Middle East (6,093 – 4,366 BCE) Middle Holocene — Neolithic Hearths, Herds & Fields

Geographic and Environmental Context

• Anchors: the Tigris–Euphrates alluvium and marshes; the Zagros (Luristan, Fars), Alborz, Caucasus (Armenia–Georgia–Azerbaijan); northern Syrian plains and Cilicia; Khuzestan and Fars lowlands; the Arabian/Persian Gulf littoral (al-Ahsa–Qatar–Bahrain–UAE–northern Oman); northeastern Cyprus and the Lebanon coastal elbow (north).

Climate & Environment

• Hypsithermal peak supported oasis–riverine farming in Upper Mesopotamia, Khuzestan, foothill Iran; forest patches persisted in Zagros/Caucasus.

Subsistence & Settlement

• Neolithic villages spread: caprines and cattle herded; wheat/barley/pulses cultivated on fans/terraces; wetland fishing continued in Lower Mesopotamia.

• Caucasus piedmont saw mixed farming–herding hamlets.

Technology & Material Culture

• Pottery widespread; lime/gypsum plasters; mudbrick; sickle inserts; loom weights; early copper ornaments.

• Small canal ditches in Khuzestan; garden irrigation along levees.

Corridors

• Zagros–Khuzestan–Lower Euphrates grain/livestock streams; Caucasus–Kura–Araxes contact into Transcaucasia.

Symbolism

• House shrines; figurines; ancestor veneration; feasting pits.

Adaptation

• Irrigation + herding mobility managed rainfall risk; storage buffered droughts.

Transition

These villages evolve into Chalcolithic oases with more formal canals and metallurgy.