A Typo-technological Analysis of Lithic Assemblages from Ghar-e Khar Cave, Bisotun, Collections of Iran National Museum and Montreal University

This paper presents a typo-technological analysis of the lithic assemblages from the 1965 excavation of Khar Cave in the mountainous region of Central Zagros, Iran. Khar Cave is one of few excavated Paleolithic sites in the Zagros region with a stratified sequence encompassing archaeological materials from both MIS 2 and MIS 3. The research is based on the typo-technological characteristics of artifacts from both parts of the Khar Cave lithic assemblage, which are stored in the National Museum of Iran and in Montreal University, and have not been properly studied in terms of technology. The paper addresses the issue of the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition in Zagros; technological characteristics of Baradostian/Zagros Aurignacian industries; and the possibility of industrial evolution from the late Baradostian to the early Zarzian. Despite the small size of the assemblage, the analysis illustrates a sequence of changes and continuity in core-reduction strategies and tool-production in Khar Cave, beginning in the Late Middle Paleolithic to Epipaleolithic. However, from the current state of research, the paper concludes that the available technological data in support of the hypothesis of Middle-to-Upper-Paleolithic continuity in the Zagros is insufficient, and we can neither confirm nor reject the possibility of a gradual transition in this region.