Investigating the Role of Environmental Factors on the Archaeological Site Location during Village Period Case Study: Zibri Plain in Central Zagros

Zibri plain is located northeast of Ilamabad-e Gharb between Mahidasht and Islamabad. This study intends to identify a logical link between situation of the sites belonging to the village period and the environmental factors in this plain; for this, we identifed those environmental features that influenced the location of and distribution of sites. An inductive approach was applied to identify the distribution pattern of sites and with collecting environmental and archaeological data, “significant” and “correlation” relations between these two type of variables was evaluated using spearman statistical analysis using SPSS software. According to this analysis it was realized that the environmental factors such as water distribution, agricultural lands and distribution of vegetation are major factors influencing site locations. Site catchment analysis indicates a strong dependence on fertile agricultural lands especially in lush places around the plain by the initial villagers (Early Neolithic) It shows an increasing in xploitation of novel sources to nourishing domesticated animals in an innovative subsistence strategy during middle village period.