Networks of Knowledge, Materials, and Practice in the Neolithic Zagros

Abstract Across a fragmented landscape, the Neolithic communities of the Zagros Mountains (in modern Iraq and Iran) maintained complex networks of material exchange and knowledge transfer. From the early Holocene, small groups of people explored new ways of doing and being in the world, sharing innovative ideas with one another through tangible material media. Drawing on research at sites in the Central Zagros, case studies illustrate differing approaches to the curation of networks amongst the inhabitants of highland and lowland landscapes from the Epipalaeolithic to the Chalcolithic. Through key material strands and shared networks of practice, we can identify catalysing factors behind the growth of communication networks in the Early Neolithic and consider the implications of intensified connections. The research addresses transects through time and landscapes through inter-disciplinary research at PPNA Sheikh-e Abad and Jani in the high Zagros of Iran and in the Zagros foothills at Epipalaeolithic Zarzi Cave, a PPNA open-air site Zawi Chemi Rezan, PPNB Bestansur, and Shimshara in the Kurdish Region of Iraq. This article examines material case studies from these sites and considers how engagement with networks was selective and contingent for individual communities.