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  Yafteh location in Iran | |
| Location | northwest ofKhoramabad |
|---|---|
| Region | Iran |
| Coordinates | 33°34′1.3″N48°16′26.1″E / 33.567028°N 48.273917°E /33.567028; 48.273917 |
 Interactive map of Yafteh | |
| Part of | The Prehistoric Sites of the Khorramabad Valley |
| Criteria | Cultural: iii |
| Reference | 1744-004 |
| Inscription | 2025 (47thSession) |
Yafteh is acave located at the foot of Yafteh Mountain in the western part of theZagros Mountains range, northwest ofKhoramabad,Lorestan Province (WesternIran). It is known for itsUpper Paleolithic artefacts assigned to theBaradostian culture. It is part of theWorld Heritage siteThe Prehistoric Sites of the Khorramabad Valley (along with five other caves).[1]
Yafteh has yielded the largest number of C14 dates from a single Paleolithic site in Iran that are clustered around 28–35 thousand years ago. A rich collection ofornaments made of marine shells, tooth and hematite has been discovered in the early Upper Paleolithic deposits in both early and recent excavations in the Yafteh cave. This collection was analyzed and published by Sonia Shidrang in theIranian Journal of Archaeology and History.
The site was found and later excavated by two American archaeologists,Frank Hole andKent Flannery, in the 1960s. It contained a thick Upper Paleolithic sequence which yielded bladelets and tools. A number ofC14 dates indicate that the site was occupied mainly between 30 and 35 thousand years ago. Hole and Flannery published some results of their excavation at Yafteh in a general paper about their excavations in prehistoric sites inLoristan and Dehluran.
The lithic assemblages from 1967 excavations were re-analyzed in 2005 by Bordes and Shidrang and later those assemblages were the main subject of a MA thesis in 2007.
The site was re-excavated in 2005 by a joint Belgian-Iranian team directed byMarcel Otte andFereidoun Biglari and excavated again by Otte and Sonia Shidrang in 2008.
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