فهرست مطالب dr. hekmatollah molla salehi

One of the most important subjects regarding the Neolithic period is the change of the subsistence economy in the societies of this period compared to the previous periods. The most direct evidence of subsistence economy within the archaeological contexts are plant and animal remains. Regarding this specific subject, other cultural materials such as pottery, architecture, and tokens are considered indirect evidence. In this article, we studied and analyzed the food consumption of the people living in the Neolithic site of Tepe Khaleseh in the Zanjan Province of northwest Iran (Valipour et al., 2012, 2013) based on direct and indirect evidence obtained from archaeological excavations. Analysis of the archaeobotanical assemblage has also permitted a reconstruction of the subsistence economy at the site and the results presented here, have significantly broadened our understanding of plant and animal management in northern Iran during the Late Neolithic. Tokens, lithic, bone tools, and architectural spaces also have been used in addition to animal bones and plant remains. It seems due to the rich environmental food resources in this region and based on a self-sufficient economy during the three phases of settlement in the late Neolithic period they have evolved from a society with an equal structure in the first stage, to a society with individual ranks in the third stage, therefore, the production organization has evolved from household production to household industries.

Many people have spoken or written about Nowruz rituals. There are numerous and invaluable old sources available on Nowruz and the related myths and rituals; the theological, cosmological, and astronomical views in relation to Nowruz, and the customs and traditions related to this occasion and the Sassanid Iran and kingdom. In the modern era, several archeological findings, documents, and studies, alongside the comparative studies conducted by historians, mythologists, linguists, experts studying ancient scripts, and Iranian and non-Iranian Iranologists have provided plenty of useful and reliable scientific data about Nowruz. The present study does not discuss Nowruz-related customs and rituals; rather, it follows a theoretical and philosophical approach to investigating Nowruz rituals and their connection with Iranians’ national and religious identity. The author believes that, in comparison to the huge number of historical, comparative, and field studies conducted in this regard, this approach to Nowruz customs has been to some extent neglected by researchers in this field.

The central question and the difficult problem in archaeology as an academic discipline are rational bridging between material and immaterial aspects of subject matters which are addressed by archaeologists. In a general sense, a fundamental dilemma in any process of archaeological studies and historical discipline that are involved with human past is a dichotomy between present and past, and between material and immaterial aspects of their subject matters. Archaeological excavation can only be conducted once as it is an unrepeatable experiment. Conceptualization of archaeological data and adoption of texts are likewise inevitable in any archaeological fieldwork. All topics addressed in this article, from top to down, are about clarifying the same issue.