Neolithic Village Life, 7,500 Years Old, Unearthed in Qazvin

Date: 17 November 2025 - 22:18

News ID: ۱۴۵۹۲۳

TEHRAN — A new season of archaeological investigations has commenced at the ancient mound of Tepe Ebrahimabad in Abyek County, Qazvin Province, offering fresh insights into early village life on the Iranian Plateau.
Maryam Mahdavi, head of Qazvin’s Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts Department, announced that excavations at the site are being carried out under a permit from Iran’s Research Institute of Cultural Heritage and Tourism, with Dr. Hassan Fazeli Nesheli, a leading archaeologist from the University of Tehran, serving as field director.
Tepe Ebrahimabad, a multi-layered site dating to the Prehistoric era, was first excavated last year under Dr. Fazeli’s supervision.
This season’s work expands on the initial findings, aiming to trace the development of rural settlement patterns, architectural evolution in the sixth millennium BCE, and the origins of agricultural practices on the central Iranian Plateau.
Researchers are also studying ritual life, belief systems, and domestic economy through botanical and faunal remains.
“The mound, with its 7,500-year history, contains nearly eight meters of cultural deposits,” Mahdavi explained. “It occupies a key corridor linking the Central Zagros, the Iranian Plateau, and northern Iran, and represents one of the earliest farming villages in the region.”
Last year, the team established a 4 x 7-meter excavation trench to examine social and ritual practices. Building on these initial results, the trench has now been expanded to 10 x 10 meters to better understand the material evidence of Neolithic lifeways, including domestic structures, burial practices, and subsistence strategies.
Among the site’s notable features is evidence that early villagers buried their dead beneath the floors of their homes, a distinctive practice that offers insights into Neolithic ideologies and communal organization.