TEHRAN – The Seven Caves: Archaeological Explorations in the Middle East, which includes archaeological views on caves in Iran and other West Asian countries, has been translated into Persian.

Written by American anthropologist Carleton Stevens Coon (1904 – 1981), the book is a detailed accounting of the “digs” made by the author in the seven caves of the Near East area between 1939 and 1956.

The Seven Caves, which turns the spotlight on some of the oldest human settlements in the region, has been translated by Fakhrosadat Bassampur and released by Nashr-e No Publications in Tehran, Mehr reported on Sunday.

It gives readers an immense account of the land and the people, as the Coons went from Tangier and the High Cave to Bisitun in Iran, to the Belt Cave and the Caspian Shore, to Hoty, one of the great finds of the Middle East, and Afghanistan, to the Syrian desert and the Heifer’s Outwash en route to Palmyra.

It contains sensational hypotheses and tentative conclusions about the origins of European culture that have not yet been published in any scientific journal. Here, the focus is sharpened toward caves occupied by European men when the ice sheet began its retreat and Neolithic hunters used weapons comparable to those used for centuries to come.

The book also tells, in human and personal terms, of the dramatic adventures in strange places leading to this crowning achievement. Thanks to Carbon-14 and other post-war scientific marvels, digging into the prehistoric debris of ancient caves has become an exciting profession; and Carleton S. Coon is unquestionably its foremost practitioner.

Moreover, the author tells us how he learned to predict the location of these ancient caves, how he excavated them, and what he found. Coon reveals himself as an adroit storyteller recounting tales of high adventure and personal exploits in remote corners of the world.

Once a professor of anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, a lecturer and professor at Harvard University, Coon served as the president of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists. However, his theories on race were widely disputed in his lifetime and are allegedly considered pseudoscientific in modern anthropology.

AFM