Investigating the emergence of mobile and sedentary pastoralism in Neolithic Iran through ancient food residues analyses and radiocarbon dating

The development of agriculture and the domestication of animals has influenced past human diet up to the modern food industry.

Archaeology contributes to enriching our knowledge of past societies, including the exploitation of natural resources by human groups and adaptation to various environments. Human societies associated with the beginnings of agriculture and domestication began in the Neolithic.

Recent bioarchaeological studies have highlighted the role of the Zagros mountains (Iran) in the dynamics of plant and animal domestication in the Near East and their spread eastwards. This region has also witnessed the development of nomadic pastoralism throughout its history.

Nonetheless, the overall subsistence strategy and beginnings of milk exploitation by these early pastoralists are not yet understood, due to the lack of analysis of absorbed food residue from pottery and difficulties in dating the mobile camps in this area.VARGAH (“mobile camps” in Persian) aims to fill the gaps in our understanding of the development of agriculture and animal management in Iranian archaeology by (1) paleodietary reconstruction, using ancient proteins preserved in human dental calculus and lipid residues preserved in pottery vessels, (2) resolving the chronology using bone collagen dating and compound-specific radiocarbon dating of lipid residues and (3) contextualisation of pastoralism through the comparison of sedentary and mobile groups.

This project is based on a synergy between advances in analytical chemistry applied to archaeometry (fellow), cutting-edge expertise in Iranian archaeology and biomolecular geochemistry (host), and advances in 14C geochronology measurements (secondment).

VARGAH will provide robust answers on early pastoralism in a region central to our understanding for agricultural development.

The project will also enable the fellow to reach an idependant leading position by developping sought-after expertise linking archaeology, chemistry and geosciences.