Kashafrud Basin(کشف‌رود) is an

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

site in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

, known for the

Lower Palaeolithic The Lower Paleolithic (or Lower Palaeolithic) is the earliest subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. It spans the time from around 3 million years ago when the first evidence for stone tool production and use by hominins appears in ...

artifacts collected there; these are the oldest-known evidence for human occupation of Iran. Early humans in the Kashafrud basin, NE Iran

Kashafrud includes a cluster of sites which are located 35 km to 85 km southeast of

Mashhad Mashhad ( fa, مشهد, Mašhad ), also spelled Mashad, is the List of Iranian cities by population, second-most-populous city in Iran, located in the relatively remote north-east of the country about from Tehran. It serves as the capital of R ...

, near the Kashfarud River. The French geologist Claude Thibault, in collaboration with the Iranian geologist Ali Ariai, conducted surveys in the Kashfrud basin east of Mashhad in 1974–75, during which 80 stone artifacts were collected from seven open areas. The largest of these collections were found near the village of Abravan and other large collections in Chahak and Baghbaghu. The survey identified three major

alluvial Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluv ...

units that are roughly attributed to the Lower, Middle, and upper

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

. Many of the findings are attributed to the Lower Pleistocene gravel layer that lays on a thick layer of sand. In an article, Thibaut published the results of a preliminary study of stone artifacts and their geological context in 1977. The discovered collection was sent to the

National Museum of Iran The National Museum of Iran ( fa, موزهٔ ملی ایران ) is located in Tehran, Iran. It is an institution formed of two complexes; the Museum of Ancient Iran and the Museum of Islamic Archaeology and Art of Iran, which were opened in 1937 ...

after the examination. The collection was transferred to the Paleolithic Department of the Museum in the early 2000s and was re-examined by

Fereidoun Biglari Fereidoun Biglari ( fa, فریدون بیگلری) () is an Iranian archaeologist and a museum curator. Career Fereidoun Biglari is co-founder and head of the Paleolithic department in National Museum of Iran which established in 2001. He is ...

. His re-analysis of the collection revealed that some of the specimens are naturally broken quartz fragments.Biglari, F. and Shidrang, S., (2006) The Lower Paleolithic Occupation of Iran, Near Eastern Archeology 69 (3–4): 160-168 But most specimens are man-made and include core-chopper, simple flakes, and tools such as

scraper Scrape, scraper or scraping may refer to: Biology and medicine * Abrasion (medical), a type of injury * Scraper (biology), grazer-scraper, a water animal that feeds on stones and other substrates by grazing algae, microorganism and other matter ...

s, notches, and

borer Borer may refer to: Insects * Stem borer * Twig borer * Shoot borer Moths * ''Chilo'' (moth) *''Diatraea grandiosella'', southwestern corn borer *'' Podosesia syringae'', ash borer or lilac borer *'' Melittia cucurbitae'', squash vine bore ...

s. On the basis of their geological contexts, this collection is more than 800,000 years old.Dennell, R. (2008). The paleolithic settlement of Asia. Cambridge University Press. Thus, Kashfar Rud is one of the oldest human settlements in Iran. A number of stone tools discovered by Kashafrud are displayed in the Paleolithic Hall of the National Museum of Iran
See
There are some collections of simple core and flake stone artifacts collected by C. Thibault in 1974–75. The tools are

Olduwan The Oldowan (or Mode I) was a widespread stone tool archaeological industry (style) in prehistory. These early tools were simple, usually made with one or a few flakes chipped off with another stone. Oldowan tools were used during the Lower ...

-like and mainly made of

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical form ...

. Thibault suggested a

Lower Pleistocene The Early Pleistocene is an unofficial sub-epoch in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, being the earliest division of the Pleistocene Epoch within the ongoing Quaternary Period. It is currently estimated to span the time ...

age (more than 800,000 years ago) for the localities. The lithic assemblages were re-analyzed in

and the results are published in a general synthesis about Iranian Lower Paleolithic. Chopper, Kashafrud, Iran, Lower Paleolithic, National Museum of Iran

Chopper, Kashafrud, Iran, Lower Paleolithic, National Museum of Iran

References

{{Reflist * Ariai, A., and C. Thibault, 1975-77 "Nouvelles precisions à propos de l'outillage paleolithique ancient sur galets du Khorassan (Iran)," Paléorient 3, pp. 101–8 * Biglari, F. and S. Shidrang, 2006 "The Lower Paleolithic Occupation of Iran", Near Eastern Archaeology 69(3–4): 160-168 Paleolithic Prehistoric Iran Archaeological sites in Iran

See also

References