Amazing, AMAZING stuff coming out of the ground in Eastern Iran at the moment.

Evidence of a previously unknown and highly sophisticated civilisation has been discovered recently in south-eastern Iran. Geographically situated between, and contemporary with, the ancient civilisations of Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley, this was a literate society whose material culture was influential over a very wide area. Its pottery dating from the middle of the third millennium BC has been found in sites as widely separated as Syria and India and as far north-east as the Oxus river in modern day Uzbekistan (the so-called Bactrian-Margiana Archaeological Complex or BMAC).
The site came to light only in 2001 when Iranian authorities started arresting villagers for plundering ancient grave sites found at Daqyanousin, near the city of Jiroft in the province of Kerman. The story of the site's discovery goes something like this:

One day in early spring, a peasant from Matoutabad village in Jiroft came across an old object when he was passing along the river. The object was floating on the surface of water, as a consequence of the change in the river's route. The man picked up the object and returned to the village to find out whether other villagers also agreed with what had occurred to his unconscious mind.

The brilliance of joy was quite evident in the eyes of the villagers who had gathered in the village square to observe the ancient artifact. Given that shortage of rainfall had inflicted great damage on the village plantations for the past two years, the villagers had to tackle the ensuing poverty and unemployment. Nonetheless, now things might have been different and if their guess was correct, they would be lucky and they shouldn't miss such a rare opportunity. The story was revealed to the entire village in no time. The following day all villagers took their shovels and picks and moved towards the point where the ancient object was located. Their guess that an underground treasure should have been hiden under the earth was correct. Nonetheless, they could hardly imagine that their homeland - Jiroft - could be the archaeologists' "lost paradise"!
--- Mystery of Daqyanous Treasuries And Extinction Of Ancient Hills In Jiroft

The site has been described as "so densely packed with archaic layers that ancient artifacts are even likely to come by at one-meter depths". Very accessible, no doubt, to agricultural workers armed with picks and shovels.

The results were predictable enough; poor villagers in an economically depressed region deciding to avail themselves of what providence had sent them but it is perhaps a sign of the globalised nature of the market in stolen antiquities that the pillage of the site was so organised and systematic. Each family had been allocated a six square kilometre region to excavate and the result was the removal of literally thousands of items, most having been whisked off to eager buyers abroad, especially in Europe.

There is even an industry producing Jiroft-ware fakes for those as gullible as they are unscrupulous.

It wasn't until February last year that the site finally began to be officially excavated by archaeologists but already the discoveries have been impressive. The remains of this previously unknown culture have been found to extend over an area of at at least 400 square kilometres in size and with a minimum of 300 tells or burial mounds.

Also discovered are the remains of a fortress-like structure and what is thought to be one of the world's oldest ziggurats which dates back to 2300 B.C. This enormous structure measures 400 by 400 metres at its base and 250 by 250 metres on its next level. Ziggurats, incidentally, are thought to have been an invention of the Sumerians at Ur although its interesting that the Sumerian word "ziggurat" comes from an Elamite root. The Elamites built a powerful civilization in Western Iran, 800 kilometres north-west of Jiroft.

As I mentioned earlier, the Jiroft culture also was literate one and a number of clay seals have been found that are adorned with mythical images and written characters. Dr. Yusef Majidzadeh, the chief archaeologist in charge of the site remarks:

All these discoveries suggest that there have been sophisticated government and economy with a booming trade some 5000 years ago, the archeologist credited with first throwing the spotlight on the area said.

"The discovery of inscriptions, a ziggurat, and many cultural remains in Jiroft thought to be contemporary with the Sumerian civilization in Mesopotamia as well as the independence of the Halilrud River civilization could shift the archaeological and civilization landscape in the Middle East," he concluded.

These remarkable discoveries have led Majidzadeh to go as far as to suggest that the Jiroft culture may even predate the ancient civilisation of Sumer and uses phrases like "the earliest Oriental civilization". This is quite a statement because the Sumerian culture, or rather its pre-literate precursors in Southern Iraq, is generally considered to be the world's oldest civilization so this claim has understandably met with some scepticism from other researchers in the field. Even his collaborator, Holly Pittman of the University of Pennsylvania has gently implied that Majidzadeh is a little bit prone to hyperbole on occasions:

"He's a typical archaeologist," she says with a smile and a shrug. "His site is the center of the universe."


Still, she adds, it is "a very exciting site."

At this stage no carbon-dating has been used on the artefacts found and so their ages have only been inferred from their archaeological context. It will take a little longer for them to be scientifically confirmed but, despite this, the discovery of the Jiroft culture is destined to dramatically revise our understanding of this seminal period in the history of civilisation.

"From now on, we must speak of before and after Jiroft," says Karl Lamberg-Karlovsky, a Harvard University archaeologist.

See also:
Rocking the Cradle

   

« Older: Abracadabra

Newer: Four sticks, two sheep »