Marjan Mashkour facts for kids
Marjan Mashkour is an amazing archaeologist and a member of the French National Centre for Scientific Research. She is the first person from Iran to become an expert in a field called zooarchaeology. This means she studies animal bones and remains from ancient times. She has worked on many exciting projects in Iran and other countries in the Near East.
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What Marjan Mashkour Studied
Marjan Mashkour earned her special degree, called a Ph.D., in 2001. She studied zooarchaeology at a famous university in Paris, France. Her main project was all about hunting and farming from ancient times, like the Stone Age and Iron Age, in a place called the Qazvin plain in Iran. She looked at animal bones from old sites like Zagheh, Qabrestan, and Sagzabad to understand how people lived with animals back then.
What Marjan Mashkour Researches
Marjan Mashkour has written many articles about ancient times in the Near East. She even helped edit a book called 'Zooarchaeology of the Ancient Near East'.
Animals in Ancient Times
Her research often focuses on animals from the late Paleolithic period (which was a very long time ago, during the Stone Age). She studies animals found in the Zagros Mountains. She is very interested in how wild goats became domesticated (tamed by humans) in Iran.
In 2006, she looked closely at the role of pigs and wild boars on the ancient Iranian plateau. She has also done new research about where donkeys first came from. More recently, she has explored how dogs became domesticated in the Near East.
Ancient Animal Behavior and Diet
Besides studying the bones of ancient animals, Marjan Mashkour also researches how animal herds might have behaved long ago. This helps her understand the ancient diet of people and animals. She has even looked into how the coat colors of ancient dogs might have varied.
Helping Museums
Marjan Mashkour is helping the National Museum of Iran create a special center for zooarchaeology. She also helped set up the Zagros Paleolithic Museum. In 2021, she edited a book about the animal and human bones kept at the National Museum of Iran. The book is called "Human and Animal Interactions in the Iranian Plateau: Research Conducted by the Osteology Department of Iran National Museum."
Places Marjan Mashkour Has Explored
Marjan Mashkour has worked at many interesting archaeological sites. When archaeologists "excavate," they carefully dig up old places to find clues about the past.
Here are some places she has excavated or surveyed:
- Yafteh Cave, in Lorestan, Iran
- Upper Khuzestan, in southwest Iran
- Qazvin Plain, Iran
- Darband Cave, Iran
- Cherabad Salt Mine, Iran
- Wezmeh Cave, in western Iran
External links
- The Development of Nomadism in Northern Syria in the 3rd Millennium B.C.
