TY - BOOK ID - 85919292 TI - The Early Neolithic of the Eastern Fertile Crescent : Excavations at Bestansur and Shimshara, Iraqi Kurdistan AU - Raheem, Kamal Rasheed AU - Matthews, Wendy AU - Richardson, Amy AU - Matthews, Roger PY - 2020 SN - 1789255295 PB - [s.l.] : Oxbow Books, DB - UniCat KW - Social Science / Archaeology KW - History / Ancient KW - Social sciences KW - Behavioral sciences KW - Human sciences KW - Sciences, Social KW - Social science KW - Social studies KW - Civilization UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:85919292 AB - The Eastern Fertile Crescent region of western Iran and eastern Iraq hosted major developments in the transition from hunter-forager to farmer-herder lifestyles through the Early Neolithic period, 10,000-7000 BC. Within the scope of the Central Zagros Archaeological Project, excavations have been conducted since 2012 at two Early Neolithic sites in the Kurdistan region of Iraq: Bestansur and Shimshara. Bestansur represents an early stage in the transition to sedentary, farming life, where the inhabitants pursued a mixed strategy of hunting, foraging, herding and cultivating, maximizing the new opportunities afforded by the warmer, wetter climate of the Early Holocene. They also constructed substantial buildings of mudbrick, including a major building with a minimum of 65 human individuals, mainly infants, buried under its floor in association with hundreds of beads. These human remains provide new insights into mortuary practices, demography, diet and disease. ER -