Curating the Prehistoric Past

The contributions gathered in this Festschrift are offered by scholars who have benefited from Professor Nishiaki’s mentorship, generosity, and intellectual inspiration. Together, they reflect the breadth of his academic vision and stand as a tribute to his lifelong commitment to research, education, and the advancement of prehistoric archaeology in West Asia and beyond.

• Preface – Editorial Collective Part I: Research by Professor Yoshihiro NishiakiSelected Publications by Professor Yoshihiro Nishiaki Chapter 1 From Syria to Azerbaijan, a long collaboration with Y. Nishiaki – Bertille LyonnetChapter 2 Highlights and memories of research activities by Professor Nishiaki – Masashi Abe, Takehiro Miki, Seiji Kadowaki, Saiji Arai and Miho Suzuki Part II: Paleolithic and the Transition to the NeolithicChapter 3 Documenting and protecting Paleolithic heritage in the Afrin Valley, Aleppo, in times of conflict – Youssef Kanjou and Mustafa Al NajjarChapter 4 Variability in Middle Palaeolithic predatory strategy across Southwest Asia and beyond – Saiji AraiChapter 5 An application of PaleoAsia DB to the ecological niche comparison between the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic stone tool groups in the Eastern Hemisphere – Yasuhisa KondoChapter 6 Carinated pieces in the Wadi Kharar area, northern inland Syria: An updated perspective on Upper Paleolithic technology in the northeastern Levant – Seiji KadowakiChapter 7 Space as metaphor: The evolution from round to rectangular buildings in the Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic of the Near East – Marc Verhoeven Part III: Prehistory of Mesopotamia and the ZagrosChapter 8 Tracing the origins of architectural specialisation in early Mesopotamia (7th–5th Millennia BCE) – Emmanuel BaudouinChapter 9 Human figurines from Tell Kashkashok I, Halafian site on the Upper Khabur River Basin, Northeast Syria – Makoto ArimuraChapter 10 Samarra pottery in the “west”: A perspective from the collection in the National Museum of Aleppo, Syria – Takahiro OdakaChapter 11 Corner-thinned blades and side-blow blade-flakes from Shakar Tepe and Shaikh Marif, Pottery Neolithic sites in Iraqi Kurdistan – Osamu MaedaChapter 12 Figurines and other clay objects of Jarmo: Material culture and symbolic practice in the Neolithic Zagros – Sari Jammo Part IV: Prehistory of IranChapter 13 At the end of the Jari: Neolithic pottery from Tall-e Jari B, Fars, southern Iran – Takehiro MikiChapter 14 Local luster and exotic beads: Neolithic and Chalcolithic shell finds from the Marv Dasht plain in Iran – Sofie DebruyneChapter 15 Shogha/Taimuran pottery collection at the University of Tokyo Museum – Mohammad Hossein Azizi KharanaghiChapter 16 Animal exploitation in the Elamite settlement of Tol-e Qaleh in the Marvdasht Plain (Fars-Iran) – Hossein Davoudi, Marjan Mashkour, Homa Fathi and Fazlollah HabibiChapter 17 Ending of a painted pottery: Classification, typology, and chronology of Caspian black on red ware – Yui Arimatsu Part V: Prehistory in the Caucasus and BeyondChapter 18 Beyond everyday know-how, technology as a chrono-cultural marker – Jacques Chabot and Ruben BadalyanChapter 19 Contrasting lithic strategies between mountainous and plain sites in the late 7th to 6th millennium BC South Caucasus: Technological divergence and convergence at Damjili Cave and Göytepe – Fumika Ikeyama and Farhad GuliyevChapter 20 Charcoal identification of Göytepe site (sixth millennium BC), Azerbaijan – Ken-ichi Tanno, Eri Shimooka, Chie Akashi and Farhad GuliyevChapter 21 Hulled or free-threshing: Change of cereal choices over time in Southwest Asia and South Caucasus – Chie AkashiChapter 22 Beyond the daily subsistence: Rituals among the prehistoric agropastoralists of the Inner Asian Mountains – Giedre Motuzaite Matuzeviciute, Aida Abdykanova, Shogo Kume, Yuichi Hayakawa, Inga Merkyte and Kubatbek TabaldievChapter 23 A study on the Early Dilmun burial mounds with subsidiary burials – Masashi Abe and Kenji OkazakiChapter 24 Reconsidering the emergence of pottery in the Japanese Archipelago – Hiroto Nakata