410 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1954 



ogy, one might compare the simple economy and habits of the present 

 tribal goatherds, who seasonally inhabit the cave, with contemporary 

 life in Bagdad or in any other sizable city in Iraq. Rotary quern 

 fragments (found exclusively in the upper part of Layer A) and hand 

 manos and boulder mortars found in this layer attest a somewhat seden- 

 tary life, with some dependence on cereal foods, nuts, and the like. 

 The introduction of the rotary quern must have been quite a recent 

 technological revolution in these Kurdish hills. Both rotary querns 

 and boulder mortars were used by the present inhabitants of the cave 

 while work was in progress during the 1951 season. Among the flints, 

 which were found in the lower mixed junction zone of Layer A, are 

 cores, notched blades, use-retouched blades, end scrapers, steep 

 scrapers, microlithic flints, and blunted back blades and bladelets. No 

 sickle blades were found. Hammerstones, rubbing stones of black and 

 green shale, and lumps of hematite, worked bones including well-made 

 awls and pins, and one grooved shaft or rod smoother of stone similar 

 to the one recovered by Garrod (1930, fig. 11) at Zarzi, represent the 

 rest of the inventory. 



Layer B. — Layer B was composed of a soil zone in marked contrast 

 to Layer A. The thick and heavy organic ceramic-containing deposits 

 were absent, as were the enormous compressed hearths and ash beds, 

 and the profusion of mammal bones. There is clear-cut evidence that 

 Layer B had been reduced in true thickness by the intrusion of Layer 

 A in the upper part of the former. Adding to the complexity of 

 Layer B, it was found that this layer had in turn intruded into the 

 upper part of Layer C. Layer B was a deposit of dark brown, sandy, 

 loamy soil, slanted in depth from east to west. The thickness of Layer 

 B was approximately 2 feet (60.96 cm.) in the eastern part, and 5 feet 

 (1.52 m.) in the western part. Four small pits and a large depression 

 intruded from Layer B into Layer C. The purpose of these features 

 was not ascertained. Not evident in the 1951 season, but noted in the 

 1953 season, was a difference in soil texture in Layer B, marking an 

 upper and a lower division of this layer (figs. 8, 9). Whether or not 

 this division represents a true occupational difference, which might 

 be indicative of a cultural change and reflected in the artifactual as- 

 semblage, is still to be worked out. It will be recalled that Garrod 

 (1930) found a microlithic component at Zarzi in the upper part of 

 the layer, a fact that hints at developmental change there. The Zarzi 

 industry and the Layer B industry of Shanidar (in addition to arti- 

 facts in the lower mixed zone of Layer A) are typologically the same, 

 with some slight variation. 



The artifact inventory from Layer B includes among the rough 

 stones items such as hammerstones, rubbing stones, and mullers. An 

 ovate pebble with a V-shaped notch cut across its upper face is among 



