Arkadiusz Sołtysiak

• PhD
• Reader at University of Warsaw

How did interpersonal violence develop in early human societies? Given that homicide records are only available for the more recent period, much of human history remains outside our purview. In this paper, we study violence trends in the very long run by exploiting a new dataset on cranial trauma and weapon-related wounds from skeletons excavated a...

The urbanization of Mesopotamia in the 4th millennium BCE led to unprecedented social, economic, and political changes. Tell Brak, located in the Syrian Khabur basin, is one of the best-known early urban sites from this period. Surveys suggest that urban growth at Tell Brak resulted from peripheral expansion driven by the migration of several disti...

The effects of the 4.2 kya climatic event on northern Mesopotamia have been the subject of significant scholarly debate, with the notion of a megadrought that forced local populations to migrate attracting particular attention. Here, the authors analyse stable carbon (δ ¹³ C) and nitrogen (δ ¹⁵ N) isotopes in human tooth and bone samples to assess...

During the Late Chalcolithic 3/4 (c. 3900-3200 BCE), Tell Brak in NE Syria became a large urban centre with central administration , craft specialization and a settlement size of at least 130 ha. 87 Sr/ 86 Sr values in enamel of 34 human individuals from Tell Brak representing four temporal subsets were measured and compared against the local backg...

Strontium concentration in bioapatite of human bone and teeth reflects the strontium concentration in food that is differentiated by two major factors: abundance of strontium in local soils and the biopurification effect along the trophic levels. Eastern Syria is an area with a relatively high concentration of strontium within the Euphrates valley...

The period preceding early state formation in Iran (i.e., Early Iron Age) is frequently associated with the prevalence of mobile pastoralists. The analysis of stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios of human and animal collagen from Qareh Tepe (c. 1200–750 cal. bc ) in Qazvin Plain was performed to understand local subsistence strategy and especi...

Little is known about human mobility in the Iranian Central Plateau during the Parthian and Sasanian periods. To fill this gap, we measured ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr values in 22 human enamel samples from Shahr-i Qumis, Semnan Province, retrieved from collective burials in the ruined buildings of an abandoned capital city of the Parthian state. The skeletons were...

Bioarchaeology, which encompasses the study of human , animal, and plant remains as well as environmental reconstructions, provides a comprehensive framework for understanding the complex interactions between past populations and their environments. Based on often multidisciplinary approaches, bioarchaeology offers unique insights into how ancient...

The transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age is one of the most discussed topics in the archaeology of Iran. This includes the processes that led to the formation of the Mannaean Kingdom in the northwestern part of the country, which is considered a forerunner of the famous Median Empire. Here, we investigate the pattern of migration during t...

A major event in human history was the neolithization process, which resulted in a transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture and pastoralism. Around 12000 cal BP, during the Holocene, a period of global warming, agriculture was adopted. In Southwest Asia, changes in social practices, including subsistence strategies and settlement patter...

Elites played a pivotal role in the formation of post-Roman Europe on both macro- and microlevels during the Early Medieval period. History and archaeology have long focused on their description and identification based on written sources or through their archaeological record. We provide a different perspective on this topic by integrating paleoge...

Objective: To analyze the overall frequency and inter-tooth patterns of caries in three populations from ancient cemeteries located along the western border of the Central Iranian Plateau as a means to explore whether the populations of Iran had greater access to fermentable sugars after the establishment of the great empires. Materials: Dental co...

Ancient DNA research in the past decade has revealed that European population structure changed dramatically in the prehistoric period (14,000–3000 years before present, YBP), reflecting the widespread introduction of Neolithic farmer and Bronze Age Steppe ancestries. However, little is known about how population structure changed from the historic...

Between c . 300 BC and AD 350, the Meroitic kingdom dominated the Middle Nile Valley; following its breakdown, it was replaced by a series of smaller successor polities. Explanation for this change centres on socio-political and economic instability. Here, the authors investigate the role of climate and environment using stable carbon and oxygen is...

Literary and archaeological sources have preserved a rich history of Southern Europe and West Asia since the Bronze Age that can be complemented by genetics. Mycenaean period elites in Greece did not differ from the general population and included both people with some steppe ancestry and others, like the Griffin Warrior, without it. Similarly, peo...

We present the first ancient DNA data from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic of Mesopotamia (Southeastern Turkey and Northern Iraq), Cyprus, and the Northwestern Zagros, along with the first data from Neolithic Armenia. We show that these and neighboring populations were formed through admixture of pre-Neolithic sources related to Anatolian, Caucasus, and...

We present the first ancient DNA data from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic of Mesopotamia (Southeastern Turkey and Northern Iraq), Cyprus, and the Northwestern Zagros, along with the first data from Neolithic Armenia. We show that these and neighboring populations were formed through admixture of pre-Neolithic sources related to Anatolian, Caucasus, and...

By sequencing 727 ancient individuals from the Southern Arc (Anatolia and its neighbors in Southeastern Europe and West Asia) over 10,000 years, we contextualize its Chalcolithic period and Bronze Age (about 5000 to 1000 BCE), when extensive gene flow entangled it with the Eurasian steppe. Two streams of migration transmitted Caucasus and Anatolian...

Ancient DNA research in the past decade has revealed that European population structure changed dramatically in the prehistoric period (14,000-3,000 years before present, YBP), reflecting the widespread introduction of Neolithic farmer and Bronze Age Steppe ancestries. However, little is known about how population structure changed in the historica...

Late Bronze Age multiple human burials from Deh Dumen, Iran, were uncovered in the Zagros Mountains. Using cross‐sectional geometry and histology, a sample (n = 23) of fragmented femora from these burials was examined to test for possible adaptation to transhumant pastoralism. Midshaft femur remodeling and modeling characteristics examined across m...

در سال 1389 ه‍.ش. از معدن غار کان‌گوهر در شهرستان بوانات در استان فارس تعدادی اسکلت‌ انسانی کشف شد. باتوجه به‌وجود فرضیه‌های مختلف در رابطه باوجود این بقایا در غار و نامعلوم بودن قدمت آن‌ها، به‌منظور یافتن دلیل وجود این تعداد بقایای انسانی، علاوه‌بر بازدید از غار، جغرافیای تاریخی منطقۀ بوانات در منابع تاریخی نیز مورد مطالعه قرار گرفت. در منابع دورۀ...

The Near East and Eastern Mediterranean are regions where textual sources appeared much earlier than elsewhere, with the first logographic writing systems invented already in the 4th millennium BCE. Although for some places and for some periods written sources are abundant, the combination of research on ancient texts and archaeological human remai...

The cemetery of Qareh Tepe, located in the northwestern Iranian Central Plateau, is dated back to the Early Iron Age (1200-600 BC), with most burials directly preceding the establishment of the Median state. The excavations conducted in 2018-2019 in the eastern part of the cemetery revealed skeletons of at least 77 individuals, ten of whom showed s...

During recent archaeological excavations at Ali Kosh, a Pre-Pottery Neolithic site in Deh Luran plain, SW Iran, a dense assemblage of human remains has been found, with four at least partially articulated skeletons, three separated crania, two mandibles and postcranial elements from three further individuals. All six preserved crania (two males, tw...

tant task in past human societies, and most archaeological artefacts are directly or indirectly related to food acquisition, processing, and consumption (Metheny & Beaudry 2015). Another line of evidence comes from the research on food itself — charred plants and their microremains (Madella et al. 2014), animal bones (Albarella et al. 2017), and fo...

Parthians were mobile herders from Central Asia who gradually gained control over Iran and Mesopotamia during the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE. The economy of their state is still not well known, especially in the Iranian mountainous provinces that are believed to have been inhabited by the transhumant pastoralists. Some insight into subsistence of th...

Estark-Joshaqan is a cemetery located at the valley in the Karkas Mountains near Kashan. It was used from the Middle Bronze Age until the Early Iron Age (~1800-800 BCE). Four seasons of excavations, conducted since 2016, revealed that the majority of graves had shaft construction, an unusual feature for the Iranian Central Plateau. The nearest anal...

A synthetic history of human land use Humans began to leave lasting impacts on Earth's surface starting 10,000 to 8000 years ago. Through a synthetic collaboration with archaeologists around the globe, Stephens et al. compiled a comprehensive picture of the trajectory of human land use worldwide during the Holocene (see the Perspective by Roberts)....

Objectives: Breastfeeding and childhood diet have significant impact on morbidity and mortality within a population, and in the ancient Near East, it is possible to compare bioarchaeological reconstruction of breastfeeding and weaning practices with the scant textual evidence. Materials and methods: Nitrogen stable isotopes (δ15 N) are analyzed...

X-ray radiography (XR) is a standard imaging tool in human osteology. Here we compare a series of human bone and tooth images taken using both X-ray and thermal neutron radiography (TNR) to identify the possible applications of the latter method. The TNR imaging is superior in case of bones contaminated with soil, and combined TNR and XR images may...

One of many historical underground structures in the Markazi province, Iran, is located near the modern village Robat Aghaj, c. 20km north to the town Khomein (33 ◦49 ′26 ′ ′N, 50 ◦05 ′55 ′ ′E). Partially filled with soil, it was excavated in February and March 2017 by a team from the University of Kashan directed by Majjid Montazerzohouri. the str...

Located on a terrace near the modern village, Estark (34 • 01 ′ 24 ′′ N 51 • 13 ′ 51 ′′ E) is one of a few identified Iron Age cemeteries around a cluster of artesian oases located at the foot of the Zagros Mountains, c. 10km west of the city of Kashan. It covers less than one hectare, and some parts (especially in the southeastern part) have been...

It would not be exaggerated to claim that the "Gray Ware Culture" of the second millennium B.C. was one the most important phenomenon in history of archaeology of Iran. Apart from all its intricacies and complexity, its exact dating and chronology has also been a major challenge for archaeologists. Most of the literature is still based on very old...

The cemetery at Liarsangbon is located in the Alborz Mountains, on the slope of Mount Ahinbar-Talleh, c. 2km north to the village Shieh in the Rankuh District of Amlash County, Gilan Province (36 • 54 ′ 04 ′′ N 50 • 01 ′ 49 ′′ E, 1860masl), Iran. Although annual precipitation is much lower than on the northern slopes of the Alborz, the mountains in...

The cemetery of Shahne Poshte (also known as Haft Tepe) is located south of the modern small town of Khoshroud Pey, not far away from the village of Kamikola in Mazandaran province (36◦20′12′′N, 52◦30′54′′E, 254masl). Occupying c. 2 hectares, the site is now covered by forest and has been substantially looted during the recent years. It was discove...

Qareh Tepe (35◦49′00′′N, 49◦57′08′′E) is located in the NW part of the Iranian Central Plateau, 7km north of the small town of Sagzabad, in the Buein Zahra district. The Qazvin Plain, which surrounds the site, extends along the Alborz Mountains in this area for c. 60km. Composed of a series of alluvial fans, the Qazvin Plain provides a suitable pla...

The cemetery at Mersin is located in Semnan province, north-central Iran (36◦03′05′′N, 53◦27′36′′E) along the southern slopes of the Alborz Mountains, east of the village of Talajim, near the Sefidrud River (Figure 1). The site was discovered during rescue archaeological survey in the Fenisk Dam basin area. Based on surface materials, the cemetery...

Ghal e-Ben is located c. 20km south of the city of Babol, within the modern town Khozrud-pey (36 • 23 ′ 18 ′′ N, 52 • 34 ′ 13 ′′ E, 67masl). It covers less than 3ha, but was almost certainly much larger before construction of a road and houses in the vicinity of the site (Figure 1). Excavations at the site were undertaken in January-March 2019 by a...

Fars is one of the key regions within Iran in terms of the development of human societies from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic onwards. By contrast to central regions of Fars and the Kur River Basin, archaeological excavations in the Shiraz Plain have been scarce to date, with one of the few investigated sites being Tappeh Poustchi, which is also known a...

Menjaq Tepe 2 is a small archaeological site c. 1 km east of Qareh-Bil village, within Garmeh county, North Khorasan province (37◦21′21′′N, 56◦20′44′′E, 1312masl), being located close to a small alluvial fan at the foot of the easternmost range of the Alborz Mountains (Figure 1). The site was excavated in July and August 2017 by an archaeological t...

The cemetery of Deh Dumen is located one kilometer away from the village of Deh-Paeen, Pataveh district, Dena county, Kohgiluye va Boyer Ahmad province (34◦46′84′′N, 51◦02′99′′E) (Figure 1). This site was discovered during a rescue survey preceding construction of the Khersan Dam 3, conducted in October and November 2008. In total, 29 archaeologica...

Haji Khan Tepe (35◦01′58′′N, 49◦01′17′′E, 1613masl) is a small archaeological site covering 75x65m, located near the village of Zaraqan in Hamedan province, not far away from Ghare-chai river. Heavily destroyed by recent bulldozing and by illegal excavations, the site was discovered by Motarjim et al. (2009) during a regional survey. At present, th...

Khaveh is a summer village located in a mountain valley (34◦16′22′′N, 50◦54′45′′E, 2014masl), c. 40km south of the modern city of Qom. The average annual precipitation in this area is only c. 200mm, but the valley is relatively well watered by seasonalstreams and wells. In the winter of 2018/2019 construction works at a broad natural sandy-gravel h...

Qaleh Iraj is an archaeological site in Iran dated to the Sasanian period. It is located c. 2km northeast of Varamin, near the village of Asgharabad in Pishva County (35◦20′28′′N, 51◦40′51′′E, 943 masl). The site covers c. 190ha and is one of the largest Sasanian sites in the Central Plateau of Iran (Figure 1). Despite the archaeological importance...

Camelid management was a major part of the Wari Empire’s (ca. ad 600–1050) economy; however, it is uncertain whether camelid husbandry was centrally regulated or locally managed. To address this problem, we applied combined isotope ratio analyses (δ¹³C, δ¹⁵N, δ¹⁸O, ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr, and ²⁰ⁿPb/²⁰⁴Pb) to camelid remains from Castillo de Huarmey, a Wari admi...

Proportions of stable nitrogen (and carbon) isotopes have been traditionally used to assess the composition of diet, but recently they proved to be also indicators of land use patterns. Especially combining nitrogen and strontium isotopic data may produce insight into spatial distribution of food resources. 86Sr/87Sr and δ15N values have been obtai...

Femur anatomical characteristics are routinely used in bioarchaeology to make inferences about ancient human behaviour. However, in cases of multiple burials, interpretations based on bone macroscopic data can be challenging due to the commingled and often fragmentary nature of bones representing different individuals. Here, we use histological met...

Strontium stable isotope values (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) have been measured in tooth enamel samples representing 11 Bronze Age individuals buried at Tell Ashara – Terqa, a major archaeological site in the middle Euphrates valley, eastern Syria. For all analysed individuals, δ¹⁵N and δ¹³C values for dentin collagen were also available. No ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr value exceeds...

The Zāyandeh-rūd River is the main water artery of the Iranian Central Plateau, enabling human settlement and the development of various cultures in this arid region. Despite a long history of human occupation in the river basin, archaeological investigations have been limited in this region, with a small-scale archaeological excavation at Tappeh K...

The Lar basin is located north-east of Tehran in the Central Alborz near Damavand mountain (Figure 1). After Arabic conquest of Iran this area was a part of Tabaristan, which was ruled by the Zoroastrian Dabuyid dynasty until 761 CE (Amoli 1969) and remained relatively isolated for the following centuries due its location. The area of the Lar basin...

Samples of dental calculus were taken from 11 human individuals buried at Nemrik 9, a Pre-Pottery Neolithic site in Northern Iraq. All of them represented the time span of ca. 9100–8600 bp. In total, 95 microfossils were retrieved from these samples, including 70 phytoliths, 9 starch granules or clusters of starch, 3 pollens, and 1 xylem fragment....

Objectives Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios (δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N) were used to reconstruct the history of subsistence strategies in the middle Euphrates valley, NE Syria, in six temporal subsets dating from the Early Bronze Age (c. 2300 BCE) to the Modern period (19th/20th century CE). The study aims to demonstrate that changes in political and...

Shahr-i Qumis is located 5km south-east of Qusheh village in Damghan county, Semnan province near the southern foot of the Alborz Mountains. In 1966 John Hansman identified there a large archaeological site that then was excavated in four season...

Located in Markazi province, Iran, Tafresh is a town surrounded by high mountain ranges. Isolated from the major trade routes in the Medieval period, Tafresh was still inhabited by the Zoroastrian community and the remains of a ‘tower of silence’ are still present in the northeastern part of the town, on a small natural hill called Tepe Qaleh Khala...

The ancient site of Kaleh Kub is located SW of Ayask, a small town in Sarayan county, South Khorasan province, Iran. It covers 7ha of a modern agricultural area. Discovered in 2008, it was first excavated over three season...

Thermal neutron radiography and X-ray radiography are characterised by different penetration depths in various materials, for example in collagen and hydroxyapatite, two major components of bone. Neutron radiography penetrates hydroxyapatite easier than collagen and, conversely, in X-ray radiography attenuation is higher in hydroxyapatite than in c...

Kan-Gohar cave is located near Monj village in Bavanat County, north-east Fars province. The cave’s name (kan means “ore” and gohar means “a treasure” in Persian) relates to its volcanic nature, which rendered it rich in iron and magnesium ores...

Arān va Bidgol is a twin town located 6km NE of Kashan, on the western flanks of the Iranian central desert. One of old cultic centres in the town is Hoseiniyeh Khanqah...

The third season of excavations at Estark 1 was conducted in August and September 2018 and focused on the extension of trench C opened in the previous season...

During construction of a road in Sanandaj, the capital city of the Kurdistan province in Iran, a cemetery was found on a slope of the Abidar mountains west of the Zagros Town district. A rescue operation was conducted in November 2008 by the staff of the Sanandaj Regional Museum under the direction of Faiq Tawhidi...

The Cemetery of Sarm is located c. 20km southeast of Qom, near the village of Khowrabad and covers a natural hill that is 200m long, 120m wide and 6m high. The site was found during road construction in 1996 and archaeological excavations began...

In the spring of 2015, an archaelogical site was accidentally discovered near Vestemin during the construction of a pipeline. It was located near the top of a broad hill c. 4km east of Kiasar in the eastern part of Mazandaran province...

Bread was a basic food staple as well as a marker of status in medieval societies. A study of Byzantine and Islamic textual sources combined with an archaeological scientific study of teeth remains from four excavated sites in modern Turkey demonstrates that literary stereotypes about access to high-quality bread may have held in densely populated...

Generally, three basic types (pit-, furrow-, and plane-type defects) of dental enamel hypoplasia are distinguished. Defect types vary according to ameloblast related factors (ameloblast age and stage of secretory activity) and stress related factors (impact intensity and duration). More complex forms of enamel hypoplasia, characterized by highly ir...

At the onset of the Iron Age, after c. 1200 BC, Iran was a place of major social transformation. After the collapse of the Bronze Age urban civilisations, the land was inhabited mainly by groups of mobile pastoralists that gradually transitioned from tribal organisation into loose federations, before finally developing into the Median and Persian e...

Cereal grinding has been practiced in Mesopotamia since the Upper Palaeolithic. While evidence of cereal grinding is clear from the archaeological and textual records, what remains unclear is whether the activity leaves signs on the skeleton in the form of markers of occupational stress (MOS). A particular constellation of MOS (e.g., osteoarthritis...

For article see: http://rdcu.be/te94 This study sheds light on the agricultural economy that underpinned the emergence of the first urban centres in northern Mesopotamia. Using δ13C and δ15N values of crop remains from the sites of Tell Sabi Abyad, Tell Zeidan, Hamoukar, Tell Brak and Tell Leilan (6500–2000 cal BC), we reveal that labour intensive...

Incremental markings in dental enamel (prism cross striations, PCS and Striae of Retzius, SR) reflect regular fluctuations in the secretory stage of amelogenesis. This enables reconstruction of high-resolution chronologies of hypoplastic enamel defects. More recently, approaches using differential isotope content at different levels of spatial reso...

Several mass burials of human remains were found in a midden near Tell Brak, a major urban centre of the Late Chalcolithic in Syria. The oldest of them (EM loc. 6, 3750-3500 cal. BC) contained disariculated and scavenged bones of mainly females, children and adolescents (MNI=80) and the context together with age-at-death profile suggests a catastro...

A number of recent studies dealing with paleoclimate and environmental reconstruction include the measurement of mammalian intra-tooth variation of oxygen isotope composition. Some of them analyze a temporal sequence of the changes recorded in bioapatite from enamel layers representing whole tooth development period. The present paper provides an e...

Recent genomic data have revealed multiple interactions between Neanderthals and modern humans, but there is currently little genetic evidence regarding Neanderthal behaviour, diet, or disease. Here we describe the shotgun-sequencing of ancient DNA from five specimens of Neanderthal calcified dental plaque (calculus) and the characterization of reg...

In the mountainous areas of the Markazi province, Iran, underground structures were frequently cut in conglomerate bedrock for storage or as refugial places. One such structure has been found near a shrine Zeinab Khatun in Tahyagh (33 • 39 ′ 53 ′′ N, 49 • 59 ′ 28 ′′ E), a village located c. 8km east of Khomein. The site has been documented and part...

A recent Climatic Change paper suggests a relationship between climatic change in the 7th century BCE and the fall of the Assyrian Empire. However, available archaeological and textual evidence does not support the hypothesis that Assyria was overpopulated during this time and for that reason susceptible to outbreaks of drought. Besides long-term c...

During recent archaeological excavations at the northern mound of Tepe Sialk, a small cluster of burials was found in a settlement layer dated to the latest phase of the Late Neolithic period. Among the six burials recovered, four were jar burials including cremains, one was a plain pit grave with no traces of cremation and one was a double burial...

Change in Mediterranean grinding technology during the Hellenistic/Roman period affected the pattern of dental microwear since external grit particles were finer when flour was prepared using large rotary querns. Therefore, it is possible to detect the technological change through the analysis of human dentition. Here, the sample of teeth from Kült...

Probably the most influential paper in bioarchaeology during past quarter of a century was that by Wood et al. (1992) about the osteological paradox. Before this publication, researchers interpreted osteological stress markers (OSMs) in a straightforward way: the higher frequency of an OSM in a population, the higher average level of stress. Wood a...

The peoples of Iran used lunisolar calendars until the early fifth century BCE when the 365-day calendar with 30 months and 5 epagomenal days was introduced. This calendar was not corrected to the actual length of the tropical year, and therefore, seasonal festivals gradually moved away from their seasons. Finally, around the turn of the fifth cent...

In result of a review of the available literature and some unpublished sources, data on antemortem cranial trauma have been gathered for 25 archaeological sites from Mesopotamia, dated from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic to the Modern period. In total, 31 healed cranial lesions have been noted in 28 out of 1278 individuals, and the general frequency of...

The history of the Fertile Crescent is well documented through archaeology and epigraphy. However, contrary to adjacent regions in the Mediterranean and Middle East, the reconstruction of diet and food ways through isotope analysis is limited for Mesopotamia and, consequently, matters of subsistence change are not well understood. To address this,...

Nemrik 9/ 10 is a Pre-Pottery Neolithic site in Northern Iraq that was excavated in 1985-1989 by S. K. Kozłowski. The remains of at least 96 individuals were found in the excavated strata, most of which were dated to ca 9100– 8600 BP. The bones were in poor condition, but several observations of taphonomic effects and indicators of diet, stress, ph...

Hundreds of stone structures, mainly circular burial mounds made of rough local stone, are found scattered in the coastal region of Al-Subbiyah, a desert plateau extending along the north coast of Kuwait Bay. Since 2007 the Kuwaiti–Polish Archaeological Mission (KPAM), a joint project of the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, University of...

Archaeological interpretations are frequently affected by wishful thinking. This problem may be reduced by consciously arranging the interpretation process, e.g. with use of a simple interpretative index. The fi rst step is the defi nition of all possible and imaginable interpretations of a given phenomenon, then all possible pieces of evidence pro...