Inge Demant Mortensen

During six seasons (1992-1998) an intensive survey of the Mount Nebo region was accomplished under the auspices of the Franciscan Archaeological Institute at Mount Nebo and the Danish Palestine Foundation. It was followed by a brief reconnaissance in 2008. The survey was carried out in the field by a small group of archaeologists, directed by Peder Mortensen. The group was occasionally joined by Michele Piccirillo and by Carmelo Pappalardo from the Franciscan Archaeological Institute. Centered around Mount Nebo, the survey covered an area of approximately 35 square kilometres varying in elevation from -100 to 800 metres. Within the region 748 sites and monuments - in time ranging from the Lower Palaeolithic to the Late Ottoman periods - were located. The attention was primarily concentrated on the large number of megalithic monuments: 194 dolmens, 41 lines of stones and menhirs, and 316 circular megalithic tombs. Together with other finds from the Chalcolithic, Bronze- and Iron Ages, and from the Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Islamic periods they will be published in two successive volumes. This volume, however, is dedicated to the description of 79 locations and single finds, which can be attributed to the Stone Age.

The Lur nomads live in Luristan in the west of modern Iran. Two Danish scholars, Carl Gunnar Feilberg and Lennart Edelberg, visited this region in 1935 and 1964 respectively, and assembled two valuable ethnographic collections which provide a remarkable perspective over time on the historical transformation of Lur nomadism at a critical time when the sedentarization of these people was gathering momentum. Nomads of Luristan is a product of The Carlsberg Foundation’s Nomad Research Project, which draws on the rich Middle Eastern and Central Asian ethnographic collections of the National Museum of Denmark, as well as on recent social and cultural anthropological studies of nomadic groups in Afghanistan, the Persian Gulf and North Africa. This volume discusses Lur material culture and practices within the wider social, political and administrative setting which historically allowed nomadism to flourish but, in the end, curbed it. Theories linking modern pastoral nomadism in this area with ancient forms of life are critically evaluated in the light of recent archaeological data from the Zagros, a cradle of early agriculture and domestication of sheep and goats. A generously illustrated descriptive catalogue presents the collections grouped under subject headings with short introductions: Settlements - Shrines and Cemeteries - Transport - Domestic Animals - Hunting - Agriculture - Furniture and Household Equipment - Cooking and Food Storage - Weaving: Preparation and Fabrication - Tools for the Preparation of Skin, Wood and Metal - Dress and Personal Equipment - Musical Instruments. The Lur perpetuated ancient nomadic ways in a region which first saw their development out of pre-historic hunter-gatherer subsistence. Here is a fully documented record of their material legacy. This book also contains: Appendix I: A note on the Pedigree of the valis of Luristan. Appendix II: A Typology of Textile Techniques in Luristan. Bibliography and Index. Published in 1993 in the series The Carlsberg Foundation's Nomad Research Project. Hardcover with dust jacket. 414 pages. 506 illustrations - 46 in colour - and 3 maps (Luristan - The Hulailan valley - Bala Gariveh). Inge Demant Mortensen is a Research Fellow at the Department of Ethnography at the Prehistoric Museum, Moesgaard, Denmark. She has conducted extensive research on the Lur in western Iran.