TEHRAN – A new scientific article on the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age periods in the Khorramabad Valley has been published in the latest issue of the journal of the National Museum of Iran, the head of Lorestan’s Cultural Heritage Department said on Friday.

Ata Hassanpour, director general of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts of Lorestan province, said the article revisits and publishes previously unpublished archaeological data related to the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age in the Khorramabad Valley.

The study, titled “Chalcolithic and Bronze Age periods in the Khorramabad Valley; a reassessment of ceramic assemblages from the surveys of Berman and Hole in the 1960s and 1970s,” reexamines pottery collections from earlier excavations and surveys, he said.

Hassanpour said the Khorramabad Valley has been a center of human settlement from prehistoric times through the Islamic period due to its environmental conditions and geographic position. He added that although extensive research had been conducted in the area, most published data focused on the Paleolithic period, with limited information available on later periods, particularly the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age.

The article focuses on two major ceramic assemblages: pottery identified during Judith Berman’s 1978 survey, which documented 15 prehistoric sites, and ceramics recovered from excavations by Frank Hole in the early 1960s at Qamari Cave. The Qamari Cave materials date from the late Chalcolithic to the Bronze Age, Hassanpour said.

He said the valley is located between Khuzestan and the central Iranian plateau, regions that had distinct cultural spheres during prehistoric times. This position indicates the valley’s role as a corridor for cultural and commercial interaction. The Khorramroud River has been identified as a primary factor in the formation of human settlements in the area, he added.

According to Hassanpour, the pottery collections studied in the article are housed in the National Museum of Iran repository. He said the materials were made available to researchers, with the museum’s authorization, nearly five decades after their recovery.

The publication coincides with the recent inscription of the Prehistoric Sites of the Khorramabad Valley on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The property includes five caves and one rock shelter located within a narrow ecological corridor rich in water, flora and fauna.

Archaeological evidence indicates human occupation in the valley dating back 63,000 years, spanning the Middle to Upper Paleolithic periods. The sites have yielded evidence of Mousterian and Baradostian cultural traditions, as well as decorative objects and advanced stone tools that provide insight into early human development and migration from Africa to Eurasia in the Zagros Mountains.

Hassanpour said the publication would contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the cultural sequence of the region and encourage further research on its prehistoric periods. He added that the findings help clarify the valley’s role in long-term human interactions and settlement patterns.

According to UNESCO, the property comprises five prehistoric caves and one rock shelter with evidence of human occupation dating back to 63,000 BP. These are the Kaldar, Ghamari, Gilvaran, Yafteh and Kunji caves, as well as the Gar Arjeneh Rock Shelter. The Khorramabad Valley is located in the Central Zagros Mountain Range, one of the key routes of human dispersal out of Africa. The numerous caves and rock shelters, ample water resources, rich fauna and flora, suitable stone sources for the tool industry, and relatively mild climate have created favourable conditions for human settlement since the Middle Palaeolithic period.

Archaeological excavations and study of the artefacts excavated on the sites have established the scientific chronology of human development in the valley. The Mousterian layers in Kunji Cave testify to the domination of the Neanderthals in the valley during the Middle Palaeolithic. During the transition between the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic periods, anatomically modern humans arrived in the valley, expanded their settlements and eventually supplanted the Neanderthals, illustrating the earliest transition phase in the Zagros region, which shed light on the debate over human migration routes out of Africa into Eurasia. The pendants and other decorative objects discovered at the sites, the evidence of using ochre pigments, as well as a decorated piece of terracotta mark the emergence of human cognitive behaviour and belief systems. The shell pendants were possibly sourced from the Persian Gulf, indicating the existence of communication and exchange routes between the Khorramabad Valley and the lowlands of the Persian Gulf during the Upper Palaeolithic period. Large numbers and varieties of stone tools discovered at the sites bear witness to the sophisticated stone tool technologies of the Baradostian culture that surpassed contemporaneous developments in the Zagros Mountains.

AM