Hazar Merd Cave
Encyclopedia
Hazar Merd is a group of Paleolithic
cave sites excavated by Dorothy Garrod
in 1928. The caves are located at south-southwest of Suleymaieh in Iraqi Kurdistan. Her soundings in two caves of Ashkawti Aw and Ashkawti Tarik in the Hazar Merd group provide evidence of Middle and Epi-Paleolithic occupation.The Dark cave or Ashkawti Tarik in Kurdish has a commanding view of the local valley and is close to a small spring and a village with same name.
Dark Cave has a single lofty chamber 11 by 12 m wide. The Mousterian layer, level C, is over 3 m thick,containing many hearths and burnt flints and bones. The stone tool assemblage, of flint and chert, is dominated by side scrapers and Mousterian points, with no evidence of the Levallois technique. In the lowest reaches of level C, but still within Mousterian layers, two hand-axes were found. Side scrapers slightly decrease in popularity towards the top of level C.
The faunal assemblage, although fragmentary, again shows a completely modem aspect, with bones from wild goat, red deer, gazelle, field mouse, mole rat, hare,bat and several birds of woodland and scrub habitat. This evidence, and that from the presence of snails of the type Helix salomonica, indicates a mixed environment of woodland, grassland and scrub, much as exists today.A smaIl sounding in the adjacent Water Cave also revealed evidence of Mousterian occupation.
Garrod did not keep all the excavated material and she only kept those pieces that were topologically informative. Remaining pieces were thrown away at the site!
Hazar Merd and Shanidar are the only excavated Middle Palaeolithic sites in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Paleolithic
The Paleolithic Age, Era or Period, is a prehistoric period of human history distinguished by the development of the most primitive stone tools discovered , and covers roughly 99% of human technological prehistory...
cave sites excavated by Dorothy Garrod
Dorothy Garrod
Dorothy Annie Elizabeth Garrod CBE was a British archaeologist who was the first woman to hold an Oxbridge chair, partly through her pioneering work on the Palaeolithic period. Her father was Sir Archibald Garrod, the physician.-Life:Born in Oxford, she attended Newnham College, Cambridge...
in 1928. The caves are located at south-southwest of Suleymaieh in Iraqi Kurdistan. Her soundings in two caves of Ashkawti Aw and Ashkawti Tarik in the Hazar Merd group provide evidence of Middle and Epi-Paleolithic occupation.The Dark cave or Ashkawti Tarik in Kurdish has a commanding view of the local valley and is close to a small spring and a village with same name.
The faunal assemblage, although fragmentary, again shows a completely modem aspect, with bones from wild goat, red deer, gazelle, field mouse, mole rat, hare,bat and several birds of woodland and scrub habitat. This evidence, and that from the presence of snails of the type Helix salomonica, indicates a mixed environment of woodland, grassland and scrub, much as exists today.A smaIl sounding in the adjacent Water Cave also revealed evidence of Mousterian occupation.
Garrod did not keep all the excavated material and she only kept those pieces that were topologically informative. Remaining pieces were thrown away at the site!
Hazar Merd and Shanidar are the only excavated Middle Palaeolithic sites in Iraqi Kurdistan.