Hotu and Kamarband Caves
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Huto and Kamarband Caves or Belt Caves are prehistoric, archaeological sites in Iran. They are located 100 meters apart, in a cliff on the slopes of the Alborz mountains in the village of Tarujen (currently called Shahid Abad), 5 km. south west of Behshahr.
Excavations took place led by Carleton S. Coon and were reported on between 1949-1957.
Huto Cave is approximately 30 m. x 20 m. The site produced pottery shards, stone tools and samples for radio-carbon dating. Twenty-two samples were dated from Huto Cave and grouped into eight different cultures. The 2 earliest cultures, dating to c. 9910 B.C. - 7,240 B.C. were thought to be seal hunters and vole eaters. The bones of a dog have been cited as an example of exceptionally early animal domestication.[1]
Sub-Neolithic finds date to c. 6120 B.C.
Kamarband cave is notable for three human skeletons discovered there, dating to approximately 9000 years B.C. Other finds included flint blades, walrus and deer bones, giving valuable information about human development from the ice age in the Mazandaran area.[2]
At Hotu Cave dweller picked Y-chromosome haplogroup J (xJ2a1b3, J2b2a1a1).[3][4]
Literature
- C. S. Coon, Cave Explorations in Iran 1949, Museum Monographs, The University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1951.
- C. S. Coon, "Excavations in Huto Cave, Iran, 1951: A Preliminary Report", Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society; 96, 1952, pp. 231–69.
- C. S. Coon, The Seven Caves: Archaeological Explorations in the Middle East, New York, 1957.
