Ali Kosh

Ali Kosh 

a settlement of the Neolithic period (eighth to sixth millennium B.C.), near Musian in Iran. It was excavated by an American expedition in 1961 and 1963. Clay houses and numerous flint tools have been found in the lower layers. The inhabitants practiced hunting, gathering, and some farming (wheat and barley grains have been found); and they had domesticated the goat. Later, farming and animal husbandry became the main elements of the economy, the sheep was domesticated, and obsidian tools came into use. Ceramics appeared in the early sixth millennium B.C. The excavations of Ali Kosh make it possible to reestablish the development of the productive economy in the lowlands of the Near East.

REFERENCE

Hole, F., and K. V. Flannery. “Excavations at Ali Kosh.” Iranica antiqua’, 1962, vol. 2, fasc. 2.

V. M. MASSON