Abstract The Middle East, specially the Zagros region, lies in a strategic position as a crossroads between Africa, Europe and eastern Asia. The landscape of this region that prevailed around the Neanderthal and anatomically modern human occupations is not well known. Only a few sites have been studied in detail in this area, often providing only a faunal list. These reveal that Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans lived in a landscape mainly composed of dry steppes. Here we extend the data obtained from Kaldar Cave through a systematic study of the rodent assemblage. The site provided evidence of a Pleistocene occupation attested by lithic tools associated with the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic, but it was also occupied during the Holocene, as evidenced by Neolithic artefacts. First excavations have revealed small vertebrates in Layer 4 (sub-layer 5 and 5II), belonging to the Upper Palaeolithic, and Layer 5 (sub-layers 7 and 7II), belonging to the Middle Palaeolithic. The rodent assemblage of Kaldar Cave is mainly composed of six arvicoline, two cricetine, one glirid, one dipodid, one gerbilline and two murine species. This assemblage shows that during the Late Pleistocene the environment around the site was mainly composed of open dry steppes, as indicated by the most abundant taxa, Microtus, Ellobius and Meriones. However, murine species indicate the presence of a vegetation cover. The palaeoclimatic conditions are characterized by lower temperatures and also less precipitation than at present. The results obtained with the rodent assemblages show that there is no major palaeoenvironmental or palaeoclimatic change that would explain the cultural shift between Layer 5 (Middle Palaeolithic) and Layer 4 (Upper Palaeolithic).

中文翻译：

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探索中东尼安德特人和解剖学现代人类的景观和气候条件：来自 Kaldar 洞穴（伊朗霍拉马巴德山谷）晚更新世的啮齿动物组合

摘要 中东，特别是扎格罗斯地区，地处非洲、欧洲和东亚的十字路口，处于战略地位。该地区在尼安德特人和解剖学上的现代人类职业周围盛行的景观并不为人所知。在这方面只对少数几个地点进行了详细研究，通常只提供一个动物群列表。这些表明尼安德特人和解剖学上的现代人类生活在主要由干燥草原组成的景观中。在这里，我们通过对啮齿动物组合的系统研究来扩展从 Kaldar Cave 获得的数据。该遗址提供了更新世占领的证据，由与旧石器时代中期和上部相关的石器工具证明，但它也在全新世期间被占领，新石器时代的手工艺品证明了这一点。第一次发掘揭示了属于旧石器时代上层的第 4 层（第 5 和第 5II 层）和属于旧石器时代中期的第 5 层（第 7 和 7II 层）的小型脊椎动物。Kaldar Cave的啮齿动物群主要由6种arvicoline、2种cricetine、1种glirid、1种dipodid、1种沙鼠和2种鼠科动物组成。这种组合表明，在晚更新世期间，场地周围的环境主要由开阔干燥的草原组成，最丰富的分类群是 Microtus、Ellobius 和 Meriones。然而，鼠科物种表明存在植被覆盖。古气候条件的特点是温度较低，降水也比现在少。