Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32956385›Full record

ArticlePloS one2020

The Zagros Epipalaeolithic revisited: New excavations and 14C dates from Palegawra cave in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Eleni Asouti, Douglas Baird, Ceren Kabukcu, Kate Swinson, Louise Martin, Aroa García-Suárez, Emma Jenkins, Kamal Rasheed

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In one paragraph

Article in PloS one, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
4citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

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3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

4 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. A speleothem record from the Fertile Crescent covering the last deglaciation better contextualizes neolithization.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
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4 · The record

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PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors.

Eleni AsoutiDepartment of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0002-0905-7594
Douglas BairdDepartment of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom.
Ceren KabukcuDepartment of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0001-5963-5826
Kate SwinsonInstitute of Archaeology, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
Louise MartinInstitute of Archaeology, University College London, London, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0002-2083-813X
Aroa García-SuárezDepartment of Archaeology, University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0003-2738-6321
Emma JenkinsDepartment of Archaeology & Anthropology, Bournemouth University, Poole, United Kingdom.
Kamal RasheedSulaymaniyah Directorate of Antiquities and Heritage, Kurdistan Region, Iraq.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Palegawra cave, alongside its neighbouring Zarzi, has been an emblematic site of the Epipalaeolithic (Zarzian) cultural horizon in the NW Zagros of Southwest Asia ever since its first exploration in 1951 by Bruce Howe and Robert Braidwood in the context of the Iraq-Jarmo project. At the time scientific excavation, sampling and analysis methods were either under-developed or did not exist. In this paper we present the first results of new excavations at Palegawra conducted in 2016-2017 by the Eastern Fertile Crescent (EFEC) project, a research collaboration of the University of Liverpool and the Sulaymaniyah Directorate of Antiquities and Heritage. Our research has produced the first radiometric evidence pushing back the chronology of the NW Zagros Epipalaeolithic to the Last Glacial Maximum, thus fully aligning it with Epipalaeolithic facies until now known only from the Levant and the south Anatolian coast. We have also unearthed, for the first time in the Palaeolithic of the Zagros, direct archaeobotanical evidence for hitherto elusive Zarzian plant exploitation and the vegetation of the NW Zagros piedmont zone from the LGM to the end of the Lateglacial (~19,600-13,000 cal BP). The new Palegawra chronology alongside our detailed studies of its material culture and faunal and botanical assemblages suggest that the prevailing Epipalaeolithic habitation pattern in the NW Zagros (centred on generalised persistent occupations of small caves and rock-shelters alongside task-oriented ephemeral open-air campsites) remained an enduring characteristic of the Zarzian horizon throughout this period. The Palegawra data clearly show that neither resource levels and climate conditions nor geographic and/or cultural isolation provide adequate explanations for the stability and longevity of Zarzian lifeways during this long timespan. More fieldwork is required, including the discovery, excavation and intensive sampling of other Zarzian sites, for reaching a data-informed understanding of the nature and evolution of the NW Zagros Epipalaeolithic.

Indexed as

AgricultureAnimalsAnthropology, CulturalArchaeologyArtiodactylaCarnivoryCavesCharcoalClimateFood HandlingFossilsGeographyHerbivoryHistory, AncientHumansIraqCharcoal

Identifiers

PMID32956385
PMCPMC7505476

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.