, nr. 25, e2100901118.
Bangsgaard, P, Yeomans, L, Darabi, H, Gregersen, K, Olsen, J, Richter, T & Mortensen, P 2019, 'Feasting on wild boar in the Early Neolithic. Evidence from an 11,400 year old placed deposit at Tappeh Asiab, central Zagros', Cambridge Archaeological Journal, vol. 29, no. 3, pp. 443-463.
Darabi, H, Richter, T & Mortensen, P 2019, 'Neolithization Process in the central Zagros: Asiab and Ganj Dareh Revisited', Documenta Praehistorica, vol. 46.
Darabi, H, Richter, T & Mortensen, P 2019, Tracking Cultural and Environmental Change: the Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic in the Seimarreh Valley, central Zagros, the first season of excavation at Ganj Dareh. in Proceedings of the 16th annual symposium on Iranain Archaeology. Iranian Center for Archaeological Research, Tehran, pp. 178-181.
Darabi, H, Richter, T & Mortensen, P 2019, Tracking Cultural and Environmental Change: the Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic in the Seimarreh Valley, central Zagros, excavation at Asiab. in Proceedings of the 16th annual symposium on Iranain Archaeology. Iranian Center for Archaeological Research, Tehran, pp. 162-164.
Darabi, H, Richter, T & Mortensen, P 2018, 'New Excavations at Tappeh Asiab, Kermanshah Province, Iran', Antiquity, vol. 92, no. 361.
Darabi, H, Richter, T, Alibaigi, S, Otaegui, AA, Bangsgaard, P, Khosravi, S, Ruter, AH, Yeomans, L & Mortensen, P 2019, 'New excavations at Tapeh Asiab, Kermanshah, Central Zagros', Journal of the Iranian Center for Archaeological Research , vol. 2.
Darabi, H. 2015 with a preface by Peder Mortensen An Introduction to the Neolithic Revolution of the Central Zagros, Iran, BAR International Series 2746.
Mortensen, P. 2012 From the Epipalaeolithic to the Neolithic in Northern Luristan, Proceedings of the International Symposium on Iranian Archaeology: Western Region. Iranian Center for Archaeological Research. Tehran: 47-54
Mortensen, P 2014 Excavations at Tepe Guran. The Neolithic Period. With contributions by Kent V. Flannery and Pernille Bangsgaard, Acta Iranica 55,
Mortensen, P. & Smith, P.E.L. 2014 A Survey of Prehistoric Sites in the Harsin Region, 1977
Team members and collaborators
Professor Peder Mortensen
Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies
University of Copenhagen
Dr Tobias Richter
Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies
University of Copenhagen
Dr Hojjat Darabi
Department of Archaeology
Razi University
Dr Amaia Arranz-Otaegui
University of the Basque Country
Dr. Lisa Yeomans
Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies
University of Copenhagen
Dr. Pernille Bangsgaard Jensen
Natural History Museum
University of Copenhagen
Dr. Anthony Henry Ruter
Natural History Museum
University of Copenhagen
Dr. Sajjad Alibaigi
Department of Archaeology
Razi University