The Neolithisation Of Iran: The Formation Of New Societies Neolithization Of Iran

Identity is relational and a construct, and is expressed in a myriad of ways. For example, material culture and its pluralist meanings have been readily manipulated by humans in a prehistoric context in order to construct personal and group identities. Artefacts were often from or reminiscent of far-flung places and were used to demonstrate membership of an (imagined) regional, or European community. Earthworks frequently archive maximum visual impact through elaborate ramparts and entrances with the minimum amount of effort, indicating that the construction of identities were as much in the eye of the perceivor, as of the perceived. Variations in domestic architectural style also demonstrate the malleability of identity, and the prolonged, intermittent use of particular places for specific functions indicates that the identity of place is just as important in our archaeological understanding as the identity of people. By using a wide range of case studies, both temporally and spatially, these thought processes may be explored further and diachronic and geographic patterns in expressions of identity investigated. Table of Contents 1. exploring prehistoric identity (Rebecca Enlander and Victoria Ginn) Material culture of the dead Introduction (Eileen Murphy) 2. Origin is in the eye of the analysis for in-grave Eye-dentiy (Samantha Reiter) 3. Exceptional or conventional? Social identity within the chamber tomb of Quanterness, Orkney (Rebecca Crozier) 4. Is it possible to access identity through the osteoarchaeological record? (Sam Walsh) Material culture of the living Introduction (Caroline Malone) 5. Human bone as material culture of the living in Bronze Age Ireland (Kerri Cleary) 6. High and identity and status in Late Bronze Age Ireland (Eoin Grogan) 7. Who lives in a roundhouse like this? Going through the keyhole on Bronze Age domestic identity (Victoria Ginn) 8. Potty about exploring identity through the pottery assemblage of prehistoric Malta (Sara Boyle) 9. A smith leaves traces; or, what material culture of the dead can say about the living? (Heide Wrobel Nrgaard) Architectural and ritual expressions Introduction (Dirk Brandherm) 10. Under the same night sky the architecture and meaning of Bronze Age stone circles in mid-Ulster (Michael MacDonagh) 11. Reference, repetition and defining identities through carved landscapes in the north of Ireland (Rebecca Enlander) 12. Think tanks in problem solving and subjectivity at Nmforsen, northern Sweden (Mark Sapwell) 13. Going through the using phenomenology and 3D modelling to explore identity at Knowth, County Meath, during the Middle Neolithic (Eimear Meegan) Our construct or theirs? Introduction (Audrey Horning) 14. The trowel as shaping modern Romanian identity through the Iron Age (Catalin Popa) 15. Broken mirrors? Archaeological reflections on identity (Nicole Taylor) 16. Concluding thoughts. Expanding archaeology, the humanities, and the social sciences (Tina Thurston) 1. Introduction: exploring prehistoric identity(Rebecca Enlander and Victoria Ginn) Material culture of the dead Introduction(Eileen Murphy) 2. Origin is in the eye of the beholder: analysis for in-grave`Eye-dentiy'(Samantha Reiter) 3. Exceptional or conventional? Social identity within the chamber tomb of Quanterness, Orkney(Rebecca Crozier)4. Is it possible to access identity through the osteoarchaeological record? (Sam Walsh) Material culture of the living Introduction(Caroline Malone)5. Human bone as material culture of the living in Bronze Age Ireland(Kerri Cleary) 6. High and low: identity and status in Late Bronze Age Ireland(Eoin Grogan) 7. Who lives in a roundhouse like this? Going through the keyhole on Bronze Age domestic identity(Victoria Ginn) 8. Potty about pots: exploring identity through the pottery assemblage of prehistoric Malta(Sara Boyle) 9. A smith leaves traces or, what material culture of the dead can say about the living? (Heide Wrobel Norgaard) Architectural and ritual expressions Introduction(Dirk Brandherm) 10. Under the same night sky - the architecture and meaning of Bronze Age stone circles in mid-Ulster(Michael MacDonagh) 11. Reference, repetition and reuse: defining `identities' through carved landscapes in the north of Ireland(Rebecca Enlander) 12. `Think tanks' in prehistory: problem solving and subjectivity at Namforsen, northern Sweden(Mark Sapwell)13. Going through the motions: using phenomenology and 3D modelling to explore identity at Knowth, County Meath, during the Middle Neolithic(Eimear Meegan) Our construct or theirs? Introduction(Audrey Horning)14. The trowel as chisel: shaping modern Romanian identity through the Iron Age(Catalin Popa) 15. Broken mirrors? Archaeological reflections on identity(Nicole Taylor)16. Concluding thoughts. Expanding identity: archaeology, the humanities, and the social sciences(Tina Thurston) The period c. 10,000-5000 BC witnessed fundamental changes in the human condition with societies across the Fertile Crescent shifting their alignment from millennia-old practices of seasonally mobile hunting and foraging to year-round sedentism, plant cultivation and animal herding. The significant role of Iran in the early stages of this transition was recognised more than half a century ago but has not been to the fore of academic consciousness in recent decades. In the meantime, investigations into Neolithic transformation have proceeded apace in all other regions of the Fertile Crescent and beyond. Here, 18 studies attempt to redress that balance in re-assessing the role of Iran in the early neolithisation of human societies. These studies, many of them by Iranian scholars, consider patterns of change and/or continuity across a variety of topographical landscapes; investigate Neolithic settlement patterns, the use of caves, animal exploitation and environmental indicators and present new insights into some well-known and some newly investigated sites. The results re-affirm the formative role of this region in the transition to sedentary farming Edited By Roger Matthews And Hassan Fazeli Nashli. British Association For Near Eastern Archaeology (banea) Includes Bibliographical References.