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Analysis of wild boar remains discovered at a site in the Zagros Mountains in Iran points to long-distance transport of animals for a ceremonial gathering in the Early Neolithic.
The animal remains were discovered in 2016 when excavations at the site of Asiab uncovered a large pit in the centre of a round structure believed to be a communal building. The pit contained the crania and mandibles of 19 wild boars, as well as the skull of a brown bear and fragments of red deer antler. All of the faunal remains had been placed carefully in the pit, arranged east–west.
The assemblage appears to have been deposited in a single event; however, the quantity of meat that would have been produced by this number of boars (minimum of c.700kg) is far greater than could have been consumed by the average population of a pre-agricultural Early Neolithic settlement like Asiab. It therefore seems most likely that this pit was associated with a communal feasting event, which may have involved ritual sacrifice as well.
Now new research suggests that the effort involved in this large-scale hunting operation was even greater than previously recognised. A suite of analytical techniques was used to analyse several of the boar teeth to find out where the animals may have originated from. This revealed that, despite the landscape around Asiab being suitable for wild boars, the specimens investigated were most likely not local, potentially originating from an area more than 70km away. It is estimated that transporting these animals over such a distance across the region’s mountainous terrain would have taken at least two full days. The analysis also suggested that the boars probably did not come from the same sounder (a group of wild boars).
It therefore seems that either the inhabitants of the site were travelling considerable distances to hunt in other regions, or – more likely – the animals were brought to Asiab by people coming to the site from elsewhere. Evidence of animals being transported long distances for communal feasts is found at later Neolithic sites, such as Durrington Walls near Stonehenge in the UK, but this is believed to be the earliest suggestion of the practice found to date, and, according to researchers, the first in a non-agricultural society.
The discovery offers new insight into the relationships between animals and humans in Early Neolithic Iran, and the beliefs and practices connected to this. It is particularly interesting as wild boars were among the first animals to be domesticated several millennia later. Given the considerable effort expended to acquire the assemblage at Asiab, it seems that the species was already of importance to pre-agricultural communities in the region in the 10th millennium BC. Did this, perhaps, lay the foundation for later approaches to livestock management?
The research has been published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment (https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02501-z).
Text: Amy Brunskill / Images: Petra Vaiglova; Kathryn Killackey
