Seyyed Morteza Rahmati told Mehr News cultural heritage correspondent on Saturday that during last glacial period, Qeshm had been connected to mainland Iran by a thick layer of ice; “during investigations in Roof of the Qeshm in June in the vicinity of Tabl and Salkh villages, we found pebble tools finely cut by hand; these included simple cut and variety of main rock; the pebbles used in choppers are flint and igneous rocks; the method of removing flakes which is Oldowan, shows stone tools belonging to mid-Paleolithic era,” he detailed.
“Preliminary examinations supports the hypothesis that the field had been a stone-tool making workshop, since the abundance of pebbles in the site gave the humans possibility to make stone tools mainly to be used places beyond the immediate borders of the Island,” Rahmati told Mehr News correspondent.
“Paleolithic era begins 200,000 years ago and ends 40,000 years ago with modern humans coming to the scene; so far, works of this era had been found in Zagros Mountains and in Iranian plateau, but scant information exists about the settlements of the era in southern part of the plateau; prior to Roof of the Qeshm, the stone tools had been found in Minab, Jam alluvial plain, Sidich, and Konarak in northern coasts of the Persian Gulf,” he added.
“Apart from choppers, samples also were collected in deposits for further sedimentary examinations; the site is the place for oldest human settlement in all Persian Gulf islands which gives the site its unique place; since during last glacial age, sea levels had been 100 meters below those now, and since water was rather shallow between Laft and Pahal ports, the Island was effectively connected to mainland Iran,” Rahmati said.
“Roof of the Qeshm is an open field near Qeshm Geo-park. It was first explored by Abdolreza Dashtizadeh for the first time in 2005 and was registered in National Heritage list,” the archaeologist concluded.
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