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International audience; Over the past decades, several Pleistocene caves and rock shelters in the Zagros Mountains have been discovered with remarkable evidences of carnivore remains. This paper presents the assemblage of Chenar cave located in Kermanshah (West-Central Zagros), at 1630m asl, on the southern face of the Paraw Mountain. The cave was discovered through an archaeological survey in 2007 by FB and AMB. It included two shafts damaged by looters. The back-dirt sediment was systematically examined indicating 795 animal bones. The nature of the sediment and taphonomical features are undoubtedly an indication of Pleistocene cave. Carnivore remains (43%) consist of fox (Vulpes sp.), striped hyena (Hyaena hyeana), golden jackal (Canis aureus), lynx (Lynx sp.), leopard (Panthera pardus), brown bear (Ursus arctos), cave bear (U.spelaeus / Spelearctos deningeri), caracal (Caracal caracal) and spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta). The herbivore remains (37%: sheep, goat, boar and cattle) may have been the prey of these carnivores although any anthropogenic traces on the bones have been observed. The Chenar cave was used as a den alternatively for multiple carnivore species, similar to the profile of the Wezmeh cave (SW of the Chenar). Despite the disturbed character of the remains, the presence of spotted and striped hyenas and cave bear adds precious information about the evolution of these species on the Iranian Plateau. Along with Chenar, the past biodiversity of Iran during the Pleistocene is gradually documented by with zooarchaological studies from Wezmeh and Zilou caves in the Zagros and Darband cave in the Alborz Mountains.

Silk Roads connected China, Far East, Middle East and Europe during several millennia. Besides goods and material, people, animal and plants were constantly moving along a large geographic space that is Eurasia. This information can be found in European, Arab, Persian and Chinese historical sources as well as archaeological investigations. In fact, bioarcheological and paleoecological studies in Central Asia (including archaeozoology, archaeobotany, paleogenetics) published during the last decades have refined our understanding about the trajectories of diffusion of human communities along with several botanical and faunal taxa (including parasites, fruits, domestic pigs, chicken, camels and horses) and how these have impacted the peopling of Central Asia as well as its economies and landscapes. These “biological” mobilities and connectivity in Eurasia together with the spread of technologies and know-hows are partly at the origin of the emergence of the globalization. Climate change (particularly during the Holocene), on varying time scales, and the various phases of aridification or, on the contrary, humidification of Central Asia, are also at the heart of studies that attempt to measure the impact on human and non-human migrations and on interactions between nomads and sedentary people (sharing and conflict over water resources; development of new agricultural and livestock practices, etc.). Furthermore, studies focus on the modalities of diffusion of migratory movements, within crossroads zones (oases) or along land and river routes. In-turn, the development of continental-scale "biological" mobilities have also risen new ecological challenges and risks for territories (erosion of the biodiversity, overuse of water, desertification, etc.) and communities (e.g. traditional knowledge losses) at the local scale.https://prospectives21.sciencesconf.org/browse/session?sessionid=63851

International audience; Recent archaeological investigations in the North West of Kermanshah have highlighted the importance of this region for documenting initial stages of the Neolithisation of Central Zagros. During winter 2019 we excavated Tappeh Qazānchi, near Kermanshah. The site was first reported by Robert J. Braidwood during the 60’s. It is unfortunately now heavily damaged by agricultural activities. Tappeh Qazānchi is a 2 hectares mound of 13 meters height, 160 meters long and 160 meters wide. Our preliminary surface collection on the site during 2012 indicated a multi-period occupation and the presence of lithic tools characteristic of the Early Neolithic period. The 2019 sounding confirmed these preliminary observations. We opened three trenches and found a Bronze Age deposit on the top of the mound and pre-pottery Neolithic ashy layers from eight to thirteen meters lower down. The Neolithic occupation of Tappeh Qazānchi is comparable to Chogha Golan, Sheikhi Abad and East Chia Sabz on the basis of radiocarbon dating and lithic analyses. This presentation will summarise the results of chronological, bioarchaeological, lithic and micromorphological studies with a particular emphasis on archaeobotanical, archaeozoological and micromorphologial results.

Direkli Cave, located in the Taurus Mountains of southern Turkey, was occupied by Late Epipaleolithic hunters-gatherers for the seasonal hunting and processing of game including large numbers of wild goats. We report genomic data from new and published Capra specimens from Direkli Cave and, supplemented with historic genomes from multiple Capra species, find a novel lineage best represented by a ~14,000 year old 2.59 X genome sequenced from specimen Direkli4. This newly discovered Capra lineage is a sister clade to the Caucasian tur species (Capra cylindricornis and Capra caucasica), both now limited to the Caucasus region. We identify genomic regions introgressed in domestic goats with high affinity to Direkli4, and find that West Eurasian domestic goats in the past, but not those today, appear enriched for Direkli4-specific alleles at a genome-wide level. This forgotten 'Taurasian tur' likely survived Late Pleistocene climatic change in a Taurus Mountain refuge and its genomic fate is unknown.

International audience

International audience; The Huns, invading through Dariali Gorge on the modern-day border between Russia and Georgia in AD 395 and 515, spread terror across the late antique world. Was this the prelude to the apocalypse? Prophecies foresaw a future Hunnic onslaught, via the same mountain pass, bringing about the end of the world. Humanity’s fate depended on a gated barrier deep in Europe’s highest and most forbidding mountain chain.Centuries before the emergence of such apocalyptic beliefs, the gorge had reached world fame. It was the target of a planned military expedition by the Emperor Nero. Chained to the dramatic sheer cliffs, framing the narrow passage, the mythical fire-thief Prometheus suffered severe punishment, his liver devoured by an eagle. It was known under multiple names, most commonly the Caspian or Alan Gates.Featuring in the works of literary giants, no other mountain pass in the ancient and medieval world matches Dariali’s fame. Yet little was known about the materiality of this mythical place. A team of archaeologists has now shed much new light on the major gorge-blocking fort and a barrier wall on a steep rocky ridge further north. The walls still standing today were built around the time of the first major Hunnic invasion in the late fourth century – when the Caucasus defences feature increasingly prominently in negotiations between the Great Powers of Persia and Rome. In its endeavour to strongly fortify the strategic mountain pass through the Central Caucasus, the workforce erased most traces of earlier occupation. The Persian-built bastion saw heavy occupation for 600 years. Its multi-faith medieval garrison controlled Trans-Caucasian traffic. Everyday objects and human remains reveal harsh living conditions and close connections to the Muslim South, as well as the steppe world of the north. The Caspian Gates explains how a highly strategic rock has played a pivotal role in world history from Classical Antiquity into the twentieth century.

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MASHKOUR, M., BEECH, M. (2014): Avant-propos de l'éditeur scientifique Les camélidés de l'ancien monde. Entre l'Arabie et l'Europe. Anthropozoologica 49 (2): 163-166, DOI: 10.5252/az2014n2a13

La première campagne de terrain de la mission franco-iranienne portant sur le Paléolithique a concerné une cavité perchée du massif de Bisotoun, région de Kermanshah (sud du Zagros, Iran) découverte en 1986. Les sept premiers cosignataires ont participé à la phase terrain (2004) qui a consisté en une étude globale et interdisciplinaire de la petite grotte de Mar Tarik dont le remplissage avait été malheureusement affecté par des travaux clandestins qui ont détruit l'essentiel du gisement à l'exception de lambeaux de sédiments indurés et conservés dans la salle du fond. Outre des témoignages de fréquentation ou d'occupations d'âge historique, protohistorique (Chalcolithique) qui ne sont pas décrits ici, les vestiges paléolithiques révèlent une homogénéité évidente, concernant uniquement (ou presque) le Moustérien du Zagros. Une datation U/Th d'un spéléothème antérieur au niveau moustérien a été rapporté au Dernier interglaciaire (OIS 5e). Il est possible de distinguer la faune post-paléolithique des vestiges pléistocènes par leur état de surface mais sans contexte stratigraphique et avec un faible échantillonnage, l'histoire des différents stocks de faune, qui est complexe, n'est pas aisée à établir. De même pour les restes humains attribuables à Homo sapiens sp. Un essai de datation 14C SMA sur un fragment d'os humain insuffisamment riche en collagène n'a pas donné d'estimation chronologique. L'industrie lithique montre une chaîne opératoire fractionnée typique d'un site de consommation secondaire avec faible activité de taille et importation d'outils déjà préparés, les outils retouchés représentant 44 % du total de l'industrie. La production est dominée par la méthode Levallois, difficile à identifier en cas de ravivages multiples. Les outils retouchés sont typiques du Moustérien du Zagros: racloirs, racloirs déjetés, convergents, pointes, outils à dos amincis. Une pierre en calcaire fin est gravée de lignes ou quadrillages géométriques, mais, sans provenance stratigraphique claire, son appartenance au Moustérien, bien que possible, n'est pas assurée.

International audience; Control mechanism of biodiversity at the Holocene time scale: the contributions of archaeozoologyThis project aimed to increase and use archaeozoological data for a contribution to the knowledge of theimpact of human societies on animal biodiversity at the scale of some centuries or millennia. It was developedin four directions:– large mammals in poorly known and hot spot biodiversity areas (Iran, Ethiopia),– coastal areas in both intertropical (Equator, Peru, West Indies, Oman) and temperate (Aleoutians, theEuropean Atlantic façade) zones,– small Brittany islands and– origin of the mouse commensalism and cat domestication. New evidence have been found for the Holocenegeographical restriction of several species (Saiga tatarica, Equus hydruntinus, Hyaena hyaena,Tragelaphus buxtoni, Noetiella chesneyi, Osilinus lineatus) and even of some extinctions (endemicMicrotus in Molène archipelago, Meretrix sp. In Oman). New species have been described (Meretric sp.,Mus cypriacus). The history of the spread of the house mouse in the Mediterranean basin has been elucidated and the origin of the domestic cat has been found much earlier as expected. In addition, process ofbiodiversity decrease have been described in several of the studied areas, and their natural or man-madeorigin is discussed. Clear cut answers are rarely available, but most of these researches are still in progressin order to increase data and to get the more accurate environmental and anthropological informationwhich will allow us to go deeper in the processes.

International audience

Economically harvesting energy from a microbial fuel cell (MFC), increasing its electrical power production, and developing its role as a practical energy supply, needs a low-cost and high-performance design of the MFC compartments. According to this strategy, a novel monolithic membrane electrode assembly (MEA) was fabricated and evaluated as an air–cathode in a single-chamber MFC (SCMFC). The MEA was made of bacterial cellulose (BC), conductive multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNT), and nano-zycosil (NZ). BC, as a nano-celluloses with oxygen barrier property, can maintain anaerobic conditions for the anode compartment. Binder-less CNT coating on BC avoids costly binders such as poly-tetra fluoro ethylene (PTFE) and Nafion and decreases the MEA charge transfer resistance. NZ, as a very cheap modifier, not only prevents the anolyte leakage but also provides more MEA’s active sites for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). The electrochemical performance of the MEA was compared to a PTFE- based gas diffusion electrode (GDE) in the SCMFC. The MEA cell provided a pulse power density of 1790 mW/m2, roughly twice as high as the pulse power density of GDE (920 mW/m2). SCMFC’s internal resistance decreased from 1.84 KΩ (with GDE) to 0.8 KΩ (with MEA). Also, the cell’s columbic efficiency increased from 4.2% (with GDE) to11.7% (with MEA). Additionally, the capacitance of the MEA (65 mF) was much higher than the value for GDE (0.73 mF). Thus, the MEA compared to the GDE showed higher performance in the SCMFC for electricity generation and wastewater treatment at a lower cost.

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