Publications on Iran

@article{nokey,

title = {Exceptional Ancient DNA Preservation and Fibre Remains of a Sasanian Saltmine Sheep Mummy in ChehrāBāD, Iran},

author = {Conor Rossi and Gabriela Ruß-Popa and Valeria Mattiangeli and Fionnuala McDaid and Andrew J. Hare and Hossein Davoudi and Haeedeh Laleh and Zahra Lorzadeh and Roya Khazaeli and Homa Fathi and Matthew D. Teasdale and Abolfazl Aali and Thomas Stöllner and Marjan Mashkour and Kevin G. Daly},

doi = {https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2021.0222},

year  = {2021},

date = {2021-00-00},

urldate = {2021-00-00},

journal = {Biological letters},

issue = {17},

abstract = {Mummified remains have long attracted interest as a potential source of ancient DNA. However, mummification is a rare process that requires an anhydrous environment to rapidly dehydrate and preserve tissue before complete decomposition occurs. We present the whole-genome sequences (3.94 X) of an approximately 1600-year-old naturally mummified sheep recovered from Chehrābād, a salt mine in northwestern Iran. Comparative analyses of published ancient sequences revealed the remarkable DNA integrity of this mummy. Hallmarks of postmortem damage, fragmentation and hydrolytic deamination are substantially reduced, likely owing to the high salinity of this taphonomic environment. Metagenomic analyses reflect the profound influence of high-salt content on decomposition; its microbial profile is predominated by halophilic archaea and bacteria, possibly contributing to the remarkable preservation of the sample. Applying population genomic analyses, we find clustering of this sheep with Southwest Asian modern breeds, suggesting ancestry continuity. Genotyping of a locus influencing the woolly phenotype showed the presence of an ancestral ‘hairy’ allele, consistent with hair fibre imaging. This, along with derived alleles associated with the fat-tail phenotype, provides genetic evidence that Sasanian-period Iranians maintained specialized sheep flocks for different uses, with the ‘hairy’, ‘fat-tailed’-genotyped sheep likely kept by the rural community of Chehrābād's miners.},

keywords = {Archaeozoology, Salt, Zanjan},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{nokey,

title = {Tracking the Near Eastern Origins and European Dispersal of the Western House Mouse},

author = {Thomas Cucchi and Katerina Papayianni and Sophie Cersoy and Laetitia Aznar-Cormano and Antoine Zazzo and Régis Debruyne and Rémi Berthon and Adrian Bălășescu and Alan Simmons and François Valla and Yannis Hamilakis and Fanis Mavridis and Marjan Mashkour and Jamshid Darvish and D Roohollah Siahsarvi and Fereidoun Biglari and Cameron A. Petrie and Lloyd Weeks and Alireza Sardari and Sepideh Maziar and Christiane Denys and David Orton and Emma Jenkins and Melinda Zeder and Jeremy B. Searle and Greger Larson and François Bonhomme and Jean-Christophe Auffray and Jean-Denis Vigne},

doi = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-64939-9},

year  = {2020},

date = {2020-05-19},

urldate = {2020-05-19},

journal = {Scientific Reports},

number = {1},

issue = {10},

pages = {1—12},

abstract = {The house mouse (Mus musculus) represents the extreme of globalization of invasive mammals. However, the timing and basis of its origin and early phases of dispersal remain poorly documented. To track its synanthropisation and subsequent invasive spread during the develoment of complex human societies, we analyzed 829 Mus specimens from 43 archaeological contexts in Southwestern Asia and Southeastern Europe, between 40,000 and 3,000 cal. BP, combining geometric morphometrics numerical taxonomy, ancient mitochondrial DNA and direct radiocarbon dating. We found that large late hunter-gatherer sedentary settlements in the Levant, c. 14,500 cal. BP, promoted the commensal behaviour of the house mouse, which probably led the commensal pathway to cat domestication. House mouse invasive spread was then fostered through the emergence of agriculture throughout the Near East 12,000 years ago. Stowaway transport of house mice to Cyprus can be inferred as early as 10,800 years ago. However, the house mouse invasion of Europe did not happen until the development of proto urbanism and exchange networks — 6,500 years ago in Eastern Europe and 4000 years ago in Southern Europe — which in turn may have driven the first human mediated dispersal of cats in Europe.},

keywords = {Archaeozoology},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{nokey,

title = {Soundings at Three Chalcolithic Sites in the Varamin Plain, 2018},

author = {Reinhard Bernbeck and Morteza Hessari and Susan Pollock and Nolwen Rol and Hassan Akbari and Jana Eger and Sepideh Saeedi},

url = {https://www.academia.edu/44150885/Soundings_at_Three_Chalcolithic_Sites_in_the_Varamin_Plain_2018},

issn = {1434-2758},

year  = {2020},

date = {2020-00-00},

urldate = {2020-00-00},

journal = {Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Iran und Turan},

volume = {49},

pages = {49-75},

abstract = {The Chalcolithic period (late 5th and 4th mill. BCE) is central to an understanding of the social, economic, and political changes that led to the first states in western Asia as well as the early uses of writing and complex administrative systems in Iran and Mesopotamia at the end of that millennium. In Iran, the late 5th through the first half of the 4th mill. BCE is characterized by several broad, regionally distinct material culture patterns. They range from complex societies of the late Susiana and Uruk traditions in lowland Khuzestan to Lapui and Banesh in the Kur River Basin and surroundings and the Sialk III tradition on the central plateau. These traditions have ofen been treated as monolithic entities, with research geared towards the identification of broad similarities over large geographic areas. This has been done to the detriment of investigations of local specificities. We have no understanding yet as to how Sialk III or Banesh traditions might have found local expressions nor to what extent there existed economic, political, or cultural variability within such traditions.This pattern of regionalization gives way in the latter part of the 4th mill. to the Proto-Elamite phenomenon with its striking similarities in administrative artifacts and to some extent in mundane artifacts such as pottery. Proto-Elamite material culture, usually attributed to the Early Bronze Age, can be found across the central plateau and into the highland valleys of the Zagros as well as in the lowlands of southwestern Iran. Here, too, the pre-dominant research emphasis has rested on the ex-amination of similarities, with studies of regional differences taking the back seat until quite recently. The processes that led to the emergence of this macro-phenomenon are not well understood; further understandings of them will require investigations at both large and small scales. The project we present here aims to examine those long-term developments in the Varamin Plain, with a focus on the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age periods. We argue for the need for locally and regionally based understandings of these long-term trajectories. In this first phase of the project, we have placed our emphasis on the Sialk III period. In this paper we report on a series of brief soundings excavated in the summer of 2018 at the three Sialk III sites of Ahmadabad-e Kuzehgaran, Chaltasian South, and Ajor Pazi. Our goals for this initial work were the following: 

–to investigate the depth of cultural deposits at each site as well as the preservation of architecture and other remains; 

–to acquire organic samples with which to build a robust radiocarbon-based chronology for the Varamin Plain; 

–to systematically recover and document pottery in order to construct a locally based ceramic chronology that can be connected to but does not directly depend on that used for other regions (e.g., the Sialk sequence); 

–to systematically collect artifacts as a window into understanding economic practices; 

–to collect animal bones, plant remains, and soil samples as a basis for investigating subsistence practices and local environmental conditions. The study of the finds and samples is underway. Here we present summaries of the fieldwork con-ducted and the first preliminary results of our analyses. 

},

keywords = {Archaeobotany, Archaeozoology, Chalcolithic, Dating, Economy, Sounding, Tehran},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}