Between mountain and plain: new evidence for the Middle Palaeolithic in the northern Susiana Plain, Khuzestan, Iran

Abstract

The Middle East generally (Bar-Yosef 1994) and Iran specifically (Vahdati Nasab et al. 2013) have become a focus for the study of human migration between South-west Asia and Central and Eastern Asia during the Pleistocene (Asgari Khaneghah et al. 2005; Biglari & Shidrang 2006; Heydari Guran 2012). In Iran, studies of the Palaeolithic have concentrated on the Zagros and Alborz areas, but recent work in the sub-montane areas, desert margins and lowland plains have also revealed interesting results regarding the activities of hunter-gatherer societies (Biglari et al. 2000; Dashtizadeh 2009; Vahdati Nasab et al. 2009, 2010, 2013; Darabi et al. 2012).