Environment and Subsistence in the Zagros Epipalaeolithic

Palegawra cave is an emblematic site for the Zagros Epipalaeolithic. For nearly seven decades since its first excavation in 1951 by Robert Braidwood and Bruce Howe it was the only Epipalaeolithic site in the Zagros that had generated a radiocarbon chronology as well as a substantial and well published faunal assemblage. In 2016-17 a new expedition by the University of Liverpool in collaboration with the Sulaymaniyah Directorate of Antiquities and Heritage, re-excavated Palegawra as part of the Liverpool-led Eastern Fertile Crescent prehistory project, revisiting prehistoric sites previously investigated by Braidwood’s Iraq-Jarmo project to assess bioarchaeological preservation and retrieve materials suitable for radiometric dating. This chapter summarises the first insights generated by this new research at Palegawra into the nature, evolution and chronology of the Epipalaeolithic environments and subsistence economies in the northwest Zagros. It also outlines research questions and appropriate methodologies for future work in the region and time period