Pre-pottery clay innovation in the Zagros foothills

Richardson, A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7376-8948 (2019) Pre-pottery clay innovation in the Zagros foothills. Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 38 (1). pp. 2-17. ISSN 1468-0092 doi: 10.1111/ojoa.12155

Abstract/Summary

Neolithic material engagements transformed the ways in which communities interacted with the physical world and one another. Based on evidence from the flanks of the Zagros Mountains, in western Iran and north‐eastern Iraq, Robert Braidwood initially proposed his ‘Hilly Flanks’ hypothesis for the origins of agriculture and sedentism. The evidence for multi‐centred developments in domestication has demonstrated that elements of these practices spanned south‐west Asia in the Early Neolithic. The Zagros Mountains (and the eastern branch of the Fertile Crescent as a whole) constituted an area of vibrant engagement with new ideas, materials, experimentation and innovation, participating in the networks of interaction and exchange that facilitated the spread of alternative lifeways. This research examines how engagements with clay influenced the development and spread of new ways of thinking about the physical world, highlighting the role of clay as a transformational material through sites in the Central Zagros.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/80464
Identification Number/DOI	10.1111/ojoa.12155
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Science > School of Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Science > Department of Archaeology
Publisher	Wiley
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