In this study, the siliciclastic Amiran Formation (Cretaceous–Paleocene) is investigated from petrographic and geochemical perspectives as evidence of foreland basin development in the Zagros region. For this purpose, three stratigraphic sections within the Lurestan sedimentary basin were selected and sampled. The petrofacies of this formation consist of chertarenite and calclithaite. Detrital materials were mainly supplied by the erosion of metamorphic and volcanic masses of the Sanandaj–Sirjan Zone, resulting from abnormal tectonic uplift and activity during the Late Cretaceous. Some of the clastic materials originated from the reworking of neighboring shallow-water deposits, particularly underlying Cretaceous calcareous and marly units, which were transported to deeper parts of the basin through turbidity currents. Modal analysis of sandstones plotted on QFL and QmFLt diagrams confirms a recycled or transitional recycled orogenic setting. Geochemical studies reveal that the source rocks of the studied samples formed under an arid climate with moderate chemical weathering. Diagrams of trace elements such as Th versus Sc and Co/Th versus La/Sc indicate that the provenance rocks were dominantly intermediate (andesitic) in composition. Triangular plots of La–Sc–Th and Th–Sc–Zr/10 values show that all samples fall within the Continental Island Arc (CIA) field. Major oxide composition analyses of the Amiran Formation suggest that these turbiditic deposits were derived from a relatively young clastic source, consisting of mixed metamorphic and intermediate volcanic materials related to the magmatic arc of the Sanandaj–Sirjan Zone.