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The
historical cave of Yafteh in Khorram Abad of
Lorestan province, west of Iran, will soon host a
group of Iranian and Belgian archaeologists to
excavate the area and study remains of the ancient
human beings living there.
Aurignacian is the name of a culture of the Upper
Palaeolithic present in Europe and south west
Asia. It dates to between 34,000 and 23,000 B.C.
The name originates from the type site of Aurignac
in the Haute Garonne area of France.
According to head of the Iranian archaeologists of
the joint team, Fereidoun Biglari, remains of
Aurignacian people, dating to the New Paleolithic
Era, were previously discovered in Yafteh cave by
an American team of archaeologists from Yale
University, headed by Frank Hole.
The dating studies carried out by Yale University
showed that the tools found in the cave dated back
to 40,000 to 28,000 years ago.
Professor Marcel Otte, the co-director of the team
said “I think Iran possesses a good amount of
information about the origins of modern man in
Europe. I’ve been working in different places in
Asia already, but from the literature and from
what I’ve studied elsewhere about Iran, this
country seems to be at the heart of this focus
that has concerned the whole European continent.
Here, we found old sites of this period such as
Yafteh Cave at khoramabad, but new researches have
to be undertaken on the field for better
understanding.”
The new round of studies aims at a detailed
analysis of each and every piece, including even
small bones, stones, etc. to determine the exact
date of the human residences of the cave and to
find out whether the Yafteh cave has been one of
the primary residences of the Aurignaci people.
Many of the tools and remains discovered by the
Yale team that could have provided archaeologists
with useful information were lost due to lack of
proper facilities, explained Biglari, adding that
the remaining stone tools from those discoveries
are now kept in Iran’s National Museum and Yale
University Museum.
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