Sourcing of the raw material resources of Malleh Boojan Stone artifacts using petrography and geochemistry

Zagros mountains' valleys are one of the most important geographical areas in the Zagros Paleolithic studies. Recent archaeological studies have revealed that some of the open air Paleolithic sites in the Zagros mountains are located close to chert radiolarian outcrops. Meleh Boojan site which is located in the hills overlooking the Sarfiruzabad plain of Kermanshah province, with the stone tools and scattered river chert nodules is one of these areas. the study of technology and typology of stone tools obtained from it, which is based on the production of flake and Levallois technique, indicates that the site was used as an open air workshop for the production of stone tools in the Middle Paleolithic period. On the investigation about stone tools, geological contex' study which is used for the manufacture of stone artifacts is very important. Since selection of locations and migration of manufacturers across the territory were partly conditioned by prehistoric man's choices in matters of raw material use for manufacturing the tools. Therefore, in the present paper, the results of two petrographic (thin section preparing) and geochemical (x-ray fluorescence) analyses on a number of selected lithic artifacts obtaindd from Meleh Boojan site during the first season of survey on Sarfiroozabad plain and a number of rocks obtained from the geological formations around the area with the aim of sourcing of raw material used for the production of stone artifacts have been presented. The results indicated that the raw material source was local and the flint knappers of the site had used local Chert nodules (probably Kashkan Formation, including lime, sandstone, red conglomerate) in order to produce the lithic artefacts. approximately Similar values between elements in sedimentary particles of streams, scattered river chert nodules in the site and Kashkan Formation , or the compatibility of trace elements with each other, have been the criteria for this conclusion.