Evolving landscapes during the Middle Paleolithic in southeast Zagros (Iran): insights from the small mammal and palynological records

Located in the Zagros range, 10 km southeast of the city of Arsanjan (Fars-south, Iran), Tang-e Shekan is an archaeological cave deposit chrono-culturally comprising the Middle- and Upper-Paleolithic, Epipaleolithic and the Proto-Neolithic, this mainly based in the analysis of the lithic assemblage. Wet-sieving techniques using fine meshes allowed the retrieval of 268 small mammal remains from the sediments of the different stratigraphic units, subsequently attributed to 14 taxa including “insectivores” s.l. (Crocidura cf. suaveolens, Hemiechinus auritus), rodents (Meriones cf. persicus, Rhombomys opimus, Allactaga cf. elater, Calomyscus bailwardi, Apodemus cf. flavicollis, Mus musculus, Ellobius cf. lutescens, Microtus spp., Cricetulus migratorius), lagomorphs (Ochotona rufescens, Lepus sp.) and unidentified bats (Chiroptera). In this study, we use small mammals as palaeoecological proxies to infer the distribution and evolution of the landscape at the foothills of southeast Zagros during the Middle Paleolithic. We then compare our results to those obtained from other sites of similar chronology in the region and with the evidence so far available from palynological records to get a more reliable scenario. Prior to this, we carefully examine the taphonomic biases affecting the samples, particularly those related to the origin of the accumulation, to prevent further misleading interpretations