Rice University did some of the first Archeological works done on the Deh Luran plain in the 1960’s. These excavations were done in the village site of Tepe Ali Kosh in the early 1960’s, and the village site of Tepe Sabz. The Rice University excavation projects used the first systematic sieving techniques to uncover and retrieve all artifacts and animal bones, and water floatation to recover “carbonized” seeds. The Rice University excavation project defined many cultural phases to the Tepe Ali Kosh and early civilization wonders. The cultural phases that were discovered include: evidence of the beginning of plant cultivation, early goat and sheep herding, and the early use of irrigation.

Ali Kosh, Iran was inhabited in the Neolithic or Formative period, which is defined by the presence of sedentary villages and domesticated plants and animals. The archeologists who excavated the Ali Kosh village were trying to find out more about the economic life of the “pre-agricultural community” and the evolution of the “domesticated agricultural adaptation.” After the excavations of the Ali Kosh village came the discovery of a cultural phase called the Ali Kosh Phase. This phase helped answer some of the questions that archeologists were trying to find more about. What the Ali Kosh phase attests to early civilization is: greater reliance on crops, within an economic structure built around hunting and gathering; greater reliance on domesticated emmer and barley (40%of the seeds recovered in the excavation of Ali Kosh). The residents of the Ali Kosh village also possessed pottery from 6000 to 5500 BC. The residents of the Ali Kosh and the Deh Luran plain also traded with other villages in lower Mesopotamia.

This villages was occupied from about 10, 000 years ago. These was evidence that winter grown wheat and barley were exploited. Ali Kosh supported about 100 people so represents a small village. The archaeologists who excavated Ali Kosh were trying to find out more about the economic life of a pre agricultural community and the evolution of the domesticated agricultural adaptation. They found a series of distinct phases through the occupation:

Ali Kosh phase: (8700-7550 BP). Greater reliance upon domesticated crops, within an economic structure built around hunting and gathering. Goat bones are now all of domesticated animals. Greater reliance upon domesticated emmer and barley (40% of seeds recovered).

After this period, the population expanded greatly in the region of Ali Kosh. There are more and more sites and larger village structures. There was more agriculture which led to greater surpluses and populations …