A typo-technological analysis of chipped stone assemblage from the Mesolithic site of Altappeh, Mazandaran, Iran (the archive of the National Museum of Iran)

Abstract

This paper presents a typo-technological analysis of the lithic assemblage from the excavation of Mesolithic site of Altappeh (southeast of the Caspian Sea). The site was excavated by C. McBurney and the archaeological materials from the excavation were divided between the University of Cambridge and the National Museum of Iran. This research is based on the chipped stones stored in the National Museum of Iran. The assemblage, consisting mostly of flake tools including various scrapers and notchdenticulate tools, presents characteristics which reflect “Caspian Mesolithic” chipped stone industry, previously detected from cave sites of Kamarband, Hotu and Komishan in the same region. The Mesolithic chipped stone industry of the south and southeast of the Caspian Sea had been introduced as “Trialetian” during 1990s, but the recent research emphasizes the differences between chipped stone assemblages entitled “Trialetian” with “Caspian Mesolithic”. These differences are mostly reflected in raw material procurement strategies and tool types which are not similar in the assemblages from southeast and west of the Caspian Sea.