The Zagros Mountains is located in a strategic position, near the junction of Africa, Europe and West Asia, which most likely represented a natural crossroad used by archaic and modern humans. Since 2006, the Tübingen-Iranian Stone Age Research Project (TISARP) carried out several archaeological surveys and excavations, which a special focus on Ghar-e Boof and Chogha Golan (Iran). The Late Pleistocene archaeological record of Ghar-e Boof spans from the Middle Paleolithic until the Late Epipaleolithic, while Chogha Golan is an Aceramic Neolithic than ranges in time more than 2000 years. The archaeological research in Ghar-e Boof has offered new valuable information that highlights the cultural diversity in the Zagros during the Early Upper Paleolithic with the identification and definition of the Rostamian cultural group. Moreover, the analysis of the botanical remains from Chogha Golan has provided the earliest evidence of long-term plant management in Iran. However, very little is known regarding the role of animals in the Paleolithic and Neolithic economies of these two sites.

Thus, the current research project will focus on the zooarchaeological analyses of the faunal remains recovered by the TISARP Team to reconstruct human subsistence strategies during the Late Pleistocene-Holocene in the southern Zagros Mountains. The primary aim of this research is to understand the long-term implications of population growth and changes in residential mobility on the development of animal husbandry practices. To do so, diachronic shifts in species representation and site occupation intensity will be explored within the paradigm of evolutionary ecology in order to assess behavioral continuity and discontinuity through the Middle Paleolithic till the early Neolithic.

Zooarchaeology:

Blanco-Lapaz, A., Mata-González, M., Starkovich, B.M., Zeidi, M., Conard, N.J.: The Microvertebrate Assemblage of Ghar-e Boof (Iran): New data for the Late Pleistocene Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction of the Southern Zagros Mountains. In: López-García, J.M.,, Blain, H.A., Blanco-Lapaz, A., Rhodes, S.E., Abstract book of 3rd Meeting of the ICAZ Microvertebrate Working Group (MVWG), 1st – 4th September, 2020, Tarragona (Spain).Tarragona: Insitut Català de Paleoeocologia Humana i Evolució Social, pp. 19.

Mata González, M., Starkovich, B.M., Zeidi, M., Conard, N.J., 2020. The Exploitation of Medium Ungulates during the Early Upper Paleolithic at Ghar-e Boof (Southern Zagros Mountains, Iran).  In: Maier, A., Maaß, U., Pfauth, U. (Eds.): Black to Gravettian. 62nd Conference of the Hugo Obermaier-   Society, April 14th – April 18th 2020, Brno. Erlangen: Institut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte der Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, pp. 65-66.

Mata González, M., Starkovich, B.M., Zeidi, M., Conard, N.J., 2019. The Early Upper Paleolithic Faunal remains of Ghar-e Boof (Southern Zagros Mountain, Iran). In: Maier, A., Bößl, N., Pfauth, U. (Eds.): Proceedings of the Hugo Obermaier Society for Quaternary Research and Archaeology of the Stone Age. 61st Annual Meeting in Erkrath, April 23rd – April 27th 2019. Erlangen: Institut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte der Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, pp. 45.

Heritage Management:                                  

Mata González, M., 2018. El proyecto de Digitalización del Archivo Histórico Municipal de (Granada). In: Bocanegra Barbecho, Lidia y Romero Frías, Esteban (Eds.): I Congreso Internacional    Territorios Digitales: Construyendo unas Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades Digitales. Libro Resúmenes. Granada: Editorial Universidad de Granada y Down Hill Publishing, pp. 124-125.

Mata González, M., 2017. The Church of Atarfe (Spain): from the Continuity to the Break with the Islamic Past. In: Rodrigues dos Santos, J. (Ed.): Preserving Transcultural Heritage: Your way or my way? Questions on authenticity, identity and patrimonial proceedings in the safeguarding of architectural heritage created in the meeting of cultures. Lisbon: Caleidoscopio, pp. 369-377.

Mata González, M., 2016. El Archivo Histórico de la Parroquia de Nuestra Señora de la Encarnación de Atarfe (Granada). Granada: Fundación Sierra Elvira.