Missioni Archeologiche e Progetti di Ricerca

Conferenze 2022

 Matteo Delle Donne, Reza Naseri, Yui Arimatsu

New Environmental Data from the Late Prehistory of the North Khorasan Province

Thursday, May 19^th  –  4.30 PM (UTC +2)

The site of Menjaq Tepe 2, located in North Khorasan (37°21’21”N, 56°20’44”E, 1312masl), was excavated in 2017 in the framework of the project “Reconstruction of Human History in Boundary Zone of Eurasia: Establishment of Chronological Basis for Investigation of Stratification – Inequality Generating Process”, funded by Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts, and Tourism Organization of North Khorasan Province. The excavation was carried out under the direction of Reza Naseri to gather information to clarify cultural interactions and cultural transitional processes in this frontier zone during pre-protohistory. Archaeological explorations of the site have brought to light some evidence dated from the Chalcolithic to Bronze Age. The discovery of a great number of organic remains, such as seed and fruit remains, encouraged the beginning of an extensive program of archaeobotanical research including on-site sampling and flotation involving a wide range of excavated features. A large number of soil samples were collected, partially processed, and stored within the other archaeological materials at the Zabol University. The importance of the recovered plant materials in defining the base of the site food economy suggested to quickly proceed to a deeper archaeobotanical study of the charred remains so a first collaboration between the University of Zabol, ISMEO, L’Orientale University of Naples and Hiroshima University has been established in January 2021 within the multiyear project “Environmental Archaeology Research Project in North Khorasan”. The Iranian Authorities allowed the transfer to Italy of ten samples of the processed plant material being impossible to study it at Zabol University, due to the travel restriction related to the international pandemic situation. Analysis of these plant remains was carried out at the Museum System of the University of Naples “L’Orientale”. More than 1000 plant remains occurred in the examined samples, in which cereal grains and spike remains of einkorn/emmer and barley were the dominant remains. Pulse and weed remains also occurred. The results of this investigation provided useful information on prehistoric subsistence strategies and plant economy of the ancient inhabitants of North Khorasan and allowed us to answer different questions about the exploitation and the use of local plant resources. Furthermore, it provided a unique opportunity to enrich the archaeological record of past plant biodiversity from north-eastern Iran.

The event is free, via Zoom.
ID 818 1897 0724 / PASS 010062

For info: ismeo@ismeo.eu