Excavations at Zawi Chemi Shanidar: An Example of Human Innovation

Ralph Solecki’s discovery of Neanderthal burials at Shanidar Cave in Iraq changed the way that anthropologists understand Neanderthal culture. What many may not know is that during those years (1956-1957, 1960) Rose L. Solecki focused her research on the Proto-Neolithic site of Zawi Chemi Shanidar. The Proto-Neolithic part of the site dated from the 11th millennium BC to the 9th millennium BC, when climate change throughout this region gave way to cultural advancements such as behaviors that archaeologists believe to be the predecessors of agriculture. In the middle of the rocky terrain of the Zagros Mountains in Northern Iraq, Zawi Chemi Shanidar sat in Shanidar Valley, where a branch of the Tigris River created fertile plains [1]. The Smithsonian’s newly acquired artifacts and archival materials will give researchers the opportunity to access field notes, maps, illustrations, and artifacts from Rose Solecki’s excavations at Zawi Chemi. 

Ralph S. and Rose L. Solecki posing together in front of their accommodations at a police station nearby the Shanidar Cave and Zawi Chemi Shanidar sites, circa 1956-1960. [2]

The site of Zawi Chemi Shanidar is rich with information about the first semi-permanent sedentary communities in human history. Up until this point, humans lived a hunter-gatherer lifestyle that did not allow them to settle in any single place for long. The location of Zawi Chemi Shanidar on the left bank of the Greater Zab River allowed for the Proto-Neolithic people to cobble together a stable and sustainable subsistence economy based on a broad array of collected plants including wild cereals and grasses as well as fruits and nuts [2]. Zawi Chemi residents also hunted and collected a wide range of different animal species that included wild sheep and goats, wild boar, various species of birds, and thousands of land snails. Rose excavated an amazing example of early human civilization during the transition from nomadic lifestyles to sedentary settlements that points to the later practice of domestication of animals and plants [2].

Notebook from 1956-1957 excavations, “Zawi Chemi Shanidar and Shanidar Cave (Descriptions of Miscellaneous Stone Artifacts).” [3]

The transition of the people at Zawi Chemi to this semi-permanent lifestyle led to a spur of technological innovations and cultural advancements. One of the most notable aspects of the finds at Zawi Chemi is the variety of tools that were uncovered. The site seemed to be a center of production for the chipped-stone industry [1]. In addition to a production center for chipped stone, the site has a vast variety of other tools that show artistic and technological innovations. This variety of tools indicate experimentation with tool production among the people of Zawi Chemi Shanidar. During the past year, the Solecki Project has been working to catalog such tools, like the ones pictured below [2]. Other bone tools have etchings and carvings as decoration and are the first evidence of artwork found in the Zagros region alongside beads and stone pendants. These finds indicate a growing elaboration of culture in this region of modern-day Northern Iraq [1]. Many of the tools uncovered were used for plant processing indicating the community’s increasing investment in locally available plant resources [2].

Artifacts from the Zawi Chemi Shanidar site in storage. [4]

Ralph and Rose Solecki’s contributions to the field of paleo-archaeology and their dedication to preserving their work will help researchers further study these incredible sites [3 & 4]. Even now, studies of Shanidar Cave and Zawi Chemi are revealing new things about this transitional period of human history.

For more information about Zawi Chemi, Shanidar, or the Soleckis, check out previous blog posts about the Solecki collections: Collection in Process: A Poem from the Ralph and Rose Solecki Papers; A Year-in-Review: The Ralph S. and Rose L. Solecki Papers and Artifacts Project; Connecting Archives and Artifacts: Year Two of the Ralph S. and Rose L. Solecki Papers and Artifacts Project; Reuniting a Collection: The Ralph S. and Rose L. Solecki Collection Storage Integration; The Shanidar III Neanderthal: A Mousterian Murder Mystery. The Ralph S. and Rose L. Solecki Papers and Artifacts Project was made possible by two grants from the Smithsonian Institution’s Collections Care and Preservation Fund.

Sophia Carroll, Intern, Fall 2018
Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History


Sources
[1] Rose L. Solecki, Biblioteca Mesopotamica Volume Thirteen: An Early Village Site at Zawi Chemi Shanidar (Malibu, CA: Undena Publications, 1981).
[2] Melinda A. Zeder, "The Origins of Agriculture in the Near East." Current Anthropology 52, no. S4 (2011): S221-235. doi:10.1086/659307.
[3] The Ralph S. and Rose L. Solecki Papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
[4] Accession 220078, Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.