The Neolithisation of Fars, Iran

Any review of the processes of neolithisation in Fars must acknowledge, in the first instance, the fundamental paucity of data. Ironically, recent excavations that have helped to highlight some of the earliest possible 'Proto-Neolithic' and Aceramic Neolithic sites in the region have only exacerbated this situation, as they suggest millennia of Early Holocene occupation for which we have only the scantiest archaeological evidence. The problems of representativeness are not only chronological, but also geographical: Fars is a huge province, covering in excess of 120,000 square kilometres (i.e. nearly the size of England) and most of the fieldwork in the region and all excavations of Neolithic sites have been undertaken in the north of the province. after more than half a century of field research, we have only the most piecemeal understanding of the rise of Neolithic settlement in highland southwest Iran. Despite these limitations, this paper briefly reviews the more recent developments in our understanding of the earliest Neolithic communities of Fars, and attempts to place them in their wider Iranian context.