| Ganj-e Dareh is a Neolithic settlement in Iranian | | | | highland village with evidence for domestication of |
| Kurdistan, it is located in the east of Kermanshah. | | | | the goat, and some of the earliest ceramics in the |
| The site dates back to ca. 10,000 years ago and | | | | Near East as well. Artifacts from the site include |
| yielded the earliest evidence for goat | | | | clay figurines of humans and animals; Ganj Dareh |
| domestication in the world. It was excavated by | | | | is considered among the earliest permanent |
| Canadian archaeologist, Philip Smith during 1960's | | | | settlements in the Near East. |
| and 1970's. | | | | Along the craggy limestone ridges of the Zagros |
| Ganj Dareh is an Early Neolithic archaeological | | | | Mountains that run through western Iran and |
| site in the Kermanshah district of southwestern | | | | northeastern Iraq, the relationship between |
| Iran. The site was occupied about 8400-7000 BC. | | | | humans and goats dramatically changed around |
| Ganj Dareh is a small mound, representing an | | | | 10,000 years ago. New research by Dr. Melinda |
| early highland village with evidence for | | | | Zeder, Curator of Old World Archaeology & |
| domestication of the goat, and some of the | | | | Zooarchaeology at the National Museum of Natural |
| earliest ceramics in the Near East as well. | | | | History, and Dr. Brian Hesse of the University of |
| Artifacts from the site include clay figurines of | | | | Alabama at Birmingham, shows that goats, hunted |
| humans and animals; Ganj Dareh is considered | | | | in the region since the time of Neanderthals, were |
| among the earliest permanent settlements in the | | | | now being bred and herded instead. Their |
| Near East. | | | | findings on this historic shift, which forever |
| Ganj Dareh is an Early Neolithic archaeological site | | | | changed both the societies of human herders and |
| in the Kermanshah district of southwestern Iran. | | | | the ecology of regions where goats and other |
| The site was occupied about 8400-7000 BC. Ganj | | | | livestock animals lived, were reported in the March |
| Dareh is a small mound, representing an early | | | | 24, 2000 issue of Science. |