Excavations at the Prehistoric Mound of Chogha Bonut, Khuzestan, Iran ― Seasons 1976/77, 1977/78 and 1996

Lowland Susiana, in the modern-day province of Khuzestan, southwestern Iran, was a major contributor to the cultural development of the ancient Near East. Excavations at numerous sites in Susiana, but primarily at Susa and Chogha Mish, provided a long sequence of archaeological phases that span some 8,000 years, from early prehistoric times to the early Islamic period. The initial phases of the colonization of Susiana by early farmers, however, remained unknown until a series of excavations at Chogha Bonut pushed the earliest period of occupation of Susiana to the aceramic phase, ca. 7200 B.C. The present publication presents and analyzes the results of three seasons of excavations at Chogha Bonut.

Abbas Alizadeh was Associate Curator and Research Associate at Harvard University's Semitic Museum and from 1991, has been a Research Associate (Senior Research Associate from 2000) at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.