A Technological and Typological Analysis of the Lithic Assemblage from Velem, Hezarjarib, Behshahr, Mazandaran

The large assemblage of lithic artifacts deriving from the first season of excavations at Velem in 2021 was subjected to counting by the NAS approach. Typologically, the assemblage split into retouched tools, various types of scrapers (both side- and end-), hand axes, and a Levallois-type arrowhead. The recovered tools tended to be shaped on blades. Among the debitages, flakes proved to be the most recurrent. The meager attestations of cores compared to debitages and the lack of flakes with cortex raised the possibility that part of the core preparation process took place outside the site. With regard to technology, flakes were mostly separated from the core through direct percussion, while indirect percussion or soft hammer direct percussion was used to fashion the blades and bladelets. The entire assemblage was made of chert, of which Behshahr ranks among the leading sources in Iran. While its mysterious, disturbed and intermingled archaeological context excluded a precise chronology, a tentative date between the late Neolithic and the Chalcolithic period was offered for the lithic assemblage from Velem in light of the attested technology and typology.