SHANIDAR CAVE — SOLECKI 399 



few centimeters below the modern surface. The site is chronologically 

 and typologically between Jarmo of the village-food-raising period 

 and the Palegawra cave, of the earlier hnnting-foraging period. 

 Some kind of house structure is suggested, and the recovery of a 

 small number of sickle blades, milling stones, and a fair number 

 of chipped and ground stone hoes is pointed to as evidence for the 

 beginnings of agriculture. Also in the inventory are chipped celts 

 with polished bits; ground stone rings, bracelets, and pendants; in 

 addition to a large proportion of microliths. 



Karim Shahir, as well as the succeeding Jarmo, belongs to a dry 

 climate in the "Post-Glacial climatic optimum" of the European cli- 

 matic sequence (Wright, 1952, pp. 22-23). The faunal remains of 

 Karim Shahir reflect this dry climate. 



In summarizing the history of Paleolithic archeology in Iraq, it 

 is evident that with the exception of Shanidar cave, the leading sites 

 of pre-Neolithic Iraq are situated in an area approximately 35 miles 

 wide in the foothills of the Zagros Mountains between Chemchemal 

 and Suleimaniyah. These sites include Barda Balka, the Dark Cave 

 of Hazer Merd, Zarzi, Palegawra, and Karim Shahir. There are gaps 

 in the archeological sequence, which future investigations will inevita- 

 bly close. 



It is certain that with further and more systematic searches in the 

 desert areas of Iraq, more Stone Age sites will be found. Since Lees 

 and Falcon's study (1952) has shown that the supposed former exten- 

 sion of the Persian Gulf into Mesopotamia was not a fact, we may 

 assume that Stone Age man moved at will across the length and 

 breadth of this region. It is possible that Paleolithic sites may be 

 buried under the alluvium of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and their 

 drainage systems in southern Iraq. The desert regions, as in the other 

 desert areas of the Near East (notably Kharga Oasis in Egypt), had a 

 more favorable climate, presumably in pluvial times, thus supporting 

 enough game to attract the hunting-foraging peoples of the Paleo- 

 lithic period. There are several depressions of large size in western 

 and southern Iraq, around two of which Paleolithic-type artifacts 

 have been recovered. 



Affinities of the Mousterian industry of the Hazer Merd cave have 

 been found by Garrod (1930, p. 37; Garrod and Bate, 1937, p. 119) 

 with the caves of Palestine. The assemblage from the Bisitun cave 

 in western Iran contains elements that are comparable to the industry 

 from the Hazer Merd cave also (Movius, in Coon, 1951, pp. 91-92; 

 Movius, 1953, pp. 414-415). 



At the time of Garrod's (1930) finds at Zarzi, information from 

 Russia was scanty; the nearest comparable sites were the Austrian 

 loess stations and the Grimaldi caves. With new reports from Rus- 



