The Association for Trans-Eurasia Exchange and Silk Road Civilizations Development (ATES) held its 5th ATES Silk Road Civilization Forum online on 29 December 2023.

Hassan Fazeli Nashli, professor of Archaeology at the University of Tehran and important partner of ATES WG2 (Trans-Eurasia Exchange of Early Farming and Herding), gave an insight talk titled: “The cave man and the first farmers: how the nature of society changed during the early Holocene period”. He introduced his latest research progress in the northern part of Iran and the southern Caspian Sea, and explained what had happened during the Neolithic revolution in this region from the perspectives of Archaeology, Geoarchaeology and Paleoclimatology. This research has deepened the understanding of the diachronic and synchronic development of agricultural society in the northern part of Iran. In summary, he expected to explore more caves and launch comparison studies in the future, and get sufficient paleoenvironment information from Western and Central Asia to recognize the mechanism of diffusion and migration of early farmers.

Chair of ATES, Prof. Fahu Chen opened by thanking all the participant for the ATES activities. After the presentation, Prof. Liangren Zhang (Nanjing University), Prof. Xinying Zhou (The Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences) and others discussed with Prof. Nashli around the contents of his presentation. The forum was chaired by Prof. Juzhi Hou, the Executive Director of ATES and more than 150 scholars joined the meeting via Zoom and Bilibili.