Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic in the Eastern Fertile Crescent

This volume brings together the latest results and discussions from research carried out in the eastern Fertile Crescent, the so-called hilly flanks, and adjacent regions, as well as providing key historical perspectives on earlier fieldwork in the region.

The emergence of sedentary food producing societies in southwest Asia ca. 10,000 years ago has been a key research focus for archaeologists since the 1930s. This book provides a balance to the weight of work undertaken in the western Fertile Crescent, namely the Levant and southern Anatolia. This preference has led to a heavy emphasis on these regions in discussions about where, when and how the transition from hunting and gathering to plant cultivation and animal domestication occurred. Chapters assess the role of the eastern Fertile Crescent as a key region in the Neolithization process in southwest Asia, highlighting the key and important contributions people in this region made to the emergence of sedentary farming societies.

This book is primarily aimed at academics researching the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture in southwest Asia. It will also be of interest to archaeologists working on this transition in other parts of Eurasia.

Tobias Richter is an associate professor in Near Eastern Archaeology and head of the Centre for the Study of Early Agricultural Societies (CSEAS) at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. His work investigates the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture in prehistory, focusing on Southwest Asia.

Hojjat Darabi is an associate professor of prehistoric archaeology at Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran. For the past 15 years, he has been researching the Neolithic in the Zagros, focusing on the transition from foraging to food producing and the emergence of village life. He (co)-directed excavation at a number of important Neolithic sites in the central Zagros.