In the 1964 Proceedings a preliminary report was published of an initial sounding at this site, discovered and named (after a nearby village) in 1962. The main excavation, in the summer of 1964, was undertaken with the kind permission and co-operation of the Iranian Government and authorities, and with the financial assistance of grants from the British Academy and the Crowther Beynon Fund of the University of Cambridge. Subsequent laboratory analysis has been carried out mainly in the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology of the University of Cambridge.

Since the geographical situation of the site forms an essential factor in its interpretation, the main features may be repeated here for convenience. The cave is eroded in the base of an escarpment which follows the foot of the Elburz range where it bounds the coastal plain along the southern shores of the present Caspian. The mountains rise abruptly in an impressive series of ridges to over 10,000 ft; the plain extends to the north to the modern sea-shore now some 8 miles away from the site and rapidly retreating. It is known however that in the recent geological past this situation has varied greatly. At times the sea lapped the base of the hills leaving traces in the form of escarpments and raised beaches, while at others it retreated scores of miles to the north and may even have disappeared altogether.