TEHRAN – A team of archaeologists has unearthed further evidence that Paleolithic people lived in Sarbisheh Plain, eastern Iran.

The team has found, in the first step, that some objects, previously discovered at Kalateh Mohammad Laleh in Sarbisheh plain, have links to human presence in the Paleolithic era, CHTN reported on Thursday.

Furthermore, the archaeologists obtained further evidence through lithic artifacts of the other four sites, namely Kiaram, Khunik, Kalateh Shour, and Chehel Dokhtaran. They investigated the main characteristics of their lithic artifacts.

The results have recently been published in an article titled “An Introduction to the Late Pleistocene Lithic Industries in the East of the Iranian Plateau in Light of the New Findings from Sarbisheh Plain” by a UK journal, the report said.

The eastern side of the Iranian plateau has long been considered an ecological and geological hub of the Paleolithic era by many researchers and archaeologists.

However, unlike the western and, to some extent, the central part of the Iranian Plateau, only a handful of sites have been identified in the northeastern part. Field studies conducted on the Neyshabur plain have provided some of the only Paleolithic evidence at four locations in the foothills of the Binalud Mountains: Dar Behesht, Mushan Tappeh, Ali Abad, and Qezel Tappeh.

A 2019 study published in the Journal of Human Evolution suggests Neanderthals roamed across the Zagros Mountain range between 40 to 70 thousand years ago.

The history of Paleolithic research in these regions dates back to the mid-20th century.

Until the late 20th century, Neanderthals were regarded as genetically, morphologically, and behaviorally distinct from living humans. However, more recent discoveries about this well-preserved fossil Eurasian population have revealed an overlap between living and archaic humans.

Neanderthals lived before and during the last Ice Age of the Pleistocene in some of the most unforgiving environments ever inhabited by humans. They developed a successful culture, with a complex stone tool technology, that was based on hunting, some scavenging, and local plant collection. Their survival during tens of thousands of years of the last glaciation is a remarkable testament to human adaptation.

AFM