Palaeolithic Period (500-11 kya)
Direct evidence of Mesopotamian Lower Palaeolithic (500-100 kya) is extremely rare. Palaeolithic tools found at Barda-Balka in northeast Iraq date to about 120 kya.
At the Shanidar Cave in northern Iraq the excavation of Level D (the deepest) yielded the remains of nine Middle Palaeolithic (100-36 kya) individuals (2 infants, 3 young adults and 4 older adults. Although the bones were mostly in poor condition, the skull of one of them exhibited all the features of Neanderthal man. Level C revealed evidence of an Upper Palaeolithic (36-11 kya) blade industry, which has been labelled the Baradostian (36-27 kya).
Shanidar Level B has been divided into two stages, B1 and B2. Level B2 provided evidence of the Zarzian culture (12.5-8.0 kya), a culture found at various sites in northern Iraq, in particular at the Zarzi Cave near Suleimaniyah and at the Pelegawra Cave east of Chemchemal.
Mesolithic Period (c.9000-c.7000 BC)
Shanidar Level B1 and the nearby open-air site of Zawi Chemi Shanidar (c.9000 BC) produced the first stage of the Mesolithic. Microliths were found in both the camp and the cave. Sickles and querns testify to the gathering of plants, probably still wild. Flimsy huts may have occupied only part of the year, the remainder being spent in caves. Other sites of this period are Karim-Shehir east of Chemchemal, and Mlefaat southeast of Mosul.
The pre-farming site at Mureybet in Syrian Mesopotamia has provided a detailed picture of food production and village life on the middle Euphrates between c.8500-c.6800 BC. Occupation has been divided into three phases. Phase-I was a camp of hunters and fishers using Natufian stone tools, common at that time all over the Mediterranean Levant. In phase II this camp became a village of round houses built of pressed mud. In phase III these houses were mostly replaced by rectangular houses built of limestone blocks.
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