Zagros Mountains
History

The Zagros Mountains have significant ancient history. They were occupied by early humans since the Lower Paleolithic Period. The earliest human fossils discovered in Zagros belongs to Neanderthals and come from Shanidar Cave, Bisitun Cave, and Wezmeh Cave. The remains of ten Neanderthals, dating from around 65,000–35,000 years ago, have been found in the Shanidar Cave. The cave also contains two later " proto-Neolithic " cemeteries, one of which dates back about 10,600 years and contains 35 individuals. Evidence from later Upper Paleolithic and Epipaleolithic occupations come from Yafteh Cave, Kaldar Cave near Khoramabad, and Warwasi, Malaverd near Kermanshah, Kenacheh Cave in Kurdistan, Boof Cave in Fars and a number of other caves and rock shelters. Signs of early agriculture date back as far as 9000 BC in the foothills of the mountains. Some settlements later grew into cities, eventually named Anshan and Susa; Jarmo is one archaeological site in this area. Some of the earliest evidence of wine production has been discovered in the mountains; both the settlements of Hajji Firuz Tepe and Godin Tepe have given evidence of wine storage dating between 3500 and 5400 BC.

A human metatarsal bone fragment from Wezmeh Cave has been analyzed and dated to the Neolithic period. The DNA from this bone fragment shows that it is from a distinct genetic group, which was not known to scientists before. He belongs to the Y-DNA haplogroup G2b, specifically its branch G-Y37100, and mitochondrial haplogroup J1d6. He had brown eyes, relatively dark skin, and black hair, although Neolithic Iranians carried reduced pigmentation-associated alleles in several genes and derived alleles at 7 of the 12 loci, showing the strongest signatures of selection in ancient Eurasians. He did not contribute to the genetic makeup of early European farmers or modern Europeans. Instead, he was the most genetically similar to modern Iranian Zoroastrians, followed by Fars, Balochi, Brahui, Kalash and Georgians. Gallego-Llorente et al. (2016) believes that the Zagros Mountain was a plausible source of Eurasian ancestry in Central and South Asia, along with Kotias, which was inhabited by Caucasu Hunter-Gatherers. He cites archaeological evidence of eastward Neolithic expansions from the Near East.

During early ancient times, the Zagros was the home of peoples such as the Hurrians, Guti, Kassites, Elamites and Mitanni, who periodically invaded the Sumerian and/or Akkadian cities of Mesopotamia. The mountains create a geographic barrier between the Mesopotamian Plain, which is in Iraq, and the Iranian plateau. A small archive of clay tablets detailing the complex interactions of these groups in the early second millennium BC has been found at Tell Shemshara along the Little Zab. Tell Bazmusian, near Shemshara, was occupied between 5000 BCE and 800 CE, although not continuously.
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