Neolithic and Neolithization of the Eastern Mazandaran Lowlands: Based on New Archaeological Surveys

The Northern slopes of Alborz Mountains have limited to the lowlands in between Mountains and Caspian Sea. According to previous archaeological excavations in Eastern Mazandaran carried out on some sites such as Hotu, Belt and Ali tappe caves, the recovered material were attributed to the Paleolithic and Neolithic era. These researches were the main idea to write current article on the Neolithic of the region; along with given data, the basic descriptive information of the history of archaeological studies in Northern Iran have used clarifying the current research. The last archaeological systematic survey was carried out leading to identify some Neolithic sites and other archaeological evidences. The reason of this research was the clarification of Neolithic period and Neolithization process of Northern Alborz especially Behshahr – Neka zone. Aiming to analyze the Neolithic and the Neolithization process of the region, the geological and geographical information and the Caspian Sea fluctuations over recent 10000 years were used. According to the recent archaeological surveys and the geographical and geological information, the settlement pattern and positioning of the Neolithic sites have been noticed; thus, it has been concluded that there could be some direct relation between the Epi-Paleolithic and the Neolithic sites of the region. In other word, the general hypothesis of the research was mainly based on the idea that the Houto, Kamar band, Ali Tappeh and Komishan caves were the main cores of the Neolithization process and Neolithic of the Northern Iran.