Agropastoralism developed in southwest Asia in the 9th millennium BC. The Zagros mountains in Iran are one of the centres of goat domestication. The management of caprine herds and the climatic constraints of this region led to the development of pastoralism with seasonal mobility. The temporary campsites of mobile pastoral groups, which were probably occupied on several occasions, generally include ceramic and lithic materials that are not very distinctive. The dearth of organic materials conventionally used for 14 C dating provides challenges in establishing the chronology of the settlements. Therefore, the development of CSRA of lipids in ceramic vessels provides a unique alternative to resolve the chronology of such campsites. We study first the lipid preservation in about 400 ceramics from Neolithic permanent settlements, open-air campsites, and cave campsites of pastoral groups. It showed a reliance on both carcasses and dairy products of their caprine herds. The overall low lipid preservation led to performing 14C measurements on less than 100 µg of C of lipids in ceramic, which diverged from the routine method with sample sizes over 200 µg of C. We therefore employed the EA-GIS interface linked to ECHoMICADAS to do gas measurements on single lipid. Despite the relatively low precision obtained on the measurements, we were able to: (1) provide chronological context to prospection surveys in the Zagros;
(2) show a reuse of three open-air and cave campsites across several centuries or millennia;
(3) demonstrate dairy exploitation in the ceramic vessels by pastoral groups in the Zagros mountains was already established during the 7th millennium BC.