The Zarzian Return: 18,000 BCE I visualize the Zarzian hunter-gatherers of the Zagros and ask: is this my great-grandfather?
The unbearably harsh conditions of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) once drove the Baradostian Ice Age hunters out of these mountains and into lower-altitude refuges. However, after 20,000 years ago, the climate began to stabilize, permitting a slow return to the Zagros valleys. Unlike many other groups of the era, my paternal ancestors do not appear to have traveled far; they remained rooted in the Zagros or South Caucasus region for an immense span of time. I would conjecture that they return to the same valleys:
13,000 years ago. Zagros Mountains and valleys (now in Iran) South West Asia
The Zagros and South Caucasus mountains (now in Iran), South West Asia. © OpenStreetMap contributors".
The Zarzian Way: A Prelude to Farming The Zarzian culture was the eastern equivalent of the Epipalaeolithic Natufians in the western Fertile Crescent. While their Baradostian predecessors had sustained themselves primarily by hunting caprines—wild goats and sheep—life after the Last Glacial Maximum shifted toward a broader strategy.
Post-glacial humans enjoyed a far greater diversity of food. Their diet expanded beyond the ibex and mouflon to include onagers, gazelles, crustaceans, fish, birds, and—as visualized above—tortoises. They also gathered a wide array of wild plants, including legumes, nuts, and grass seeds. Evidence of grinding stones suggests they were processing these into porridges or primitive flatbreads.
This period likely represented a critical, early stage in the journey toward agriculture. Accidental selection processes were already in motion. By gathering seeds from plants with firmer rachises (the stem holding the grain), they were unconsciously initiating the shift toward domestication. A similar, unintended process was occurring with their prey. By managing their herds—selecting specific animals to hunt while preserving others—they began the long transition toward animal husbandry. They weren't intentionally trying to "invent" farming; rather, it was nature at work, forging new, symbiotic relationships between humans and the species around them.
Their tools evolved alongside their diet. While the Baradostians excelled at manufacturing burins and regular blades, the Zarzians pushed flint technology further, creating even smaller, geometric microliths designed for complex, composite tools.