Hamed Vahdatinasab, local head of an archaeological expedition in Mazandaran told Mehr News correspondent that a stone tool cutting workshop had been formerly by a British expedition six decades ago in Kiaram site of Golestan province, miles away from the present site which had been discovered serendipitously; “the cultural material providing evidence of a Neanderthal settlement were discovered when a student of archaeology in Marlik College of Nowshahr was trotting mountains in the vicinity of Bandpey, Nowshahr; Fatemeh Shojaeifar found stone tools in an accidental walking,” he detailed. “Preliminary examinations and a visit to the site by Mohammad Ghamari Fatideh, a professor of archaeology in University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, revealed that the site had ample evidence, which was regularly visited by the Archaeology College.”
“To the expedition came the contribution by Kourosh Rostaei, also an archaeologist; this is the first report of discovery of a Paleolithic site in northern massifs of central Alborz; the group carried out a week-long explorative itinerary in a wider areas, which found that the stone tools had been spread in areas far more wider than thought before in the mountainous area,” Vahdatinasab told Mehr News.
“Our estimations show that the area would host hundreds of thousands of stone tools of Neanderthals; most stone tools belong to mid-Paleolithic age (250,000-40,000 years ago), when Neanderthal man flourished,” he added. “A specific section of the site belong to smart man of late Paleolithic age (40,000-18,000 years ago).”
“Easy access to raw material and food staples would justify the widespread activity of Neanderthal man in the region,” he concluded.
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