http://www.chn.ir/en/news/?section=2&id=6298

Discovery of a Giant Achaemenid Building in Bolaghi Gorge

The remains of a big building which was buried for more than 2000 years was unearthed during archeological excavations in Bolaghi Gorge.

Tehran, 10 April 2006 (CHN) -- Archeological excavations in area no. 73 of Bolaghi Gorge historical site with the aim of finding cultural evidence from the fourth millennium BC led to the discovery of the remains of a big construction belonging to the Achaemenid era.

“Prior to this discovery, the remains of an Achaemenid architectural style was found by Iranian-Italian joint team in area no. 73 of Bolaghi Gorge, but the discovery of the remains of clay ovens belonging to the fourth millennium BC headed us to this historical site to find more evidence. Geophysical studies in this area resulted in unearthing a huge building. Three big trenches have been dug for identifying this building. Archeological excavations indicate that this building with stone walls dates back to the Achaemenid era,” said Mojgan Seyedein, Iranian head of Iranian-German joint excavation team.

Rubble stones were used in the construction of the walls of this building. “The remains of two broken stone dishes were also discovered which are somehow similar to the present bowls. However, since we have not reached to pure soil yet, we can not determine the exact characteristics such as the size of the walls of this construction,” added Seyedein.

The remains of an Achaemenid village with 30 rural houses had already been discovered in area no. 73 of Bolaghi Gorge with a cemetery next to it. Getting closer to the time of the Sivand Dam flooding, archeological excavations in Bolaghi Gorge have been speeded up, which resulted in some considerable findings so far.

The 18-kilometer Bolaghi Gorge is located 9 kilometers from the world heritage site of Pasargadae in Fars province. Some experts believe that the site has been the location of the major ancient road of Iran, King’s Road, built by the order of Darius, the Achaemenid king. Bolaghi Gorge will sure drown after the inundation of Sivand Dam. The salvation project in Bolaghi Gorge started with the participation of 8 international and several domestic archeological teams more than a year ago to save the archeological relics buried in this ancient site as much as possible.

Three Pre-Islamic Cemeteries Discovered in Hormozgan

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Archeological excavations in Hormozgan province resulted in the discovery of three pre-Islamic vast cemeteries with a different burial method.

Tehran, 24 April 2006 (CHN) -- Discovery of three huge pre-Islamic cemeteries in Bastak historical site in Hormozgan province faced archeologists with new questions about different burial methods in ancient Persia. While most of the burials used to be done in the mountains and cliffs during the pre-Islamic especially the Sassanid era, earth burials are used in these new discovered cemeteries which also date back to the Sassanid era. Considering that this new burial method is in odds with other methods used during the ancient times, archeologists are trying to learn more about the tradition of the people during that time.

“Discovery of these three pre-Islamic cemeteries is one of our most important achievements during this season of excavation. Prior to this, such similar method of earth burial was discovered in Fars province in area no. 88 of Bolaghi Gorge and also in Rahmat Mountain in Persepolis. Based on the evidence such as the surface clays and the method of construction of these graves, the cemeteries must have belonged to the pre-Islamic and most probably early Sassanid era. Each of these cemeteries covers an area of 15 hectares,” said Ali Asadi, head of archeological team in Bastak city.

Asadi believes the existence of pre-Islamic cemeteries with this method of burial in Bastak is very interesting and somehow strange. “Considering that mountain and cliff burials were the most prevalent burial methods during the Sassanid era, the question is that if these cemeteries also belong to the same period of time, why was a different method used here?” added Asadi.

The city of Bastak is located in a mountainous region in the southern province of Hormozgan in Iran. The fact that the city is located in a mountainous area makes matters more complicated.

Considering the close distance of Bastak to Fars and Kerman provinces, archeologists are looking for the traces of Halil Rud and Fars civilizations in this area which might have migrated to this area and changed the culture and tradition of the locals. On the other hand, since from the ancient times, Hormozgan province had trade relations with the Persian Gulf regional countries, they are also looking for the possible influence of the culture of these countries on the region.

7 Cave Dwelling Settlements Discovered in Mazandaran

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Discovery of 7 caves in Mazandaran with
evidence of human settlements indicates
that this region was one of the most important
residential areas prior to urbanization.

Tehran, 25 April 2006 (CHN) -- Archeological excavations in Mazandaran province, between Neka and Behshahr cities led to the discovery of seven historical caves which were the settlements of human beings between 13000-10000 BC.

“Prior to this discovery, some evidence of cave dwelling was found in Mazandaran province. But discovery of these seven caves belonging to the Stone Age in Mazandaran province gives us more information about the settlements of human beings in this area some 13000 years ago and shows that Mazandaran was one of the most important residential areas during ancient times,” said Ali Mahforouzi, archeologists and head of Historical Caves Research Center.

According to Mahforouzi, some stone tools and bones were discovered in these caves which indicate that the settlement of human beings continued there for a long time. “Some of the discovered evidence show that cave dwelling in this area lasted to the Iron Age, some 3500 years ago,” added Mahfooruzi.

Considering that the discovered caves are located 1400 meters from the sea level, Mahforouzi explained: “This level of height was appropriate for human beings who lived during Pleistocene and Holocene epochs,” said Mahforouzi.

Pleistocene epoch came to an end some 15000 years ago and since then Holocene period started which is still continuing.

Considering the close distance between Gohar Tepe historical site and these historical caves strengthens the theory that after giving up cave dwelling life, human beings decided to gather and form societies and little by little some cities such as Gohar Tepe were established.

Mazandaran is one of the most ancient provinces in Iran. Archeological excavations in this province indicate that it has been inhabited by human beings from 400,000 years ago until the present time. Excavations have also revealed that urbanization flourished in the area around 3000BC. The historical site of Gohar Tepe is a proof to this claim.

SOURCE: http://www.chn.ir/en/news/?section=2&id=6338

Archeologists in Search of a Port Lost 700 Years Ago

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Archeologists have started excavations
to discover the Old Hormoz port that
disappeared some 700 years ago.[

Tehran, 8 April 2006 (CHN) -- Archeological excavations are still continuing in Minab plain in order to discover the Old Hormoz Port which mysteriously disappeared in the 1300s and is believed to have been located around the present-day Hormozgan Province.

“The main aim of these excavations is to discover the original location of the Old Hormoz Port. It was a city which turned into an important international trade port after the collapse of Siraf Port. A lot of people even some contemporary historians believe that the present city of Minab is the old Hormoz. However, according to what is recorded in historical evidence such as the itinerary of Morco Polo, the famous Italian explorer, this can not be true and the old Hormoz port was different from the present Minab. Besides, Hormoz was a trade port with some places for ships to berth while the case is not true with Minab city,” said Siamak Sarlak, archeologist and head of excavation team in Minab and Roodan.

In 1300 AD, a group of Mongols attacked the old Hormoz. Following that attack which devastated this portal city the governor of Hormoz accompanied by the residents migrated to the present city of Minab. Since that time the old Hormoz disappeared and no one knows precisely where it was located. “It is nearly 700 years since the old Hormoz port has vanished and no archeologist has managed to find its exact place yet,” explained Sarlak.

According to Sarlak, 84 historical relics have been unearthed during the excavations in Minab port so far, some of which date back to the ancient Stone Age (some 150,000 years ago). However, there is not much information to assist archeologists to identify the origin settlements there.

“The previous excavations led to the discovery of two linear and radial styles of settlements in the area. Linear settlements are those which are situated in lines. This style of settlement goes back to the Islamic period. But radial settlements have a pattern of lines that go outward from a central point, making a circular shape. This style of settlement goes back to the pre-Islamic period. These excavations resulted in the discovery of about five or six ancient areas,” added Sarlak.

According to Sarlak, discovering the real place of the old Hormoz would be a great achievement for Iran’s history and archeology.

ow thats cool i hope they will find a nother persepolis :)

http://www.chn.ir/en/news/?section=2&id=6374

Palace of Darius the Great Discovered in Bolaghi Gorge

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Discovery of remains of a gigantic palace in Bolaghi Gorge and its similarity to the constructions of the time of Darius I, Achaemenid King, in Persepolis show that it was built during the same period of time.

Tehran, 15 May 2006 (CHN) -- Iran-French joint archeology team at Bolaghi Gorge succeeded in discovering and identifying the remains of a gigantic palace, believed to be from the Achaemenid era (648 BC–330 BC), during their second season of excavations in the area.

“Before the start of this season of excavations, our geophysical tests in area number 33 of Bolaghi Gorge had revealed to us the possible existence of a huge building near the Sivand Dam. Clay artifacts found in this area showed that this building used to be the residential palace of the Achaemenid kings. With the start of the new excavation season, we resumed our excavations in area number 33 with this attitude,” said Mohammad Taghi Ataee, head of the Iran-French joint archeology team at Bolaghi Gorge.

“After we started our excavations in the historic hill where this monument is located, we realized that it consisted of one historic layer only. Since no other layers were constructed on top of this layer, archeologists were hoping to unearth the entire palace intact. However, after they made their trenches they got to a number of wells which had been dug by illegal smugglers and also traces of bulldozers which had caused serious damage to this ancient Achaemenid palace,” said Ataee.

Plundering of archeological sites by the smugglers has become a common issue in archeology. However, according to Ataee, archeologists believe that illegal diggers cannot be held responsible for destroying of this palace by bulldozers, and it was a deliberate act by an unknown person or group of people who intended to devastate this place for a reason that is not clear for archeologists.

“The archeology team kept removing the debris caused by the bulldozers until they got to the base of a pillar similar to those used in the construction of the palace of Persepolis in Fars province, although smaller in size. The base of this pillar which looks like an inverted bell is built by the same stones used in the construction of Persepolis. The stone is so carefully varnished that one may clearly see the reflection of oneself in it,” added Ataee.

The height of this discovered base is 35 centimeters and it has a diameter of 50 centimeters. There are signs on this base which were meant to level it off, a method commonly practiced during the Achaemenid era.

“Based on the evidence, this palace must have belonged to either Darius the Great, the Achaemenid King who ruled between 521 and 486 BC and built the famous Palace of Persepolis, or the kings who preceded him. However, it is more likely that the palace belonged to Darius,” said Ataee.

In addition to this pillar base, the royal seat of this palace, built using soil and condensed sand, several pieces of clay bricks, and three clay walls constructed in a row were discovered by the archeologists. The top of the walls has been destroyed by bulldozers; however, archeologists are hoping to find the construction plan of this palace by studying these walls more carefully.

Regarding the size of these clay bricks, Ataee said, “These clay bricks are in different size, some are 35 by 33 cm, some 17 by 33, and some others are 33 by 33 centimeters. They were probably used to cover the floor.”

Bolaghi Gorge is an endangered historical site in Fars province, near the ancient site of Pasargade, threatened by the Sivand Dam built in its vicinity. Although the dam is not flooded yet, it is clear that with its inauguration Iran will say farewell to one of its most valuable cultural heritage sites.

Although Ataee announced that inauguration of the Sivand Dam will not directly affect this Achaemenid Palace since it is located in an area which is relatively far from the Sivand Dam, the humidity caused by the dam will certainly destroy this palace in a long run.

The Iran-French archeology team will continue its excavations in Bolaghi Gorge until June 5 to save this ancient site as much as possible before the inauguration of the dam, the date of which has not been announced yet.

Interesting.

Alrighty! :D

Let's try to post some photos too and not only text.

Iran’s Astonishing Achievements in Archeology Last Year

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Tehran, 26 March 2006 (CHN) -- The year 1384 (Iranian calendar) which finished on March 20 this year, was full of ups and downs for Iran in archeological fields. Not only the number of archeological excavations increased during last year compared to the previous years, Bolaghi Gorge Salvation Project was also a big job on the shoulders of Iran’ Archeology Research Center.

Iran archeological sites witnessed important seasons of excavations with the presence of Iranian and foreign archeologists. The excavations in the Burnt City in Sistan va Baluchistan province, in the historical city of Gour in Fars province, in Tool Talesh cemetery in Gilan Province, Gohar Tepe historical site in Mazandaran province and many more all led to some important archeological discoveries. However, among aal of these excavations and archeological activities, the Bolaghi Gorge Salvation Project was the most prominent projects which attracted the attention of public opinion both inside and outside the country. The rush of several international archeological groups from Japan, France, Italy, Germany, Poland, and other countries alongside with Iranian archeologists to rescue the Bolaghi Gorge historical site in Fars province turned the project into an international one.




Full article (http://www.chn.ir/en/news/?section=2&id=6269)

are their any dinosaur fossils in Iran?

Iran is rich with history, love the country!

^^ Indeed, Iran was host to the earliest signs on civilisation... even our mythology dates back 7000 years lol

Old news but worth being in this thread: Earliest signs of wine found in Iran :D

The world's earliest known ancient wine jar (more than 7000 years old, ca. 5400-5000 B.C.) and a similarly dated sherd from another reconstructed wine jar are now on display in the exhibit Tokens to Tablets: Glimpses Into 6000 Years of the History of the Ancient Near East in the Mesopotamian gallery of the Museum.

Both the jar and the sherd were made famous by widespread international media attention following a June Nature magazine article about the discovery of wine residue on the sherd. The news also placed the Museum in the Guinness World Records.

A Remarkable Discovery...

In a serendipitous case of media attention spurring on a discovery, Museum archaeochemist Dr. Patrick McGovern, a researcher in the Museum Applied Science Center for Archaeology, discovered that the complete jar, which had been on display in one of the Museum's ancient Near East galleries, also had a wine residue. The jar, which was originally found near the sherd, was taken off display to be photographed with Dr. McGovern by the London-based Science Photo Library. Asked by the photographer to look down at the pot for the photograph, Dr. McGovern exclaimed, "There appears to be a reddish residue inside the jar!" Later testing confirmed that the residue was indeed an ancient wine deposit with a terebinth tree resin additive; this was the same result that had been obtained in testing the sherd.

Both the pottery jar and the sherd were recovered in 1968 from the "kitchen" of a mud- brick Neolithic building at Hajji Firuz Tepe, Iran - a site excavated by a University of Pennsylvania Museum expedition under the direction of Dr. Mary M. Voigt (as part of the Museum's Hasanlu Project, 1956-1977). Four similar jars were found with these, set into the floor along a wall of the "kitchen." They each had a volume of about 9 liters (2.5 gallons)....

Entire Article: http://www.museum.upenn.edu/new/research/Exp_Rese_Disc/NearEast/wine.shtml

Did u know that:

Kerman, a paradise for fossil lovers

Kerman is as old as history; Kerman province is considered a paradise for palaeontologists given the abundance of plant and animal (both vertebrates and invertebrates) fossils from different geological eras (see: Box 1-5 for a recent study at Geology Department, Bahonar University of Kerman). . . .

Read more in a recently published book about Iran fossils and History:

http://www.freewebs.com/drmozafari/mybooks3.htm

are their any dinosaur fossils in Iran?

Hi my friend,
Yes plenty,
Iran is one of the richest places on Earth with respect of fissils in general, and dinosaur fossils in particular. In fact the huge fossil reserves of Iran are the source of country's huge Gas and Petrol resources. Some evidences from literature:

Dinosaur Footprints Traced in Kerman

TEHRAN, Jan. 8 (2005) -- Paleontologists and Natural History Museum are conducting a special project to identify and take mold of dinosaur footprints which have been found in Kerman province.
The main objective of this project is to promote paleontological studies. Kerman province is considered a paradise for paleontologists given the abundance of vertebrate fossils from different geological eras. . . .

Iranian archeologists have come across fossils of giant creatures dating back to more than one million years ago throughout Iran.
[Iran Daily Newspaper, 12: Sun, Jan 09, 2005;
http://www.iran-daily.com/] (Figure 3-1).

[From the Book: FOSSILIZED FLESHES: Recent Evidences of Old Creatures of Kerman] website: http://www.freewebs.com/drmozafari/mybooks3.htm

Iran if rich with history, love the country!

Hi Nadini,
I liked your motto, but instead of "if" I think it should read "is"
Iran indeed IS very rich with History and new discoveries are ongoing almost on daily basis.

I give you just two scientific articles published in the famous Journal SCIENCE saying that based on new discoveries in Jiroft (a city in south Iran) History books must be rewritten (origin of civilisation was not only Egypt and Indus-Gang rivers in India, we need to add Jiroft even before the other two places):

Lawler, A. (2003) BRONZE AGE FIND: Jiroft Discovery Stuns Archaeologists. Science, 7 November 2003: Vol. 302. no. 5647, pp. 973-974.

Lawler, A. (2004) ARCHAEOLOGY: Iranian Dig Opens Window on New Civilization. Science, 21 May 2004: Vol. 304. no. 5674, pp. 1096-1097.

- - - - - -
By the way I was in your country almost 36 years ago, started my education there (School of Gasr el-Nil, Share al-Hoot, Beirut). I miss Lebanese food, shaverma, manoshe, and your delicious olives.

^^ I think she meant to type 'is' mate :)

lol

Anyways...


Sassanid city discovered in Fars

LONDON, March 12 (IranMania) - A large Sassanid city has been discovered near the town of Kazerun in the southern Iranian province of Pars, the Persian service of CHN reported.

“The city is located 70 kilometers from Kazerun near the glorious bas-relief of Bahram II (Sassanid king 276–293 CE) and Sar-Mashhad village, so we tentatively named it Sar-Mashhad,” the director of the archaeological team working at the site said.

Although no one knew its extent, people were aware of the existence of the buried city due to several small mounds at the site, but during the new phase of studies, the team found a large site that covers 600 hectares, Saeid Ebrahimi explained.

Based on the shards gathered at the site and its proximity to the Bahram II bas-relief, the archaeologists believe that the site dates back to the Sassanid era and was still inhabited in the early Islamic era. The team is currently searching for references to the city in historical texts, Ebrahimi added.

Villagers who use some sections of the area for farming believe that the site was used by Bahram II for lion hunting, but Ebrahimi rejected the idea, arguing, “The site contains many mounds and a large tepe, which were all human residences.”

With Persepolis and the city of Gur, Pars Province is home to major palaces of the great dynasties of the Achaemenids (about 550-331 BC) and the Sassanids (224-651 CE).

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http://www.chnphoto.ir/pattern3.php?image=46398201.jpg
The relief of Bahram II struggling with a Lion^^

Do you know this joke?


"An Italian turist sad in Persepolis, that archeologists in Rome uncovered ancient wires so it is obvious, that ancient Romans had telephones.

Answer of Iranian guide is: "Our archeologist did not find any wires in Persepolis, so it is proved, that Iranians used cell phones on that times."

Yeah i knew that one :p

hehe, good one. ^_^

Do you know this joke?


"An Italian turist sad in Persepolis, that archeologists in Rome uncovered ancient wires so it is obvious, that ancient Romans had telephones.

Answer of Iranian guide is: "Our archeologist did not find any wires in Persepolis, so it is proved, that Iranians used cell phones on that times."

:) I liked it. Cool joke.

Cylindrical Seal with a Strange Design Discovered in Dezful

http://heritage.chn.ir/en/manage/photo/Winged%20Horse.jpg
Archeological excavations in Khuzestan
province led to discovery of a cylindrical
seal designed with a winged horse with
a lion’s head and a cow’s hooves!

Tehran, 28 May 2006 (CHN) -- Archeological excavations in Sanjar Tepe in Khuzestan province resulted in discovery of a cylindrical seal with the design of a winged horse on its end. Although it is not the first time archeologists are confronted with the design of a winged horse in Iran, what makes this one special compared to the previous ones is that this winged horse has a lion’s head and a cow or a goat’s hooves, creating a strange creature which combines features of a horse, a bird, a lion, and a cow!

“A stone seal which most probably belongs to the Sassanid era (226-651 AD) was discovered during the first archeological excavation in Sanjar Tepe in Dezful. The design of a winged horse can be seen on the seal whose head is like a lion and has round hoofs like a cow or a goat. Horse was considered as a sacred animal during the Sassanid period and had a special place among the Persians of the time. We had previously found a large number of Sassanid seals with the designs of winged horses on them in other archeological sites but what makes this one unique among all the pervious ones is that it is the first time we see such a strange combination of four animals all in one. Another interesting thing about this design is that the hooves are round not cracked, although we don’t have any idea about the reason it is designed so,” said Mostafa Abdolahi, archeologist and head of Archeology Department of Azad University of Dezful.

First season of archeological excavations in Sanjar Tepe has started by the students of Dezful Azad University under the supervision of Dr. Pour Derakhshandeh. According to Abdolahi, the objects which have been discovered so far in this historical site, including clay, bronze and iron relics, were displayed in an exhibition in Khuzestan which was held during the Cultural Heritage Week (18-25 of May).

“Some models illustrating the Islamic architectural style used in the constructions of the city and colored posters from some historic monuments prepared by the students were displayed in this exhibition. In addition, some documentary movies from different archeological sites were screened in this exhibition,” said Abdolahi.

Sanjar historical Tepe is located in the city of Dezful in Khuzestan province, south of Iran, and belongs to the Elamite period (2700 BC-539 BC). The first season of archeological excavations in this historical site led to discovery of the location of Zahari, the Elamite city. “This city was located between the cities of Susa and Avan. Considering the archeological evidence found in the region, we believe that this city must have existed near the Sanjar Tepe,” added Abdolahi.

SOURCE: http://www.chn.ir/en/news/?section=2&id=6406

:cheers2:

Signet Ring Found in a Sassanid Grave in Mazandaran

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Discovery of a signet ring with a
Pahlavi-Sassanid word carved on it
in Mazandaran province opened a
new phase in archaeological studies
of this region.

Tehran, 27 May 2006 (CHN) -- A grave belonging to the Sassanid era was discovered during sounding activities by archeologists near Kangelou historical fortress in Mazandaran province in which a signet ring with Pahlavi-Sassanid script carved on it was found.

“This Sassanid grave was discovered during the sounding activities aimed at finding the pathway to Kangelou Fortress in Savad Kooh in the northern Iranian province of Mazandaran. This is a four-layer stone grave and the corpse was buried in a foetal position. In addition to the signet ring, some enameled clay dishes, metal, and glass relics have been found in this grave,” said Saman Sourtiji, member of academic assembly of Iran’s Archeology Research Center of the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Department of Mazandaran province and head of the archeology team in Kangelou Fortress.

According to Sourtiji, the grave was built with rubbles and mud mortar and the corpse was buried towards the west laid on its left side with hands near its mouth and knees bent.

This is a pre-historic burial method common before the Islamic period. However, this new discovery shows that this method of burial continued in Mazandaran province even after the Islamic era for over a century.

“The discovered ring in the grave is an opal ring which was used as a seal. An etched word can be seen on the opal which was decoded by Rasoul Bashash, master of ancient languages. According to Bashash, the word on the ring says “Farokhi” or “Farahi”, meaning luck or happiness, and it was believed that it would bring dignity and splendor for its owner,” explained Sourtiji.

According to Sourtiji, with this discovery, the Kangelou fortress archeology team is determined to continue its excavations in the area to find the architectural remains of the people who lived near the fortress during the Sassanid era in order to learn more about the mysteries of this historical period in this area.

SOURCE: http://www.chn.ir/en/news/?section=2&id=6403

Discovery of a Neolithic Stone Dwelling in Marvdasht

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A stone shelter which dates back to
some 10,000 years ago was discovered
near Rahmat Mountain in Marvdahsht
Plain in Fars province during
archeological excavations.

Tehran, 11 June 2006 (CHN) -- Archeological excavations in Marvdasht Plain in Fars province led to discovery of a 10,000-year-old stone dwelling near Rahmat Mountain. Archeologists believe that an advanced technology was used in the construction of the partition walls of this Neolithic shelter.

“This stone dwelling which was discovered in the foothills of Rahmat Mountain belongs to the pre-clay era and may possibly be dated back to 12,000 years ago. There are some delicate stone partition walls in this dwelling in which a well-developed technology must have been used in order to scrap some of these partition walls,” said Mohammad Feizkhah, head of excavation team in Marvdasht plain.

According to Feizkhah, this stone shelter is located about 10 meters above the plain level. Archeologists also believe that considering the archeological evidence at hand, this stone construction should have been used as a temporary dwelling by human beings some 10,000 years ago.

“Eshkaft-e Gavi (cow cave) is another shelter which is situated near this discovered stone dwelling. Therefore, considering the local dialect of the people of the region, we named this one Eshkaft-e Siahoo (black cave),” added Feizkhah.

Discovery of several temporary nomadic settlements belonging to the Achaemenid to the Islamic period in this area are among other archeological achievements in Marvdsht plain. Even at present some nomads who pass through the Marvdasht plain set their temporary settlements in this region.

Prior to this, archeological excavations and geophysical studies by the joint Iranian-French team in Fars province had led to unearthing of an irrigation channel belonging to the Achaemenid era (648-330 BC) in an area between Persepolis and the city of Estakhr (pool) in Fars province, which is believed was used to direct the water of Polvar (Sivand) River to Marvdasht Plain where the ancient palace of Persepolis is located.

Archeological excavations in Mavdasht Plain of Fars province has originally started by a joint Iranian-French team; however, due to some problems arising in this respect, the French archeologists left the area and now the Iranian team has to continue the excavations by itself.

SOURCE: http://www.chn.ir/en/news/?section=2&id=6432

12000 years old :O! Iranic history dates back aaagggeeess!!

Architectural Style of Darius’ Summer Palace Uncovered

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Discovery of black and white stones
belonging to the quarries of Bolaghi
Gorge near the summer palace of
Darius indicate that such stones
were used in decoration of this
Achaemenid monument.

Tehran, 16 June 2006 (CHN) -- Further archeological excavations on the remains of Darius’ palace which was discovered during the recent archeological excavations in Bolaghi Gorge by the Iran-French joint team, indicate that this palace was used as a summer settlement by Darius the Great and other Achaemenid kings. Studies on the stone pillars of the balcony show that the base of these pillars were constructed and decorated with white and black stones. These stones had been obtained from quarries which exist in Bolaghi Gorge.

“We believe that the area of the castle was something about one hectare. However, the excavations in this area indicate that the king’s settlement area was only 30x30 meters, and therefore the remaining area must have been allocated to a small summer palace used by Darius during his reign,” said Mohammad Taghi Atayi, Iranian head of the Iran-French joint archeology team in Bolaghi Gorge.

The evidence show that high qualified materials were used in the construction of this Achaemenid monument and its foundation was so strong that parts of it have survived over time despite a lot of destruction.

Prior to this, the joint Iran-French team succeeded in unearthing a black stone pedestal in this Achaemenid summer palace, which is now being kept in Parse Pasargadae Research Center. Atayi believes that discovery of the decorations used in the balcony is very helpful in identifying the architectural style used in this palace.

“The four-pillared balcony of the summer palace of Darius the Great was unearthed in area no. 34. While the discovered pedestals of the palace had a circular shape, those of the balcony were squared shape and were 65 by 65 centimeters. Construction of squared pedestals on which round pillars were set was a very common architectural style of the Achaemenid era (648-330 BC). We also succeeded in discovering the remains of black and white stones in this summer palace, similar to those which had already been found in Pasargadae and Sivand during final days of our excavations in area no. 34. Just like the stones used in the construction of Pasargadae monument, these stones have been scraped due to rain and cold weather of the region. Evidence show that they were used as the base of the pillars in the balcony of the summer palace,” added Atayi.

“Discovery of these stones shows that black and white stones were used for construction and decoration of the squared pedestals and then the wooden pillars were placed on them over which the ceiling was built,” explained Atayi.

After the end of the first season of excavations in area no. 34 of Bolaghi Gorge, the architectural style and the plan of this Achaemenid summer palace were revealed to a large extent and archeologists hope to unearth and identify the other remains of this historical monument during their second season of excavations.

Bolaghi Gorge located in Fars province is considered part of the cultural landscape of the Pasargadae World Heritage site. Excavations in Bolaghi Gorge started almost two years ago with the aim of saving its archeological evidence before the inundation of the nearby Sivand Dam. With flooding of the Sivand Dam, Bolaghi Gorge and its 130 historical sites unearthed so far will drown.

Following the Archeology Seminar for Bolaghi Gorge Salvation Project, held 23-24 of February 2006 in the city of Shiraz, it was officially announced that the inundation of the Sivand Dam will be postponed until the end of excavations.

END

SOURCE: http://www.chn.ir/en/news/?section=2&id=6440

_______________


Thats a great find imo, shows a true window into the past of Achamenian design/architecture/styling

Discovery of a Historical Fortress in Hormozgan

http://heritage.chn.ir/en/manage/photo/Fortress-Haji%20Abad.jpg

The first season of archeological
excavations in Haji Abad, a city in the
southern province of Hormozgan, led
to discovery of a fortress belonging
to the 12th century AD.

Tehran, 17 June 2006 (CHN) -- A city fortress belonging to the mid-Islamic centuries was discovered in Haji Abad city, Hormozgan province, during recent excavations by archeologists. Archeological evidence indicates that this fortress must have been inhabited up until the Qajar era (1781-1925 AD).

“This 400x400 square meter fortress is surrounded by a trench and the remains of an ancient city such as a public bath, water reservoir, and windmill can be seen inside this fortress,” said Marjan Ravayi, an expert from the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Department of Hormozgan province.

According to Ravayi, this fortress consisted of four towers and was inhabited until the Qajar era. Due to existence of various cultural relics such as china celadon (early clay vessels produced in China from a very strong material), coins, blue and white chinaware, and porcelain dishes belonging to different periods of history especially the middle and latest Islamic periods, it became clear that this abandoned fortress has an importance place for archeologists and deserves being studied more.

Based on Los Range’s geographical estimation, this historical fortress was located on the way of caravans to the Old Hormoz.

Old Hormoz Port, also located in Hormozgan, became a booming trade center among the Persian Gulf regional states after the collapse of the nearby Siraf Port. Following the invasion of Mongols, it became abandoned and lost its dignity and was forgotten for almost 700 years. Latest archeological excavations in Hormozgan province resulted in discovery of this historical port 11 kilometers from the Minab Plain near Hormoz.

SOURCE: http://www.chn.ir/en/news/?section=2&id=6441

I wonder what happened... they must have been like... no shit! I never noticed that thing there :hahaha:

Pasargadae Irrigation Channels to be Restored
http://heritage.chn.ir/en/manage/photo/Pasargadae(2).jpg
By destroying an asphalt road lading to
Pasargadae historical site which lies
over its irrigation channels,
archeologists will begin restoring
these ancient constructions.

Tehran, 25 June 2006 (CHN Foreign Desk) -- Parse- Pasargadae Research Center is determined to destroy the layer of asphalt laid over an ancient road leading to the Pasargadae historical site in order to restore the original path of irrigation channels of this historical site and to connect them together to revive their original pattern.

"We succeeded in discovery of different parts of Pasargadae irrigation channels so far which, to some extent, helped us find out how these channels directed water to Cyrus’ Palace. While working on the path of these channels, we noticed that the asphalt road which leads to Pasargadae and is used for transporting tourists to this historical site is constructed over some parts of the irrigation channels, which is why we decided to destroy the asphalt surface to be able to restore and revive the original path of the these canals," said Mohammad Hassan Talebian, head of Parse-Pasasrgadae Research Center.

The irrigation channels of Pasargadae were constructed by stone and are considered one of the most technical methods invented by Persians to lead water to their gardens and residential places. At present, the Persepolis restoration team is busy restoring part of the irrigation channels of Pasargadae that had not been buried by asphalt.

"By destroying the asphalt road of Pasargadae, no vehicle will be permitted to pass through this way and people would have to go through this road by feet if they wish to see the Pasargadae historical complex. However, a path will be considered for the convenience of the people visiting the Pasargadae historical site," added Talebian.

According to Talebian, restoring the irrigation channels of Pasargadae will give the visitors a chance to see the method of irrigation used during the Achaemenid era (648-330 BC), during their visit to Pasargadae historical site.

Pasargadae, a UNESCO world heritage site, located in Fars province was the first dynastic capital of the Achaemend era. Its palaces, gardens, and Tomb of Cyrus the Great, are outstanding examples of the first phase of royal Achaemenid art and architecture and exceptional testimonies of the rich civilization of Persia.


_____________


Thats pretty kool.. maybe we could see the return of Cyrus the Greats gardens 'Paradisa' :P

Mulla Sadra Dam to Drown 7000 Years of History

http://heritage.chn.ir/en/manage/photo/Molla%20Sadra%20Dam.jpg

Parts of the 7000-year-old archeological
site of Mehr Ali Farsi and its historical
relics were submerged in water after
initial phase of inundation of Mulla
Sadra Dam in Fars province.

Tehran, 2 July 2006 (CHN Foreign Desk) -- The never-ending story of a historical site being damaged due to development projects and dam constructions seems to never let the minds of the people of Iran rest. This time, the same story is repeated for the 7000-year-old historical site of Mehr Ali Farsi in Fars province which was partly submerged as a result of inundation of Mulla Sadra Dam.

Although Iran’s Archeology Research Center has issued a certificate for carrying out excavations in this historical site, the Ministry of Energy has refused to fulfill its commitments, seeking to immediately inaugurate the dam after its construction was completed. This is while based on a memorandum of understanding signed a few months ago between Iran’s Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (ICHTO) and the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry was expected to coordinate its projects with ICHTO and is in charge of providing the budget for carrying out excavations in the vicinity of their development projects.

“Mehr Ali Farsi is one of the most important archeological sites of Fars province and archeological excavations in this historical site could lead into revealing many unknown facts about the pre-historic period of Fars province. Despite the fact that this historical site had been identified before the inundation of Mulla Sadra Dam, the authorities of the dam have neglected the necessity for carrying out excavations in this area and started the flooding of the dam in a very short time,” said Azizollah Rezayi, head of archeology team in Mehr Ali Farsi historical site.

According to Rezayi, some parts of the region have already been submerged and by the start of seasonal rains in less than three months, this historical site will be drowned up to 15 meters.

“We are determined to carry out our excavations in this historical site in the remaining three months to unearth and save as much as we can the historical relics which exist in this area. We have demanded a 100,000 US dollar budget for undertaking the excavations. However, the Ministry of Energy which is formally in charge of paying for the excavations has failed to give a penny although it has admitted that if the Archeology Research Center does not start excavations in the area, the historical site of Mehr Ali Farsi will soon be submerged due to inundation of Mulla Sadra Dam and starting of seasonal rains,” added Rezayi.

Rezayi also explained that the Ministry of Energy has asked the Archeology Research Center to pay for the excavation expenses and it will reimburse for it later. “However, previous experiences the Center has had with the Ministry such as the Sivand Dam show that this ministry does not keep its promises and is less likely to fulfill its financial commitments,” said Rezayi.

Despite all the efforts made by the authorities of ICHTO to postpone the inundation of Mulla Sadra Dam, the opening ceremony for flooding of this dam, which has been constructed for irrigation of agricultural lands, was held two months ago with the presence of the authorities of the Ministry of Energy, destroying part of the Mehr Ali Farsi historical site by its first phase.

Enjoying an old civilization with numerous historical sites, Iran had already encountered bitter experiences due to construction of dams in different parts of the country where hundreds of invaluable artifacts were lying. These included Sahand Dam in East Azarbaijan which will submerge the 6000-year-old Kul Tepe site, Alborz Dam in Mazandaran province, which caused irreversible damage to cultural heritage of the eastern part of Mazandaran province, the Karun Dam in Khuzestan province, Salman-e Farsi, Mulla Sadra, Marvasht in Fars province and the most sensational one: the construction of Sivand Dam in Fars province which will drown Bolaghi Gorge and all its historical sites in a near future. Even after all these disasters, it seems that it is not the end of the story and the trend of destruction of historical sites due to construction of dams still continues.

It is estimated that some 42 ancient and historical sites belonging to the Elamite (2700 BC-539 BC), Achaemenid (648 BC–330 BC), Parthian (150 BC–AD 226), Sassanid (226–650 AD), and Islamic (650 AD-present day) eras will be submerged by the Salman-e Farsi, Mulla Sadra, and Marvasht dams in Fars province.

:bash: these people continue to disgust me everyday. The energy comitee didnt keep their word, now its lost forever.

Committee established to pursue return of ancient Persian artifacts: official

TEHRAN, July 7 (MNA) -- A special committee has been established to pursue the return of the ancient Persian artifacts that a U.S. court has ruled can be sold off, Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization Research Center Director Taha Hashemi said here on Friday.

A U.S. federal judge recently rejected a key defense by the University of Chicago in a lawsuit brought by U.S. survivors of a 1997 bombing in Israel demanding that Iranian treasures in its collection be auctioned off to pay them compensation.

“The committee is working under the CHTO director and officials from the legal and international departments of the organization,” Hashemi told the Mehr News Agency.

Iran has filed a complaint at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, and the CHTO intends to hire an experienced U.S. lawyer to obtain the return of the ancient tablets, he added.

Both Iran and the United States are signatories to the UNESCO Convention of 1970, which prohibits illicit trade in cultural property.

Iran’s representative to the United Nations is seriously pursuing the case and the Foreign Ministry has asked the Swiss Embassy, which hosts the U.S. Interests Section in Iran, to give explanations, Hashemi said.


RS/HG

END

MNA


SICK!

http://www.chn.ir/en/news/?section=2&id=6477

http://www.chn.ir/en/news/?section=2&id=6470

Very sick... hectic to see the yanks took a leaf out of the Brits book :tongue3:

Hopefully we get it back :yes:

Humans Have Lived in Mazandaran for 29000 Years

http://heritage.chn.ir/en/manage/photo/caveman.jpg
The first season of paleontology studies
in Mazandaran province revealed that the
existence of human beings in this province
goes back to 29,000 years ago.

Tehran, 6 July 2006 (CHN Foreign Desk) -- A team of Iranian and French archeologists and anthropologists recently excavated northern parts of Iran in Mazandaran province to search for evidence of human beings during the ancient times.

Initial studies in the city of Amol show that the existence of human beings in this province dates back to 29000 years ago. Vali Cholabi, head of the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Office of Amol, said that the excavations were carried out by the joint Iranian-French team for one month in the city of Amol which resulted in discovery of traces of human beings during the Paleolithic epoch in this area.

“This joint team consisted of 10 Iranian and French archeologists and anthropologists, with the participation of Dr. Farzad Forouzanfar, anthropologist of the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization of Iran, a French professor from Sorbonne University, under the supervision of Dr. Asgari from University of Tehran. This team of experts carried out excavations in the eastern bank of Garm Rud River in Bolboran Village which dates back to the Quaternary period (the period covering the span of time between one and a half million years ago and the present day),” explained Cholabi.

According to head of the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Office of Amol, the discovered evidence such as stone instruments, all indicate that unlike results from the previous studies in Central Alborz area, the existence of human beings in this area most probably goes back to 29,000 years ago.

“The existence of first human beings in the area was approved to a great extent during the studies for finding out the mystery of human beings during the Paleolithic era in this region which had been started in 2005 and resulted in discovery of 200 objects including stone instruments and bone fragments.

SOURCE: http://www.chn.ir/en/news/?section=2&id=6481

Good stuff! :P

Ali Qapu Gate Unearthed in Sheikh Safi Domed Mausoleum

http://heritage.chn.ir/en/manage/photo/Sheikh%20Safi%20Domed%20Mausoleum,%20Ardabil.jpg

The main gate of Sheikh Safi al-Din
Ardabili’s Mausoleum which was
constructed during the Safavid era was
unearthed completely by archeologists.

Tehran, 27 July 2006 (CHN Foreign Desk) -- The first season of archeological excavations in the vicinity of the domed mausoleum of Sheikh Safi al-Din Ardabili in the city of Ardabil resulted in discovery of some architectural remains belonging to the Safavid dynastic era (1502-1736 AD). Unearthing the Ali Qapu gate, which is the mausoleum’s main gate, in this historical domed monument was a major achievement during this season of excavations in Ardabil. Remains of the famous kitchen of Sheikh Safi were also discovered by archeologists.

Prior to this, development constructions in the vicinity of Sheikh Safi-al Din Ardabili’s domed mausoleum led to destruction of a great part of the Ali Qapu gate, which made archeologists decide to take out the gate entirely to prevent further damages.

“Among the architectural remains found in this area, which had previously been excavated in 1995, is part of the original wall of this monument which was constructed with rubble and brick. The new wall was later constructed on the old one which separated the building from the street,” said Hassan Yousefi, head of excavation team in Sheikh Safi-al Din Ardabili Mausoleum.

After finishing the excavations, the place was covered with soil and brick to protect the remaining evidence which may still be left in the area. Archeologists are hoping to find the main architectural plan of this Islamic monument during their future excavations.

Sheikh Safi al-Din Ardabili (1252-1334 AD) was the spiritual heir and son in law of the great Sufi Musshid Sheikh Zahed Gilani. Sheikh Safi was a Sufi and poet; however only a few verses of him called Dobaytis (double verses), which were written in old Tati and Persian, have been remained which have linguistic importance today.

Sheikh Safi al-Din Ardabili Mausoleum is one of the historical and tourism attractions of the city of Ardabil. This historical complex has a close relation with the history of the Safavid dynasty. Some Safavid kings have been buried in this place. The main section of the mausoleum is composed of a circular tower with circumference of 22 meters which is about 17 meters high. In the interior of this monument, near Sheikh Safi’s, the tomb of his son who laid the foundations of this mausoleum after his father’s death to keep alive his memory, as well as those of other family members can be found.

Main parts of the complex include the gate, the large court, the small court, the graveyard, Shahidgah (martyrdom place), Jana Sara Mosque and Chelleh Khaneh which encircles Ghandil Khaneh, Haramkhaneh (the harem), and Chini Khaneh. The Allah Allah Dome is very famous and probably the most spectacular part of the complex.

The Biggest Stone Megalithic Grave Discovered in Gilan

http://heritage.chn.ir/en/manage/photo/6624-65038.JPG

Tehran, 2 September 2006 (CHN Foreign Desk) -- After 12 years, confession of an illegal digger resulted in discovery of the biggest megalithic grave belonging to the pre-Achaemenid era in north of Iran. This massive grave is more than three and half meters in width and 15 meters in length.

Prior to this, the illegal diggings of a villager in the area led to discovery of a huge stone grave containing a golden goblet, two bronze axe, 12 bronze daggers and swords, as well as some opal bracelets in Gilan province.

According to Mohammad Reza Khalatbari, head of archeology team of Talesh historical site director of Marian Research Center, a road was constructed over a historical cemetery which its identity was unknown some 12 years ago during the construction of a place for fish hatcheries in a village near Marian.
“Since nobody noticed the existence of such archeological site in the area, some historical graves were destroyed during the development activities. Some huge stones used in graves were unearthed during the construction activities and put on the road sides. One of the villagers accidentally noticed that these stones have special characteristics and were different from regular stones in the bed of the road and concluded they should have belonged to historical periods. Therefore, he started diggings in the area which resulted in unearthing a big stone grave containiing a golden goblet, two bronze axe, 12 bronze daggers and swords, as well as some opal bracelets which were very similar to those ones belonging to the Achaemenid dynastic era. Figure of a king on his seat, somebody was offering him a bird was engraved on one of the opals. Unfortunately all these valuable relics were sold for only 180 US dollar some 12 years ago,” said Khalatbari to CHN.

However, since the discovered grave was located on the way of the road, the illegal digger could not continue his diggings and concealed the place of the grave for 12 years and at last decided to report the case to Talesh archeology team.

In a talk with CHN correspondent, the illegal digger explained about his diggings in the area and told that when he noticed that there is no hope to continue his diggings due to construction of the road, he decided to report the case to Talesh Archeology Center to have a role in preserving Talesh archeological relics.

Prior to this archeologists did not know anything about existence of such a historical place in the area.

“This digger told us that he has succeeded in discovery of a massive grave which he has not seen so far and direct us to the place. After studying the stones left on the side of the road, we noticed that some of these stones are scraped stones which means that even before the Achaemenid era (550-330 BC) Iranians were familiar with the technique for cutting the stones to set locks for graves. When we started archeological excavations, for the first time we face with a unique grave we had never seen before,” added Khalatbari.

According to Khalatbari, the width of this grave is 3 meters with more than 15 meters in length and it is known as the biggest megalithic four layer grave which has been discovered so far.

With unearthing the grave, archeologists found two burials belonging to two different periods. Although some 3 meters of this grave has been unearthed so far, archeologists have not yet reached to pure soil.

“It is not wise at all to abandon our excavations in this stone megalithic grave. This act would result in rush of illegal diggers to the area and losing one of the most valuable archeological evidence. Therefore we have asked a budget from Archeology Research Center to continue our excavations and finish our work,” explained Khalatbari.

Soudabeh Sadigh, special thanks to Hassan Zohouri

SOURCE: http://www.chnpress.com/news/?section=2&id=6624

Tomb of Zoroaster and Achaemenid Manor House in Dahan-e Golaman Saved from Submergence

LONDON, (CAIS) -- An agreement between the ICHTO, Sistan’s Soil and Water Co. who are responsible for the construction of the Chāh-Nīmeh IV Dam in Sistan va Baluchestan province, is being set that the two historical monuments of the Tomb of Zoroaster (Ārāmgāh-e Zartušt) and the Achaemenid Manor House will be saved from submergence.

http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Images2/Achaemenid/Dahan_e_Gholaman/Dahan-e_Golaman_Great_Tomb.jpg


Full artical http://www.cais-soas.com/News/2006/September2006/06-09-tomb.htm

Damn straight! Imagine if they wanted to do that to Makkeh?!

I did not know that his tomb site was known... how interesting! he was born in Azerabadgan, as far as I know.. interesting he was burried in that area

^^ Yeh I wasnt sure where his tomb was either... BTW It isnt known exactly where the Prophet Zoroaster came from... could have been Azerbadgan or Central Asia/Bactria area.. Infact now theyre not really too sure of exactly when he was around.. mysterious charactor indeed.. But it is known the Prophet Zoroaster in his travels in Azerbadegan heard the voice of God while looking into the natural fires in the land from the land. :)

I didn't know Zartosht was buried there either. I thought he was buried in Takht e Soleyman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takht-i-Suleiman)?? :wtf:

A documentary about the 8000 year history of Tehran have been created by ChasmiDigar (http://www.chashmidigar.com/). I think this history is unknown to many people.

Here are two short 3 min clips from the documentary, they're both in part English part Persian (the most important parts are in English) :

http://www.iranian.com/ram/Clips/tehran1.ram
http://www.iranian.com/ram/Clips/tehran2.ram

ChasmiDigar (http://www.chashmidigar.com/)

Iran: Biggest Ilamite Inscription Sprinkled with Paint

One of the most exquisite and valuable inscriptions denoted to the Elamite civilization, which is indeed the biggest one of its kind left from the rich civilization of Elam (3400 BC-550 BC), was found splashed with paint. No one has yet claimed responsibility for this cultural heritage disaster.

Located in the city of Izeh in Khuzestan province, the pre-historical site of Eshkaft-e Salman, known as Tarisha worship place, is one of the first sites in Iran which was registered in the list of Iran's National Heritage. It contains the biggest inscription carved in New Elamite cuneiform script which is now being ruined as a result of improper management and lack of security both in Eshkaft-e Salman and the nearby Kool Farah historic site.

http://www.payvand.com/news/06/sep/1185.html


http://heritage.chn.ir/en/manage/photo/6665-125839.JPG http://www.payvand.com/news/06/sep/Ilamite-Inscription-Izeh.jpg

Hotel Construction Continues in Tarisha Landscape

With the continuation of construction activities to build a hotel and an amphitheater in the vicinity of Eshkaf-e Salman (Salman’s Cave), also called Tarisha Temple, where the biggest Elamite cuneiform inscription is located, the cultural landscape of this Elamite monument has been put in a real jeopardy, taking away the chance for the world registration of the inscription.

Nearly three months ago, a local court in Khuzestan voted in favor of a hotel construction in the landscape of Tarisha, previously postponed for about two years upon a lawsuit filed against the private owner of the hotel by the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Department of the province. Following the court’s ruling, construction of this 10-storied hotel was resumed. Meanwhile, the Department is trying to take the case back to the court for a rehearsal, believing that it could indeed convince the court not only to stop the hotel construction, but also to issue an order demanding the owner to demolish what has been built so far.

http://www.chnpress.com/news/?section=2&id=6665

Karun-2 Dam continues tragedy at Iran's 'Izeh'

LONDON, September 19 (IranMania) - A new tragedy is unfolding for the ancient sites of the Izeh region, as the Energy Ministry plans the construction of the Karun-2 Dam on the Sussan Plain in Khuzestan Province, MNA reported.

The Khuzestan Cultural Heritage and Tourism Department recently sent a letter to the Energy Ministry requesting its officials begin archaeological studies before the project becomes operational on the Sussan Plain, where many Elamite, Parthian, Achaemenid, and Sassanid era sites are located.

“The studies, which will evaluate the cultural significance of the site, should be carried out by the Energy Ministry,” KCHTD director Sadeq Mohammadi told the Persian service of CHN on Monday.

“The ministry will select a number of cultural studies advisors and the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization will supervise them,” he added, but evaded a question about relocation of the dam.

Experts believe that archaeological rescue excavations began very late for the ancient sites which were located in the area currently occupied by the reservoir of the Karun-3 Dam, which came on stream in November 2004 and devoured many ancient sites and artifacts dating back to the Elamite era, the Stone Age, and the Epipaleolithic period (20,000-10,000 BC).

The experts say a similar fate awaits the ancient sites located in the area to be flooded by the reservoir of the Karun-2 Dam.

http://www.iranmania.com/News/Photoes/General/Top/250karoon191104.jpg

http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=45779&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs

Red Flooring of Darius’ Castle Appeared in Persepolis

Tehran, 20 September 2006 (CHN Foreign Desk) -- Workers accidentally discovered the red flooring of the hall of part of a castle denoted to Darius the Great, the Achaemenid king, in Persepolis which was used as his treasure house and was later turned into the office department to manage the area in the modern time. The flooring appeared when workers were organizing the garden in front of the office and accidentally discovered a red floor.

“The discovered flooring covers an area of about 5 square meters and dates back to the reign of Darius the Great,” explained Mohammad Taghi Atayi, archeologist in Persepolis historical site.

http://www.chnpress.com/news/?section=2&id=6668

Iran & Portugal to Renovate the Portuguese Fort of Hormoz

http://heritage.chn.ir/en/manage/photo/6705-22802.JPG
Iran is about to start restoration works on
Portuguese Fortress, located southern
Iran. The restoration will be in accordance
with the plan proposed by the Portuguese
government.

Tehran, 3 October 2006 (CHN Foreign Desk) -- In a joint cooperation, Iran and Portugal are determined to restore the historical fortress known as the Portuguese Fortress, located in the southern Iranian province of Hormozgan. Portugal contributes to this project by providing the Iranian experts with the restoration plan while Iran will take care of restoration itself. The plan has been submitted to Iran and the restoration experts of Iran’s Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (ICHTO) are currently waiting for the budget to start their project.

Last year, some restoration experts from Portugal visited the Fortress which was built during the domination of Portuguese naval forces in southern Iran. The experts decided to restore the Fortress with the cooperation of Iran. Therefore, they started some negotiations with the Iranian authorities and proposed a plan for restoring the Fortress.

“Portugal declared its readiness for cooperating in the restoration of the Fortress. However, authorities of Iran’s Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization as well as Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs decided that the restoration of fortress should be undertaken by Iranian experts without direct participation of Portugal but in compliance with the plan proposed by the Portuguese experts,” said Kamran Mousavi, deputy director of Preservation and Restoration Department of ICHTO.

According to Mousavi, the Iranian government was expected to provide the budget for the restoration to start; however, it has not fulfilled its promises yet. Iranian experts are determined to start their restoration activities as soon as the project receives financial support.

Commenting on the limited attempts made for restoration of the Portuguese Fortress until now, Mousavi said: “Considering the limited budget which was put in our hands, we have only carried out some emergency restorations to save the Fortress from falling apart.”

The remains of the Portuguese Fortress in Hormozgan province are in a poor condition and their situation is getting worse due to lack of attention they receive. The authorities of the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Department of the province are trying to get financial support from the Iranian government to save this historical fortress from further destruction.

The 500-year-old Portuguese Fortress, also known as Hormoz Fortress, is located on the southern Hormoz Island and has been registered in the list of Iran’s National Heritage Sites. There is also anther fortress built by the Portuguese around the same time in Qeshm Island, close to Hormoz. The two fortresses were constructed by the Portuguese after they occupied and dominated the Hormoz Island in 1507 AD.

The Portuguese Fortress of Hormoz had a tall tower and a central courtyard. Its style resembles that of the European forts of the Middle Ages and was partly inspired by traditional Iranian architectural style as well.

The Fortress was captured during the Safavid dynastic era (1501-1736 AD) by Imam Gholi Khan, one of the commanders of Shah Abbas, the Safavid monarch.

SOURCE: http://www.chnpress.com/news/?section=2&id=6705

'3000-Year-Old Grave of Human with her Dog Discovered'

Ancients buried with pets in Iran Narges Tappeh

London - A team of archaeologists working at Narges-Tappeh recently unearthed two graves where animals were buried with their owners at the ancient site, the Persian service of CHN reported.

The team discovered skeletons of a woman and her child, who were buried with a dog and its puppy. They have also found a skeleton of a man buried seated upon his horse at Narges-Tappeh, which is located in northern Iran near Gorgan, Golestan Province

The excavations are being carried out to save Narges-Tappeh, which is located near the runway of an airport currently under construction in Gorgan.


http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=46283&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs

^^ I read about that a few weeks back.. rather hectic IMO but still kinda cute :P
_______________

1700-Y-Old Sassanid Watermill Discovered in Takht-e Soleiman

http://heritage.chn.ir/en/manage/photo/6733-12826.JPG
Archeological excavations in the historic
site of Takht-e Soleiman, northwestern
Iran, led into discovery of a watermill,
believed to be the first one of its kind
from the Sassanid period.

Tehran, 17 October 2006 (CHN Foreign Desk) -- Archeologists in the historic site of Takht-e Soleiman, located in the Iranian northwestern province of West Azarbaijan, discovered a watermill which is believed to be from the Sassanid dynastic period (224–651 AD). This is the first time that such watermill from this historic period is reported to have been found in Iran.

Regarding the new discovery, Yousef Moradi, head of the excavation team at Takht-e Soleiman said: “This watermill which is dated to late Sassanid period is 17 meters in height and 6 to 7 meters in width … Water was directed to this mill from Takht-e Soleiman Lake through a canal and entered this watermill from a hillock or a raised ground with a high pressure.”

Moradi also said that such structures exist in abundance in the southern Iranian province of Khuzestan; however, since discovery of a watermill from the Sassanid era has never been reported by archeologists anywhere in Iran, the newly found watermill is most probably the first one of its kind which is dated to nearly 17 centuries ago.

The historic Takht-e Soleiman complex, known as Azar-Goshasp Fire Temple in the ancient times, is a major historical site denoted to the Sassanid dynastic period. Azar-Goshasb is the only surviving fire temple of this historic site. It was one of the most prominent religious centers of the Sassanid dynastic era and was used as a place for the kings’ coronations. Takht-e Soleiman is located by a lake with the same name which indicates that both fire and water were highly respected by the Zoroastrian Sassanids.

The historical complex of Takht-e Soleiman was added to the UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 2003.

4800-year-old artificial eye discovered in Burnt City TEHRAN, Dec. 10 (MNA) -- A team of archaeologists working at the Burnt City recently discovered an artificial eye at the 5200-year-old site in Sistan-Baluchestan Province, southeastern Iran.

“The eye belonged to a large woman who died when she was 25 to 30 year old and was buried in Grave 6705,” team director Mansur Sajjadi said on Sunday.

“Initial studies show traces of an abscess in the upper arch of the eye, and tracks made by the eyelid are visible on the lower part of the artificial eye,” he added.

“It is still not clear what material was used to construct the eye, but it seems that it has been made of natural tar mixed with animal fat.

“The thinnest capillaries on the eyeball have been made with golden wires with a thickness of less than one millimeter.

“The pupil of the eye has been placed in the center of the eyeball and some parallel lines forming an almond pattern are seen around the pupil. The eyeball has two holes in its two sides, which were used for fixing the eye to the eye socket.”

Some pottery works, ornamental beads, a leather bag, and a bronze mirror were also found in the grave of the woman, who was of mixed race.

Studies are currently underway to glean more information about the woman.

Nine seasons of excavations have been carried out at the Burnt City, which is located 57 kilometers from the city of Zabol in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchestan Province.

Archaeologists have discovered many artifacts including a 10-centimeter ruler with an accuracy of half a millimeter in the ruins of the ancient city. They have also unearthed an earthenware bowl at the Burnt City which bears images of what experts believe is the world’s oldest “animated” picture drawn around it.

Covering an area of 150 hectares, the site was one of the world’s largest cities at the dawn of the urban era. It was built circa 3200 BC and destroyed some time around 2100 BC.

The city had four stages of civilization and was burnt down three times. Since it was not rebuilt after the last time it was burnt down, it has been named the Burnt City.

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3rd Millennium BC Artificial Eyeball Discovered in Burnt City

http://heritage.chn.ir/en/manage/photo/6857-41249.JPG
Discovery of an artificial eyeball belonging
to 4800 years ago in the historic site of
Burnt City has astounded archeologists.

Tehran, 10 December 2006 (CHN Foreign Desk) -- Archeologists in Burnt City announced unprecedented discovery of an artificial eyeball, dated to 4800 years ago, in this historic site.

Announcing this news, director of Burnt City archeology excavation team, Mansour Sajadi, said that this eyeball belongs to a sturdy woman who was between 25 to 30 years of age at the time of death. Skeletal remains of the woman were found in grave number 6705 of Burnt City’s cemetery.

Regarding the material used to make this artificial eyeball, Sajadi said: “The material this artificial eyeball is made of has not yet been determined and will be assessed through later testing. However, at first glance it seems natural tar mixed with animal fat has been used in making it.”

Initial studies on the eyeball also suggest formation of an abscess in the eyelid due to long-term contact with the eyeball. Moreover, remaining eyelid tissues are still evident on this artificial eyeball.

According to Sajadi, even the most delicate eye capillaries were drawn on this eyeball using golden wires with a thickness measuring less than half a millimeter. There are also some parallel lines around the pupil forming a diamond shape. Two holes are also seen on the sides of this eyeball to hold it in the eye socket.

Initial anthropological studies on the remaining skeleton of the woman to which this artificial eyeball belong revealed that she was a hybrid woman who died 4800 years ago between the ages of 25 to 30.

A number of clay vessels, ornamental beads, a leather sack, and a bronze mirror have also been found in the grave of this woman.

Located 57 kilometers from the city of Zabol in Sistan va Baluchistan province, southeast Iran, Burnt City is one of the most important prehistoric sites of the country which was well developed during the third millennium BC.

Spreading over a 300,000 hectare area, Burnt City was recently recognized as mainland-Iran’s largest prehistoric site. The city experienced four stages of civilization and was burnt down three times, which is why it was named ‘Burnt City.’ Discovery of hundreds of historical sites including 166 satellite villages together with large numbers of archeological relics, skeletons, and ancient structures in the archeological site of Burnt City makes it holder of an unparalleled record in the history of archeological activities in Iran.


Maryam Tabeshian
foreigndesk@chn.ir

Discovered Stone Slab Proved to be Gate of Cambyses’ Tomb

http://heritage.chn.ir/en/manage/photo/6865-91552.JPG

A huge stone slab discovered
accidentally last year was proved to have
once been the entrance gate to the
mausoleum of Cambyses II, son and
successor of Cyrus the Great.

Tehran, 13 December 2006 (CHN Foreign Desk) -- Agricultural activities by local farmers near the world heritage site of Pasargadae last year resulted in the accidental discovery of a big stone slab bearing some carvings typical of Pasargadae monuments. The discovered slab was recently proved by archeologists to have been the entrance gate to the mausoleum of Cambyses II, son and successor of Cyrus the Great, founder of the Achameneid Empire (550-330 BC).

“A huge stone slab measuring 1.60 meters in height comprised of 5 broken pieces was discovered last March by farmers at a distance of 100 meters from Tall-e Takht and was immediately transferred to Parse-Pasargadae Research Center to be studied by archeologists,” said Afshin Yazdani, archeologist of Parse-Pasargadae Research Center.

Tall-e Takht or ‘throne hill’ is a citadel located at the heart of Pasargadae historical complex, the first dynastic capital of the Achaemenid Empire, founded by Cyrus the Great, in Fars province. Remains of an unfinished tomb denoted to Achaemenid King Cambyses II can be seen close to Tall-e Takht, from which only a wall has survived the ravage of time.

Based on studies by British archeologist David Stronach, the Tomb, also known as Zendan-e Soleiman/Eskandar (Solomon/Alexander Prison), originally consisted of an almost square, 4-meter-high tower in which a solitary, raised room was approached by a projecting monumental stone staircase. It resembles the Achaemenid era monument of Zoroaster’s Kaba in Naqsh-e Rostam historical site.

According to Yazdani, the stones used in the gate of Cambyses’ tomb are very similar to a stone slab discovered 50 years ago by archeologists. At the time, Stronach proposed a theory that the stone belonged to the mausoleum of Cambyses and drew a sketch of the original gate which he believed to have had two leaves, each comprising of 6 rectangular frames. He also drew 3 flowers each having 12 petals on the top and bottom of each frame.

“As Stronach himself was uncertain about his own drawing of the gate, recent discovery of the gate proves his theory wrong. Based on the new studies, it became known that the entrance gate of what is called Tomb of Cambyses was made of two stone leaves each having two rectangular 35 by 59 cm frames with three 12-petaled flowers on the top and bottom,” explained Yazdani, adding that the height of each door leaf was found to be 1.75 meters - that is 8 centimeters shorter than the height of the wall. Archeologists believe that the gate was made shorter on purpose to allow circulation of air in and out of the mausoleum.

According to the inscriptions of Bisotun historic site, the mausoleum of Cambyses was destroyed by the Mongol invader Geomat who disguised himself as Bardia, King Cambyses’ brother and came to power shortly after Cambyses’ assassination and razed down Achaemenid temples. Achaemenid King Darius the Great clearly accounts in Bisotun inscription that he restored the Achaemenid temples after murdering Geomat. “Evidence left on the stone gate very well confirms that it was restored during the early days of Darius the Great’s reign,” added Yazdani.

According to Yazdani, the new findings together with the fact that a similar structure to the mausoleum of Cambyses, Zoroaster’s Kaba, was built also by Darius the Great at Naqsh-e Rostam, proved that it was a temple whereas it had previously been variously regarded as either a tomb, or a fire temple, or a depository.

Cambyses was the son and successor of Cyrus the Great who ruled the Persian Empire from the death of his father in 530 BC to his own death in Ecbatane (Syria) eight years later.

During his reign, Cambyses continued the politic of expansion started by his father. First, he took part with his father to the conquest of Babylonia and was named King of Babylon after he captured the city in 539. After rising to the throne, he invaded Egypt in 525 BC, putting an end to the 26th Dynasty of the Pharaohs and beginning a period of Persian rule that covered much of the next two centuries.

Cambyses later personally led a force up the Nile to conquer Ethiopia, but after annexing the north of the country, he ran short of supplies and had to return.

While on his way back from Egypt with his army in 522 BC, Cambyses was assassinated upon order of one of his brothers, Smerdis, which he himself tried to have assassinated. At his death, after a short period during which Smerdis assumed the leadership, more palace struggles led to the rise to the throne of Darius the Great, whose task was to organize such a vast empire.

The mausoleum of the son and successor of Cyrus the Great, Persian King Cambyses II, was also registered with other ancient monuments of Pasargadae historic complex in UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites in 1979.

http://www.chnpress.com/news/?section=2&id=6865

____________________

Speculation... they cannot prove Cambyses' brother ordered the assassination.. for a start it was said he was an honourable man especially compaired to his brother Cambyses... and anyway later it was discovered that Cambyses assassinated his own brother before he set out to Egypt and replaced him with an imposter. He was most likely assassinated by his Lance Bearer and cousin Dariush (later to be king) on the way back from Egypt, altho one story goes that Cambyses sword dug into his thigh as he was mounting his horse and died from ganggreed days later... Dariush was involved with a band of conspiritors and later assassinated the imposter named Gaumata, posing as Bardiya (Smerdis) and claimed the throan.... but its all rather vague

Hi all I’m new to this forum. But I have visited it for a vile, and I saw that theirs little activity her so I thought I join. Anyway I came across this news don’t know if it’s been posted.


Archeologists at the Persian Gulf Island of Khark discovered 106 ossuary tombs belonging to the Sassanid dynastic era (224-651 AD) dug into a cliff.


Tehran, 23 December 2006 (CHN) -- Archeological excavations in the Persian Gulf Island of Khark led into discovery of 106 ossuary tombs dating back to the Sassanid dynastic era (224-651 AD) dug into a cliff.

"Ossuary tombs are graves which were used during the Sassanid dynastic period. We succeeded in identifying 106 ossuaries in Khark Island in the heart of a giant cliff. Discovery of large numbers of ossuary tombs indicates that this rock cliff was used as a cemetery 1700 years ago," said Hamid Zarei, head of archeology team in Khark Island to CHN.

The people of the Sassanid period used to dig holes in the rocks in which they placed remaining skeletons of their deceased. According to Zarei, in the newly discovered tombs, the corps was buried in an east-west direction, the reason of which is not known yet.

Regarding other discoveries in Khark Island, Zarei explained: "The archeology team has discovered a big cistern 12 meters in length and 3 meters in width which was dug in a cliff. A big aqueduct dating back to the Sassanid era which is 19 meters in depth has also been found in this area."

Some very invaluable historical evidence belonging to the Sassanid era has been discovered during this season of excavations in Khark Island. "We found two other Sassanid monuments including a fire temple, from which not much has remained, and a domed building with four columns during our studies in Khark Island," explained Zarei.

Discovery of a total of 96 Sassanid aqueducts, 5 of which have remained in use to this date, is among other major achievements by archeologists in Khark Island.

Khark, also written Kharg, is a continental island in the Persian Gulf and is considered part of Bushehr province, southern Iran. Recently, a team of archeologists from Bushehr province has started excavations in Khark Island to identify and register historic evidence of the region.

http://www.payvand.com/news/06/dec/1245.html

Sad Sivand & Bolaghi Gorge

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More + Pasargad: http://www.farsnews.com/imgrep.php?nn=8507030198

Burnt City stamp to come out soon
TEHRAN, March 14 (MNA) -- The stamp of the 5200-year-old Burnt City will be soon published, head of Sistan-Baluchestan Post Company said on Wednesday.

The stamp bears the world’s oldest example of animation on an earthen bowl, Rahim Shahbakhsh said, adding that the bowl bears five pictures showing a goat jumping to eat the leaves of a tree.

The idea was proposed by Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicraft Organization (CHTHO) and the provincial company.

The Burnt City is located 57 km off the city of Zabol in the southeastern Iranian province of Sistan-Baluchestan.

Covering an area of 150 hectares, the site was one of the world’s largest cities at the dawn of the urban era. It was built circa 3200 BC and destroyed around 2100 BC. The city had four stages of civilization and was burnt down three times. Since it was not rebuilt after the last time it was burnt down, it has been named the Burnt City.

http://mehrnews.com/en/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=461365

Discovery of the Second Persian Geometrical Inscription

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The second Persian rock inscription in geometrical script has been discovered in Kaftarlou hill in Kurdistan province.

Tehran, 25 July 2007 (CHN Foreign Desk) – The second Persian geometrical inscription which was carved in Kaftarlou hill have been discovered in Akhtarabad region in Shahryar plain located in Iranian western province of Kurdistan. Due to the similarity of this geometrical writing with those previously found in Susa clay stamps and Jiroft’s inscription, experts estimate that this newly discovered geometrical inscription must have dated back to at least 5000 years ago.

After Kan Charmee inscription which was discovered previous year in northern Kurdistan, this is the second geometrical inscription ever found in Iran. Regarding the antiquity of this inscription, Reza Moradi Ghiasabadi, archeologist and researcher, says: “Based on the signs implemented in creating this geometrical writing and its similarity to Susa stamps, it is believed that it must have belonged to 4200 to 4500 years ago. On the other hand, due to the rate of oxidization, we give the possibility that the inscription must have been more ancient.”

Pointing out that this discovery can provide archeologists the chance to trace the trend of geometrical writing development in Iran, Ghiasabadi added: “This inscription is closely resemble those ones previously discovered by Dr. Majidzadeh in Konar Sandal hill in Jiroft historic site in Kerman province which go as far back as the third millennium BC. However, since the writing discovered in Konar Sandal is somehow more developed than this newly discovered one, we give the possibility that Kaftarlou inscription must have been more ancient with 5500 years antiquity.”

According to this archeologist, unfortunately most parts of the inscription have been severely damaged over time and totally 10 signs which are not even in a correct order have been identified. That is why archeologists have faced a real problem for documenting and decoding this ancient inscription.

Prior to this, Walter Hintz succeeded in decoding some parts of the Susa geometrical writing. Results achieved due to the efforts of this researcher may be used as a guide for finding about the approximate meanings of Kaftarlou inscription.

“Designs of animals such as goat, boar, camel, and hunting scenes can be also seen next to this inscription. With taking a look at these designs, we can somehow get acquainted with the environmental condition of Shahryar plain during ancient times and trend of domestication of animals in this region,” said Ghiasabadi.

This archeologist further explained about existence of a smaller inscription on which the Arabesque phrase of “La ela Lalah” (there is no God except the single God) can be read and a Kufic script next to Kaftarlou inscription. “Existence of these inscriptions belonging to Islamic period (651 AD) is considered invaluable for determining the exact age of Kaftarlou inscription. Making a compare between the amount of oxidation between these two Islamic writings and Kaftarlou historical inscription and the engraved animals may provide archeologists a more accurate approach to clarify the exact age of Kaftarlou geometrical inscription,” added Ghiasabadi.

The initial report of this inscription is due to be released within a few weeks, however considering the rate of damage of this historic inscription, preparing the final report may take several years.

http://www.chnpress.com/news/?section=2&id=7237

Vandals smash column bases of Susa Apadana Palace

TEHRAN, Jan. 6 (MNA) -- Column bases of the Apadana Palace of ancient Susa in Khuzestan Province have recently been demolished by vandals.

The palace’s remaining column bases have been broken into two pieces and inscriptions on the artifacts have been obliterated, the Khuzestan Cultural Heritage Lovers Society (Tariana) spokesman Mojtaba Gahestuni told the Persian service of CHN on Sunday.

The stone inscriptions have been severed and scattered around the ancient archaeological site, he added.

“The reason for the destruction of the artifacts is not clear,” Gahestuni remarked, adding, “The incident probably results from the vandals’ ignorance of the historical significance of the relics.”

He went on to say that many problems are caused by the lack of appropriate fencing around the site which covers about 360 hectares.

“The Khuzestan Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Department undertook the installation of rods around the zone, but the measure was inadequate and has not prevented unauthorized people from entering the precinct,” Gahestuni explained.

According to Gahestuni, the use of concrete and iron rods for demarcation purposes has even led to some damage to the area.

The Apadana Palace is also being threatened by the construction of a preparatory school on its perimeter.

In early December, Tariana sent letters to President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, asking him put a stop to the project.

The school building, which is to be four stories tall, will spoil the horizontal view from the palace ruins.

In addition, the historical metropolis of Susa, which has been inhabited for over 7000 years, is being spoilt by Shush Municipality’s construction of a passenger bus terminal in the city’s southern section.

Experts have previously given warning of the chaotic situation at the site, pointing out that such disorder has facilitated the illegal activities of smugglers who have managed to carry out excavations in search of valuable artifacts.


Source: Mehr News Agency (http://mehrnews.com/en/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=617149) 17:30, 2008/01/06

____________________________________

Savages.

Ancient Achaemenian city unearthed
Thu, 17 Jan 2008 14:29:53

Ruins of a grand pillared balcony, stairs and hall believed to be part of an Achaemenian city, have been discovered in Fars province.

A team of Iranian and Australian archeologists have begun their second round of excavation on the site, which might just be the remains of the ancient city of Lydoma, written about on ancient Achaemenian plaques.

This antique structure has giant pillars. Every column measures a meter thickness and is grey in color similar to the ones in Takht-e Jamshid.

Their design closely resembles those in Takht-e Jamshid and can be compared with its one-hundred pillar palace, decorated with lotus like flowers and palm leaves.

However experts are yet to verify to what period of the Achaemenian reign the ruins belong. A close study of the large flagstones, numerous marble vessels, and newly unearthed balcony and staircase should help unlock the mysteries of this lost world.

Other such architectural sites and prestigious pillars found in the surrounding area suggest that this is not the only monument in the area and the recent discoveries will help reawaken Iran's past renowned heritage.

Source: PressTV (http://www.presstv.ir/Detail.aspx?id=39146&sectionid=351020108)

Thanks V.much for the updates i didn't know we have so much.....

Excavations In Iran Unravel Mystery Of 'Red Snake'

ScienceDaily (Feb. 18, 2008) — New discoveries unearthed at an ancient frontier wall in Iran provide compelling evidence that the Persians matched the Romans for military might and engineering prowess.

The 'Great Wall of Gorgan in north-eastern Iran, a barrier of awesome scale and sophistication, including over 30 military forts, an aqueduct, and water channels along its route, is being explored by an international team of archaeologists from Iran and the Universities of Edinburgh and Durham. This vast Wall-also known as the 'Red Snake'-is more than 1000 years older than the Great Wall of China, and longer than Hadrian's Wall and the Antonine Wall put together.

Until recently, nobody knew who had built the Wall. Theories ranged from Alexander the Great, in the 4th century BC, to the Persian king Khusrau I in the 6th century AD. Most scholars favoured a 2nd or 1st century BC construction. Scientific dating has now shown that the Wall was built in the 5th, or possibly, 6th century AD, by the Sasanian Persians. This Persian dynasty has created one of the most powerful empires in the ancient world, centred on Iran, and stretching from modern Iraq to southern Russia, Central Asia and Pakistan.

Modern survey techniques and satellite images have revealed that the forts were densely occupied with military style barrack blocks. Numerous finds discovered during the latest excavations indicate that the frontier bustled with life. Researchers estimate that some 30,000 soldiers could have been stationed at this Wall alone. It is thought that the 'Red Snake'was a defence system against the White Huns, who lived in Central Asia.

Eberhard Sauer, of the University of Edinburgh's School of History, Classics and Archaeology, said: “Our project challenges the traditional Euro-centric world view. At the time, when the Western Roman Empire was collapsing and even the Eastern Roman Empire was under great external pressure, the Sasanian Persian Empire mustered the manpower to build and garrison a monument of greater scale than anything comparable in the west. The Persians seem to match, or more than match, their late Roman rivals in army strength, organisational skills, engineering and water management.”

The research is published in the new edition of Current World Archaeology and the periodical Iran, Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies 45.

Adapted from materials provided by University of Edinburgh.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080218155534.htm

http://www.payvand.com/news/07/jan/5000-year-old-chid-skeletal.jpg

Archeologists have discovered ancient architecture and two burial chambers belonging to the Bronze Age in a northern Iranian province.
A team of archeologists have unearthed 70 centimeter thick walls and two burial chambers belonging to an adult and a child in the historical Gohar Tappeh site located in Mazandaran province.
“The fact that the discovered objects and architecture, which belong to the Bronze Age, continued to be in use in the next era of the Iron Age is of great importance,” Ali Mahforouzi, head of the archeological team in the site said.
“Archeologists found 4 meters of the 5,000-year-old mud-brick walls and also ruins of two bodies belonging to an adult and a child on the ground of the site surrounded by the walls,” he added.
According to Mahforouzi, the bodies, dating back to the Bronze Age, along with the discovered architectures are to be restored by professional archeologists.

http://www.payvand.com/news/07/jan/1013.html

[One avatar sized image does not constitute opening a photo thread]

Iran's Economy Controlled by Women 5000 Years ago

TEHRAN (FNA)- Recent studies of a team of archeologists have shown that 5000 years ago (3200 BC) women had the economic control of the Burnt City in Iran.

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The Burnt City has been continually excavated since the 1970s by Iranian and Italian archaeological teams, with new discoveries periodically reported.

Covering an area of 151 hectares, the city was built around 3200 BC and abandoned over a millennium later in 2100 BC.

The city experienced four stages of civilization and was burnt down three times. It took its eventual named because it was never rebuilt after the last fire.

According to Seyed Mansour Seyed Sajjadi, director of the team working at the Burnt City in Sistan-Baluchestan Province, southeastern Iran, some paleo-anthropologists believe that mothers in the Burnt City had social and financial prominence.

Sajjadi said that 5000 year-old insignias, made of river pebbles and believed to belong only to distinguished inhabitants of the city, were found in the graves of some female citizens.

Some believe that the female owners of the insignias used them to place their seal on valuable documents. Others believe the owners may have used the seal to indicate their lofty status in society.

In December 2006, archaeologists discovered the world's earliest artificial eyeball in the city's necropolis, thought to have been worn by a female resident of the Burnt City.

The artificial eye is a hemisphere with a diameter of just over 2.5 cm (1 inch). It consists of very light material, probably bitumen paste.

The surface of the artificial eye is covered with a thin layer of gilding and is engraved with a circle at its center to represent the iris. The eye includes gold lines patterned like the rays of the sun.

A hole has been drilled through the eyeball, through which a golden thread is thought to have held the eyeball in place.

Microscopic research has revealed that the eye socket of the female remains bear clear imprints of the golden thread, suggesting that the woman must have worn the eyeball during her lifetime.

With her shining golden eye, she must have been a striking figure, perhaps a soothsayer or an oracle, thus signifying the importance of women in the city.

http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8705240774

Achaemenid sites found in western Iran- Press TV (http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=87516&sectionid=351020105)
Wed, 04 Mar 2009 19:17:43 GMT

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Iranian archeologists have discovered Achaemenid sites during excavations in the Khandab town of the country's western Markazi Province.

Excavations have yielded over 80 ancient sites in the area including vast residential areas dating back to the Achaemenid era.

“This is the first excavation project in Khandab and the Achaemenid finds are the first of their kind in the western parts of Markazi Province,” said head of the archeology team Ali Asadi.

“The team has found earthenware similar to the Achaemenid ones found in Fars Province,” he said. “It seems that the area had been a flourishing and prosperous site in the Achaemenid era.”

Asadi believes that these areas may also include governmental road stations.

Khandab excavations have also yielded middle- and late-Islamic faience as well as rock paintings, which are set to be studied and dated.

TE/HGH

Cyrus Charter to Be Taken Home from UK for Monthly Exhibition

Tehran, Feb 26, 2009: Officials from Iran National Museum are in talks with their counterparts from the British Museum to borrow the famous Charter of the Cyrus the Great for a few months to put it on public display at home.

Deputy chairman of Iran Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization Hamid Baqaee, told IRNA in London that Tehran was to transfer the baked-clay cylinder to Iran after finalizing the ongoing talks with the British Museum where is the house of the charter which is considered as the first human rights declaration.

The charter of Cyrus the Great, the Persian King of 539 B.C. is a baked-clay Aryan language (Old Persian) cuneiform cylinder that was discovered in 1878 in an excavation operation in the site of Babylon.

The Persian King described in the charter his humane treatment of the inhabitants of Babylonia after its conquest by the Iranians.

The document has been hailed as the first charter of human rights, and in 1971 the United Nations published a translation of it in all the UN official languages.

The cylinder is currently housed in the British Museum and a replica of it is being kept at the United Nations headquarters in New York City.

In parts of the declaration, Cyrus had said, “Until I am alive, I prevent unpaid, forced labor. To day, I announce that everyone is free to choose a religion. People are free to live in all regions and take up a job provided that they never violate other+s rights.”

Baqaee hoped that grounds would be prepared for the transfer of the cylinder to Iran.

“Cultural ties would help promote social relations among nations,” Baqaee said, adding that growing cultural relations would influence nations political and economic ties as well “although cultural issues are different from political affairs.”

Baqaee is in London for the inauguration of an exhibition on Iran+s arts and culture during the Safavid era (1501-1732).

The exhibition was inaugurated a couple of days ago at the British Museum and would continue for four months.

Scores of artworks including paintings, calligraphy, China dishes, textiles and handwritten Qurans from the Safavid era were collected from 30 museums worldwide and put on display at the exhibition.

http://www.chnpress.com/news/?section=2&id=7690

Ancient Cylinder Seal Unearthed in Northern Iran

Tehran, March 3, 2009: Iranian archeologists have unearthed an ancient cylinder seal dating to at least 3,500 years ago in Iran+s northern Mazandaran Province.

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Archeological excavations at the Kelar Mound in the north of Iran have resulted in the discovery of a cylinder seal which dates back to the Neolithic Era; it is decorated with a drawing of a goat.

“The priceless object is believed to have been used in business and trading. It was probably used as a document and an index to determine the destination for trade,” Mehdi Mousavi, head of the archeological team at Kelar Mound, said.

Further excavations and Carbon-14 studies on the relic are expected to reveal more precise information.

Oxford scientists have determined exact dates of Iran Kelar Mound by studying ancient coal and bone samples. Although many archeologists believed that the area was not older than the Iron Age, Carbon-14 studies have dated the mound to more than 6000 years ago.

http://www.chnpress.com/news/?section=2&id=7715

^^That's so cool! I hope it doesn't get in British musuims all of a sudden:)

^ It has always been in the British museum, since they discovered it in Iraq/Mesopotamia in the the late 1800's.

The article is about negotiations to have it on loan for a special exhibition in Tehran :)

Achaemenid palaces found in south Iran - Press TV (http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=89986&sectionid=351020105)

http://www.presstv.ir/photo/20090330/ahmadi-nastaran20090330101146328.JPG http://www.presstv.ir/photo/20090330/ahmadi-nastaran20090330101150328.JPG
Left: An ancient column pedestal in Ramhormoz | Right: A view of Shahi Road

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 07:38:42 GMT
Iranian archeologists have unearthed two 2,500 -year-old palaces and 18 columns belonging to the Achaemenid era in southern Iran.

The discoveries were made in the ancient city of Ramhormoz in Khuzestan Province, according to Iranian cultural heritage activists and archeologists.

The archeologist restored five of the eighteen columns. The other columns were destroyed during a road construction project in the region.

Such discoveries strengthen the theory that the site was a part of the ancient Shahi Road. Shahi Road was the main road connecting Persepolis to Apadana Palace in ancient Susa in Khuzestan Province.

Once known as the richest city under the sun, Persepolis was the ceremonial capital of the Persian Empire, one of the greatest powers of the ancient world.

Darius established Persepolis in 519 BCE as the most magnificent of the four Achaemenid capitals -- Susa, Ecbatana, Persepolis and Babylon -- which were established in logistically important locations to help Achaemenid kings efficiently administer their vast empire.

Susa, located in Iran's southern province of Khuzistan, was the capital of Elam and the Achaemenid King Darius I.

One of the world's oldest-known settlements was possibly founded around 4200 BCE; however, the first traces of an inhabited village date back to around 7000 BCE.

According to economic policies of Darius the Great, Shahi Road was constructed at length of 2,500 kilometers to connect the two capitals of ancient Persia, Susa and Persepolis.

More than a hundred palaces and caravanserai (roadside inns) were built across the road to support the flow of commerce and information. Their strategic use in war times were the main goal to build the road and the settlements.

The remains of columns were transferred to Ramhormoz Cultural Heritage Office.

Achaemenid inscription found in south Iran - Press TV (http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=90693&sectionid=351020105)

http://www.presstv.ir/photo/20090407/ahmadi-nastaran20090407090339734.JPG

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 09:37:28 GMT
An Achaemenid inscription in cuneiform script, an stone inscribed on both flat surfaces, has been discovered in southern Iran.

The discovery was made in the ancient city of Ramhormoz in Khuzestan province, according to Iranian cultural heritage activists and archeologists.

The 2,500-year-old inscription is carved on both sides of a piece of an eight kilogram stone from the Zard River basin located in the northeast of Khuzestan province.

Archeologists observed some shapes and drawings next to the inscriptions on the stone. The results of further studies are anxioiusly awaited, as they will reveal details about the subject of the inscription.

The priceless inscribed stone has been transferred to the Ramhormoz Cultural Heritage Office.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33791672/ns/technology_and_science-science?GT1=43001

artifacts from the jiroft civilization, 5000 + years old
http://www.mehrnews.com/mehr_media/image/2011/11/716293_orig.jpg
http://www.mehrnews.com/mehr_media/image/2011/11/716290_orig.jpg
http://www.mehrnews.com/mehr_media/image/2011/11/716291_orig.jpg
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http://www.mehrnews.com/mehr_media/image/2011/11/716287_orig.jpg
http://www.mehrnews.com/mehr_media/image/2011/11/716285_orig.jpg

reminds me so much of greek pottery
http://www.mehrnews.com/mehr_media/image/2011/11/716284_orig.jpg
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http://www.mehrnews.com/mehr_media/image/2011/11/716271_orig.jpg
http://www.mehrnews.com/fa/newsdetail.aspx?NewsID=1452500

http://www.mehrnews.com/mehr_media/image/2011/11/716318_orig.jpg
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http://www.mehrnews.com/mehr_media/image/2011/11/716311_orig.jpg
http://www.mehrnews.com/mehr_media/image/2011/11/716312_orig.jpg

this whole chayi dam kardan thing seems to have a very strong root in us
http://www.mehrnews.com/mehr_media/image/2011/11/716309_orig.jpg

http://www.mehrnews.com/mehr_media/image/2011/11/716310_orig.jpg
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http://www.mehrnews.com/mehr_media/image/2011/11/716295_orig.jpg
http://www.mehrnews.com/fa/newsdetail.aspx?NewsID=1452494

40000 year old human hand prints discovered in iran

http://img.irna.ir/1390/13900809/1011355/N1011355-1763432.jpg
http://img.irna.ir/1390/13900809/1011355/N1011355-1763454.jpg
http://img.irna.ir/1390/13900809/1011355/N1011355-1763434.jpg
http://img.irna.ir/1390/13900809/1011355/N1011355-1763430.jpg
http://www.irna.ir/Display.aspx?NID=030639388

Great history and thanks soroush you are on fire today:lol:

Is Iran trying to get back all of the things the British and others stole? Like for example the Cyrus Cylinder, which is held at the British museum in London.

there are many smuggled artifacts that are trying to be found
and many other artifacts iran "tries" to by, but in reality our officials dont give a crap because they hate our history

for now i prefer the cylinder to be in safe british hands

there are many smuggled artifacts that are trying to be found
and many other artifacts iran "tries" to by, but in reality our officials dont give a crap because they hate our history

for now i prefer the cylinder to be in safe british handsYeah lol, if it would be taken here it wouldn't be long until a mullah smashes it with his Qur'an :lol:

it came to iran last year for a certain period

the worlds oldest animation "film"

sahre soukhteh iran

http://www.chnphoto.ir/pattern.php?image=14685109.JPG
http://www.chnphoto.ir/pattern.php?image=57840805.JPG
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http://www.chnphoto.ir/pattern.php?image=21428208.JPG
http://www.chnphoto.ir/gallery.php?&gallery_uid=&lang=en&gallery_uid=84

Nice pictures guys! Now this is something you won't find in the rest of the world :D

gohar tappe , behshar, 6000 year old civilization

http://www.mehrnews.com/mehr_media/image/2011/12/736902_orig.jpg
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http://www.mehrnews.com/mehr_media/image/2011/12/736914_orig.jpg
http://www.mehrnews.com/fa/newsdetail.aspx?NewsID=1493533

sad news, the 700o year old civilization of gholi darvish hill in qom is being destroyed bit by bit, with little care from authorities, its a major site in iran's archaeological archive , but its being bashed bu highways and careless developments

http://www.mehrnews.com/mehr_media/image/2012/01/740941_orig.jpg
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http://www.mehrnews.com/mehr_media/image/2012/01/740934_orig.jpg
this is being done with happiness of the authorities, they want to whipe out the past, just like the proposal to eliminate pre islamic history lessons in elementary school has been passed by law
http://www.mehrnews.com/mehr_media/image/2012/01/740932_orig.jpg
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http://www.mehrnews.com/fa/newsdetail.aspx?NewsID=1502454
http://www.mehrnews.com/mehr_media/image/2012/01/740933_orig.jpg

acutally it looks like they are renovating this.

acutally it looks like they are renovating this.

^^
they are restoring the old buildings to me

^^ They aren't really destroying it, sure i think it's bad that they build new stuff in such areas, but still atleast it won't get demolished, like that idiot at the end of the revolution who wanted to demolish Persepolis and everything cause it was "non-Islamic" :lol:

But seriously, is that thing with the proposal to eliminate Pre-Islamic teachings in schools true? :ohno:

u guys misread the info, firstly they cant restore or renovate such an area, there is nothing left to restore, its a dig, but the dig covers a large area, which is shrinking due to factory lands and highways, ancient cities werent 20 metres in perimeter, all the artifacts that are undug will now be crushed forever under farm land and roads

secondly, the article from the site itself describes that its being destroyed,

renovate? by building a highway through it :nuts:

tappe ashraf, the site that made esfahan 7000 years old
تپه اشرف

تپه ای که اصفهان را ۷۰۰۰ ساله کرد
تپه اشرف به سایت موزه شهر اصفهان تبدیل می*شود
تمام شواهد حاکی از آن بود که اصفهان قدمتی به اندازه تاریخ دارد
اما هیچ اثری نبود که اثبات کند
تا اینکه در حدود ۱۰ سال پیش در کنار پل شهرستان اثری کشف شد که تا حدودی تاریخ کهن اصفهان را مشخص کرد
اصفهان از معدود شهر های ایران است که در افسانه های کهن ایران نظیر شاهنامه فردوسی اسمش آمده است
سرزمین پیامبران الهی نظیر یوشع نبی
تپه اشرف را ساختش را به قبل از طوفان نوح نسبت داده اند
تپه اشرف به سایت موزه شهر اصفهان تبدیل می*شود
خبرگزاری فارس: شهردار منطقه ۴ شهر اصفهان گفت: با همکاری سازمان میراث فرهنگی، ساماندهی اطراف تپه اشرف انجام شده که تپه اشرف به زودی به سایت موزه شهر اصفهان تبدیل می*شود.

سارویه یا کهن دژ یا تپه اشرف
نام بنایی بسیار کهن در اصفهان است که در کنار پل شهرستان و در کناره شمالی زاینده رود قرار دارد. این بنا کتابخانه بزرگی بوده*است که در آن کتاب*های فراوانی نگهداری می*شده*است. سارویه در حمله اعراب به ایران ویران گردید و اکنون تنها بقایای آن به صورت تپه*ای باقی مانده*است که بنام "تپه اشرف" معروف است ابن رسته در قرن سوم هجری در مورد سارویه چنین می*نویسد:
در شهر جی بنای کهنه*ای به شکل قلعه وجود داشته*است موسوم به ساروق یا سارویه. چون این بنا بسیار کهنه*است نمی*توان بانی آن را معلوم کرد و گویند قبل از طوفان نوح ساخت شده*است.


برخی از تاریخنگاران بنای سارویه را به تهمورس سومین شاه از سلسلهٔ پیشدادیان نسبت داده*اندنویسنده کتاب نسب*نامه که در آغاز حکومت سلجوقیان می*زیسته در رساله*ای بنام انساب ملوک پارس نوشته*:
برخی دیگر از تاریخنگاران نیز ساخت آن را به گشتاسپ یکی از شاهان پارس نسبت می*دهند. بر پایه این نوشته*ها، گشتاسپ به وزیر خود جاماسپ که فرد فرزانه و دانشمندی بوده*است دستور می*دهد که برای نگهداری کتاب*های موجود کتابخانه*ای بنا کند که بسیار استوار باشد. ابن ندیم، نویسنده کتاب الفهرست، اطلاعاتی ارزشمند درباره کهن دژ را عینا از کتاب اختلاف الزیجات نوشته ابومشعر بلخی آورده*است:
ایرانی*ها پس از این که بهترین وسیله را برای ثبت و ضبط و نوشتن و نگهداری دانش بدست آوردند برای یافتن بهترین جا و مکان جهت بنیاد کتابخانه و گنجینه کتاب به جست*وجو پرداختند، جایی که از زمینلرزه بر کنار و گل آن چسبندگی داشته باشد تا برای ساختمان*های محکم و پابرجا پسندیده باشد. پس از کنجکاوی بسیار سرانجام شهرستانی که همه این محسنات را داشت یافتند و آن شهر اصفهان بود. در آن جا هم پس از کاوش نقاط گوناگون شهر، روستای جی را بهترین جا و مکان یافتند. در جی، «کهن دژ» را برگزیدند و در آن جا عمارتی رفیع بنیاد نهادند و آن را «سارویه» نامیدند. مردم از پی بنا به سازنده و پایه*گذار آن پی بردند زیرا در سالهای گذشته گوشه*ای از ساختمان سارویه ویران گردید و در آن سُغی دالانی نمایان شد که با گِل سفت ساروج ساخته شده بود و در آن کتابهای فراوانی از نوشته پیشینیان نهاده بودند که بر پوستِ درخت خدنگ نوشته بودند در دانش*های گوناگون. شماری از این کتاب*ها به دست کسی رسید که در خواندن آنها دانا و توانا بود. در آنها نوشته*ای از برخی شاهان ایران یافتند که چنین بود: «به تهمورس شاه که دوستدار دانش و دانش*پژوهان بود خبر دادند که در اثر یک پیشامد آسمانی که در باختر به پیدایش خواهد پیوست، به چرایی ریزش بارانهای پی در پی، جهانی را آب فرا خواهد گرفت. زمان وقوع آن با گذشتن ۲۳۱ سال و ۳۰۰ روز از آغاز پادشاهی سلسله وی خواهد بود». منجمان تهمورس شاه را بر آن داشتند که برای پرهیز از زیان و خسارات برآمده از آن توفان چاره*ای اندیشد و گفتند زیان و خسران آن باران و توفان تا انتهای خاور کشیده خواهد شد. تهمورس شاه، مهندسان را فرمان داد در سراسر ایرانشهر کاوش کنند و جویا شوند جائی را که از هر نظر برتری داشته باشد، برای ساختمان بنایی برای نگهداری آثارِ دانشِ برگزیدگان، برگزینند. وی کتاب*ها را در سارویه اصفهان قرار داد.
پس از انجام کاوش در این مکان هفت هزار ساله، هم اکنون بر روی آن پیست موتورسواری بنا شده است



http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/fa/thumb/e/e2/Sarouyeh_0983.JPG/800px-Sarouyeh_0983.JPG

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/fa/thumb/2/25/Sarouyeh_0982.JPG/800px-Sarouyeh_0982.JPG

http://www.tabnak.ir/files/fa/news/1389/5/12/64314_816.jpg

note the apartments in the back, they are nice

http://chehrehtalkh.blogfa.com/post-117.aspx

"zan dar gozare zaman" , an exhibition in the national museum about women in iran's history

http://www.shahr.ir/ImgGallery/namayeshgahe%20asare%20bastani%20zan%20dar%20gozare%20zaman/07.jpg
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http://www.shahr.ir/ViewPic.aspx?IDG=994

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http://www.jahannews.com/vglj8aevauqevtz..uujb2xfbftus.w.html#8

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http://amordad6485.blogfa.com/post-4801.aspx

america has proposed a law regarding the ownership of old persian tablets from persepolis , 2500 years old
they are owned by umiversities and museums , of the law gets passed it allows them to be auctioned off for private buyers, they can even go in ebay!!
2500 year old documents ,priceless , thrown away

i dont know what to say

this is considered as a sanction on heritage pieces,
a perfect example how the american government doesnt really give a crap about iranian people, and the sanctions just hurt the nation not the government
remember that when iran becomes free

:ohno:

America is evil, and i hope Iran never becomes "free" cause it will just favor American and Israeli interests.

Iran should demand them handed back as it is in principle a property of Iran, like how does such a ancient item from Persia end up in the U.S?

I like always said, US is the main enemy of everything Iranian since 100 years!

dont blaim america only
if it wasnt for these stupid mullahs that wouldnt of happened
the thing is the mullahs like iran to loose it history aswell

if a damish newspaper makes fun of prophet mohammad, all over iran's news u see them criticizing the danish media, yet not a single word has been said regarding the tablets

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Chicago_Persian_antiquities_crisis

USA is a BIG SHAME! But I do not blame them, I mean you have to steal culture from others if you do not have any yourself.

Iranians condemn US selling Persian cultural artifacts

video:

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/225657.html


US threatens to auction Iran’s cultural artifacts.
These are invaluable Persian antiquities kept at the University of Chicago. The United States federal courts have ordered the seizure of them along with numerous other Persian antiquities kept in the Field Museum in Chicago.

SB (Mr. Qanami pt.1)

The Achaemenid or Persepolis clay tablets were loaned to the University of Chicago in 1937.They were discovered by archaeologists in 1933 and are legally the property of the National Museum of Iran and the Iran's Cultural Heritage Organization. The artifacts came with the understanding that they would be returned to Iran.The tablets, from Persepolis, the capital of the Persian Empire, date to about 500 B.C. The tablets give a view of then daily life.

SB (Mr. Qanami pt.1)

This issue is an important implication by the United States. It has been seen by Iranians as a perceived example for the hostility of United States federal court system toward Iranian people and Persian heritage.
Vox Pop…

Iran has strongly condemned a U.S. court ruling authorizing the seizure of ancient clay tablets. Other officials expressed outrage, too, saying they will appeal to the International Court of Justice, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural (UNESCO), and other international bodies as well.

PTC (Although UNESCO is against the sale and seizure of an country’s personal and cultural artifacts, the US is raising concerns for the people of Iran by threatening to auction the cultural tablets of Persepolis to a private auction)

dont nag at america
if iran was smart enough they would of kept it themselves,

this is very sad but dont blaim other nations for our own misery , they are doing bad, but understand where all these problems came from
blaiming others is what has driven the middle east to its current day form

dont nag at america
if iran was smart enough they would of kept it themselves,

this is very sad but dont blaim other nations for our own misery , they are doing bad, but understand where all these problems came from
blaiming others is what has driven the middle east to its current day form

The tablets were sent to america before revolution to be translated in chicago university

doesnt matter about the revolution or not, irania orze dashtan khodeshun zabane bastaniro tarjome mikardan

and now the regime hasnt taken any action on this matter either (they dont care), at least 40 years ago our government cared and sent it to be studied in not sold

maybe this is not bad. will only increase hate against both khamenei and co and Yankee-regime.

Top lawmaker censures US grab of Iran’s artifacts

A senior member of Iran's Majlis has condemned the US for its “rash” confiscation of some Iranian cultural artifacts and its bid to auction the relics.


The US officials are making efforts to counter the Iranian nation, that has risen to achieve independence, by putting its antiques and cultural heritage up for grabs, said Chairman of the Majlis Cultural Commission Gholam Ali Haddad-Adel on Thursday.

He added that such bids indicate American officials’ irrationality and uncivilized manners.

Haddad-Adel emphasized that the Islamic Republic will shore up efforts to counter such a move which stands against cultural principles.

The senior legislator further stated that Iran would not retreat from its path despite the sanctions by the United States and the West, emphasizing that such restrictions would only reinforce the resolve of the Iranian nation and officials.

The US has threatened to auction Iran’s cultural artifacts which include invaluable Persian antiquities kept at the University of Chicago.

The US federal courts ordered the seizure of the items along with many other Persian antiquities kept in Chicago’s Field Museum.

SF/GHN/MA

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/225787.html

So they do actually care a bit? Well atleast that's good..

First, let me say I am strongly against the seizure and selling of these artifacts. I believe them to be the property of Iran. Hopefully, Iran will be gracious enough to come to some sort of agreement with the museums so that everyone can appreciate their historical significance.

From what I have gathered this is the background behind the law:
A group of American citizens were victims of a suicide attack claimed by Hamas. Citing Iran as the material and financial backers of Hamas, they filed and won a lawsuit in federal court against Iran. The judge awarded them $71 million. Iran ignored the judgement resulting in the judge issuing a default judgement of +$400 million. The plantiffs tried going after assets owned by the former Shah's family in the US but were unsuccessful.

Next up were Persian artifacts held by American museums and universities, notably the University of Chicago and Chicago's Field Museum (which had been returning artifacts to Iran previously). This is where it gets tricky. In order for Iran to claim sovereign immunity of the artifacts, they must claim them in court. However, the plantiff's are claiming that some artifacts (tablets) were purchased and are private property, thus allowing the plantiff to claim them as part of the court's ruling. In 2006 Iran sent a representative to Chicago to claim immunity for the artifacts.

To be honest, I dont understand how Senator Mendez's bill will accomplish anything (I can not find the bill's name). If the law's intent is to somehow hurt Iran, then it fails horribly. Priceless cultural artifacts should not become to the victim of political sabre-rattling.

^^ :applause:

persepolis left in rain, neglected, with no care from any officials, its condition is worsening day by day

http://38.74.1.150/Multimedia/pics/1390/12/Photo/909.jpg
http://38.74.1.150/Multimedia/pics/1390/12/Photo/912.jpg
http://38.74.1.150/Multimedia/pics/1390/12/Photo/906.jpg
http://38.74.1.150/Multimedia/pics/1390/12/Photo/908.jpg
http://38.74.1.150/Multimedia/pics/1390/12/Photo/907.jpg
http://38.74.1.150/Multimedia/pics/1390/12/Photo/910.jpg
http://38.74.1.150/Multimedia/pics/1390/12/Photo/914.jpg
http://isna.ir/ISNA/NewsView.aspx?ID=News-1958207&Lang=P

well, rain always comes, but water does not damage stones. i am sure it will get dry in a few days again.

well, rain always comes, but water does not damage stones. i am sure it will get dry in a few days again.

no no no
water is the worst thing as it enters cracks and then expands and changes volume when the temperature rises between day and night, cracking the stones
the problem is that no proper draining system has been made and the artifacts get soaked for hours or even day , making the water move further into cracks, deepening them

:ohno:

Why don't they just build a damn roof on it or something? ._.

I always think if the Japanese or German or British had something like Perspolis, how they would look after it.

we dont need to think
look at italy greece france england japan

they take such amazing care of their cultural arteficts, because they have pride in it ans value it
real restoration processes take years, pizza tower's restoration took a long time because they do it professionaly, in iran restoration means slapping on fresh concrete to make it look like it was built yesterday :bash: like what they did

the slightest crack concerns them but in iran we build dams and highways over our national treasures which our ancestors worked hard to create

no culture---> destruction of nation, what is happening to iran

^^ So sad, but it's true..

They do renovate some but still they pretty much want to forget about our culture, if it weren't for the pressure from the people they wouldn't give a fuck about it really,

Atleast one positive thing is that they do take more care of culture etc now than after the revolution, just like i said they even wanted to demolish Persepolis, Tomb of Cyrus etc. :ohno:

iranians need a little more nationalpride really. atleast younger people in iran arr acutally much more nationalistic than our parents when they were young. they just dreamed about ali and hossein, even they had pahlavi. this has changed now and the young people dream about kourosh and dariush and not this ali und hossein crap, atleast much lesser than our parents when they were young.

^^ dont generalize, many of our parents and older family and friends arent like that, and i mean many

many young people in my opinion know whats what, however, a descent amount are the people who drink vodka but then wear black for hossein lol

in general people have come to dislike iran because iran hasnt given them any good, sadly, but thats what the regime wants,
i think many , most, have been able to resist that . now its time to harness national love,just loving isnt enough, we have to work for our country

i was more ironically here ^^

i know that this generation has fare more interest rather in iran than in islam and our parents generations were the opposite.

in fact back then people identified themselves mostly though islam, today mostly through iran, virtually all people, even the religious ones.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/238726.html

I guess i'm replacing Carlos LOL

No but seriously, atleast they're using archaelogists which aren't Iranian, if they did it wouldn't be long until some stupid Mullah stepped his feet on an artifact :ohno:

estakhr?????? wow , that is great news, estakhr was one of the largest cities in iran during the sassanid period, as well as achaemenid , there are probably hundreds of artifacts there

interesting read
به گزارش ایمنا سرهنگ حسين حسين زاده رییس پلیس آگاهی استان اصفهان با اعلام این خبر اظهار داشت: اسفند سال ۸۹ يكي از توليد كنندگان فرش ابريشمي دستباف شهر اصفهان شكايتي مبني بر سرقت پنج تخته فرش نفيس به ارزش يك ميليارد ريال از منزل خود كرد كه بلافاصله تحقيقات وسيعي در اين خصوص در دستور كار قرار گرفت.
وي افزود: با توجه به اينكه هيچگونه اثري از سارقان وجود نداشت تحقيقات پليس به كندي صورت مي گرفت تا اينكه همكاري صميمانه و بي منت يكي از شهروندان محترم شهر اصفهان تحقيقات پليس را وارد فاز جديدي كرد.
رییس پلیس آگاهی استان اصفهان عنوان داشت: سرانجام هفته گذشته هنگامي كه سارقان قصد فروش يك تخته از اين فرش ها به مبلغ ۵۰۰ميليون ريال را داشتند فرد خريدار به آنان مشكوك و با پليس تماس مي گيرد كه به دنبال تماس اين شهروند ماموران سريعاً وارد صحنه شده و با كار ويژه پليسي به مخفيگاه متهمان راه يافته و هر پنج تخته فرش نفيس را به صورت صحيح و سالم كشف و به مالباخته تحويل دادند.
حسین زاده تصريح كرد: نكته حائز اهميت در اين پرونده اين بود كه ماموران در بازرسي مخفيگاه متهمان كه دو برادر بوده كه داراي سابقه كيفري و اعتياد شديد به ماده مخدر شيشه در پرونده آنان است يك مهر سنگي قديمي كه طبق نظر كارشناسان ميراث فرهنگي قدمتي بالغ بر چهار هزار ساله دارد كشف و ضبط شد.
وی همچنين از كشف چندين اوراق و اسناد مربوط به گمرك و شهرداري اصفهان با قدمت ۲۰۰ ساله، قرآن نفيس خطي قديمي و ۲۸ قطعه سكه مربوط به دوران صفويه و قاجاريه خبر داد و گفت: تعدادي از اين آثار تاريخي به صورت ارث به متهمان رسيده اما تعدادي ديگر جزو آثار ملي محسوب شده و به صورت غير قانوني نگهداري مي شدند كه تمامي آنها به ميراث فرهنگي تحويل داده شدند.
حسين زاده در پايان خاطر نشان كرد: متهمان جهت سير مراحل قانوني همراه پرونده تحويل مراجع قضايي داده شدند. ۵۹/
http://imna.ir/images/docs/000061/061600/images/n00061251-r-b-003(1).jpg
http://imna.ir/images/docs/000061/n00061600-b.jpg
http://imna.ir/vdccxeqe.2bqsx8laa2.html

I am curious as to your take on Alexander and Rome. I have been reading a lot of ancient history about the Roman Empire. Their interactions with Parthia and the Sassanids are very interesting.

alexander attacked and greece and iran because one nation for almost 400 years, the cultures mixed, the people, the parthian era imo was a very interesting era

the romans also attacked and took parts of western iran, such as armenia, etc , if it wasnt for the roman attackes the middle east might of looked different today

interesting photo report from tape behshahr, a 8000 year old civilization
http://www.farsnews.com/imgrep.php?nn=13910230001187

just read this guys......
http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Images2/Sasanian/Posrt_of_Mehrboon/Mehrboon.png
Remains of Sasanian era Port of Mehrooban in the Persian Gulf is destroyed
Wednesday, 01 December 2010 13:00 |
M. Sadeqi for CAIS


The picture showing the last standing walls of Mehrbooon in early 1980 - Please note CAIS cannot verify the authenticity of the image.

(Click to enlarge)



LONDON, (CAIS) -- The Mehrooban Tappeh, the remains of the ancient port and city of Mehrooban (mehrūbān) in the Persian Gulf have been completely destroyed.

Mehrooban Tappeh (archaeological mound) also known as Tal-e Emāmzādeh is located 24km north of the Port of Daylam in Khuzestan Province, southwest Iran. The ancient site was dated to the fourth Iranian dynasty, the Sasanians (224-651 CE), and registered on the Iranian National Heritage list during the reign of Reza Shah Pahlavi. According to locals of nearby Shah Abdollah Village the original name of the port was Māhrūyān (Moon Faces, an expression in Persian meaning ‘beautiful’).

The destruction was carried out by an unnamed military organisation[1] belonging to the Islamic republic, possibly one of the organs of the Islamic Republic’s Revolutionary Guards Navy to facilitate the construction of a new dock between the Ports of Hendijan and Daylam in the Persian Gulf.

Despite being one of the major ports during the Sasanian dynasty, no archaeological research was ever carried out at the ancient site. With this destruction, all the secrets and knowledge of the port in ancient times is now lost forever.

[1] Last month the same unnamed military organisation also destroyed the remains of a manor house known as Filiyeh Palace dated to the Qajar period. Filliyeh Palace was constructed in a mixture of Qajar and Sasanian style, by Isfahani and Shirazi architects in 1917. The house was residence and principal workplace of the notorious British protégé known as Sheikh Khazal. Khazal was instructed by Whitehall to claim the independency of Khuzestan province from Iran, in order for Britain to gain control over Iranian oil and cut off the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) to pay royalties to Tehran. In November 1924 Reza Shah Pahlavi arrested Khazal and later was executed for treason. Consequently, the British were forced to leave Iran in March 1925 and Reza Shah completed the unification of Iran and ensured that Iranians would get all the APOC royalties. Dr Mohammad Mosadeq, however, in 1951 completed Reza Shah’s work and nationalised Iranian oil and ended British control over Iranian oil.

http://www.cais-soas.com/news/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=153:remains-of-sasanian-era-port-of-mehrooban-in-the-persian-gulf-is-destroyed&catid=47

an amazing ancient city in kish, harireh

http://chn.ir/NSite/FullStory/Photo/?Id=99264&Serv=5&SGr=35

ancient bridge of gondi shapoor

http://chn.ir/NSite/FullStory/Photo/?Id=98620&Serv=5&SGr=35

I saw this on facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=377061709016486&set=a.184376938284965.52108.184366904952635&type=1&ref=nf
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/396071_377061709016486_1637408316_n.jpg


کشور ما در جایی که سالانه ۴۰۰۰ امامزاده جدید ساخته میشود و محل زیارتگاه میشود ولی کوچکترین اهمیتی به مقبره نیاکان به نام ما نمیشه!!!!
در کشوری زندگی میکنیم که اسب امامان از قهرمانان و پهلوانان ملی ما با ارزش تر هستند!!

برخی او را اهل اورگنج و برخی هم از مردم گنجه می دانند. وی در جوانی کشتی می گرفت و به کار پوستین دوزی و کلاه دوزی هم اشتغال داشت . پوریا به شهرهای مختلف آسیای میانه ، ایران و هندوستان نیز سفر کرد و در همة آن شهرها به پهلوانی معروف شد.داستان کشتی وی با یک پهلوان هندی نقل مجالس ایران و ازبکستان است.مشهور است که پوریا ، مادر آن پهلوان را در حال استغاثه و زاری دید که از خدا پیروزی فرزندش را طلب می کرد. پوریا برای شاد کردن دل او
تصمیم گرفت تا در آن کشتی پشت خود را به دست پهلوان هندی به زمین رساند. گویند که در پایان این کشتی به مقام مکاشفه نائل شد.

:ohno:

To be honest I had never heard of Pourya ye Vali before, but it is still sad to see his grave neglected.

its a grave of a pahlavan (champion) if wrestlig from the past . he travelled many countries to wrestle with their pahlevans and he was able to defeat them , nottably indias, these people were very respected in society and also a symbol of sportsmanship and fairness , however their legacy is being treated with disrespect while at the same time thousands of random and unimportant and unliked people hecome emamzadehs and have shrines built for them

Iran has even showed a cartoon series about him (Pahlavan Pouriya)
If you went to school in Iran, you could see some stories about him in your literature class

Iran has even showed a cartoon series about him (Pahlavan Pouriya)
If you went to school in Iran, you could see some stories about him in your literature class

i remember
the story about him and the indian guy i think
it started off with how big his heykal was ( the size of chaharchube dar) lol
first time i say heykal in written text, before that i thought it was a slang term haha

Hey guys I visited lots of historical places in Iran and they were all renovated and clean and not a single crack or decay! :banana:

NOT.

Hey guys I visited lots of historical places in Iran and they were all renovated and clean and not a single crack or decay! :banana:

NOT.

by historical what do you mean? ancient? medieval? contemporary? renaissance ?

some areas shouldnt be renovated like brand new, for example, what they are doing in the acropolis of athens is perfect, they dont remake it like its new, they just protect it and put it together in a way that it shows the history and age of the area

in iran sadly people think renovations means rebuilding persepolis from scratch and making it look modern lol

6500 year old pots and ceramic work found in tabriz !!

pics
http://tabriz.irna.ir/Display.aspx?SSID=03&NID=180240047

Wow! :O

And by Historical I meant stuff that has had importance in Iran's history, like Niavaran, Persepolis, Yazd etc etc :P

Wow! :O

And by Historical I meant stuff that has had importance in Iran's history, like Niavaran, Persepolis, Yazd etc etc :P

u cant sum any of them up since they are all different in age, size , type etc

gohartape in mazandaran (7000 year old civilization)

http://sari.irna.ir/Display.aspx?SSID=32&NID=180056405

ancient site found in noshahr
http://sari.irna.ir/Display.aspx?SSID=32&NID=180171167

2000 سنگ نقش دار مربوط به کاخهای تخت جمشید کشف شد
بازدید : 4807 مرتبهتاریخ : دوشنبه 6 شهریور 1391
شیراز - خبرگزاری مهر: سرپرست گروه باستان شناسی تخت جمشید از کشف دو هزار سنگ نقش دار مربوط به کاخهای تخت جمشید در کاوشهای اخیر خبر داد.
به گزارش خبرنگار مهر، علی اسدی یکشنبه عصر در جمع خبرنگاران گفت: در کاوشهای انجام شده لایه های فوقانی کارگاه که به منظور ساماندهی آب راههای تخت جمشید انجام شده دو هزار قطعه سنگ شاخص و نقش دار مربوطه به کاخ های تخت جمشید از جمله صد ستون کشف شد.

وی اظهار داشت: قطعات کشف شده از زمان کاوشهای تخت جمشید در یک صد سال گذشته در ضلع جنوبی تخت گاه قرار داشتند که برخی از آنها در مرمت بخشهای از پایه ستون ها، سر ستون ها و جرز کاخهای تخت گاه مورد استفاده قرار می گیرند.

وی تصریح کرد: سفالهای دوره هخامنشی، سر پیکان های این دوره، قطعات و ظروف سنگی و برخی اشیا کوچک نیز از دیگر آثار کشف شده در حفاریها هستند که اغلب آنها از لحاظ مواد و نشانه ها دارای ویژگی های دوره هخامنشی هستند.



سرپرست گروه باستان شناسی تخت جمشید در خصوص وجود شبکه فاضلاب در این مکان نیز بیان داشت: فاضلاب به شکل مشخص در تخت جمشید وجود نداشته و بیشتر آب باران به داخل کانالها هدایت می شده است.

اسدی ادامه داد:در بسیاری از کاخ ها نیز ناودانهای سفالی آب را به داخل کانالهای زیرزمینی هدایت می کردند و نهایتا این آب ها به صورت شبکه به هم پیوسته توسط کانال ها به ضلع جنوب شرقی تختگاه و محل خروجی کانالها هدایت می شدند.

وی اضافه کرد: براساس بعضی نظریه ها این احتمال نیز وجود دارد که آب دائمی در کانالهای زیرزمینی جاری بوده باشد زیرا که کانال ها از سمت شمال نیز امتداد دارد ولی هنوز در این مکان کاوشی صورت نپذیرفته است.

سرپرست گروه باستان شناسی تخت جمشید افزود: طول کانال زیرزمینی تختگاه به طور مجموع بیش ازدوکیلومتر است که مطابق با ویژگیهای معماری هخامنشی ساخته شده ودر برخی بخش ها تا پنج تا شش متر نیز ارتفاع دارد.

اسدی یادآور شد: کانال های آبراه تخت جمشید با قیر طبیعی اندوده شده اند و بعد از ویرانی این مکان به تدریج با خاک و آوار دیواره های خشتی پر شدند که این وضعیت تا زمان کاوش های تخت جمشید ادامه داشته است.


wow!
http://shiraz1400.mihanblog.com/post/605

کشف اشیای سنگی پنجاه هزار ساله در فارس
بازدید : 5342 مرتبهتاریخ : سه شنبه 7 شهریور 1391
مدیرکل میراث فرهنگی فارس از آغاز فصل چهارم کاوش*ها در غار سیده خاتون ارسنجان استان و کشف اشیای سنگی ۵۰ هزار ساله خبر داد*.

به گزارش فارس از شیراز به نقل از روابط عمومی اداره کل میراث فرهنگی، صنایع دستی و گردشگری فارس، فریدون فعالی در حاشیه بازدید از ادامه کاوش*ها در این غار اظهار داشت: غار تاریخی سیده خاتون در سال ۸۵ به ثبت رسیده است و فصل اول کاوش آن در مهرماه سال ۹۰ آغاز شده که ادامه آن طی فصل دوم در اسفندماه ۹۰ و فصل سوم در بهار ۹۱ صورت گرفته و این فصل تا یک هفته دیگر به پایان می*رسد.



وی اضافه کرد: این پروژه به صورت مشترک بین ایران و ژاپن با مجوز پژوهشکده میراث فرهنگی کشور صورت گرفته است.

فعالی تصریح کرد: در این فصل از کاوش با راه*اندازی کارگاهی درون غار، پس از انجام پاکسازی*های لازم در دهانه ورودی غار و برداشت دیواره خشکه چین موجود، کاوش آغاز شد.

مدیرکل میراث فرهنگی فارس با اشاره به اهمیت و جایگاه این مکان در دوره*های مختلف تاریخی خاطرنشان کرد: آثار به دست آمده در کاوش*ها مبین سکونت انسان*های دوره پارینه سنگی و نوسنگی در این منطقه بوده که قدمت بیش از ۵۰ هزار سال را نشان می*دهد و شامل بخشی از بقایای جانوری فسیل شده و آثاری از سنگ بوده که در گذشته به عنوان ادوات جنگی از آن استفاده می*شده است.

این مقام مسئول در پایان با تاکید بر حمایت اداره کل میراث فرهنگی فارس از این گونه فعالیت*ها گفت: دور چهارم کاوش*ها اسفند*ماه سال جاری آغاز می*شود که امیدواریم با اطلاعات و اکتشافات حاصل از این دوره، شاهد تکمیل اطلاعات کاوش*ها باشیم.

به گزارش فارس، غار سیده خاتون در بخش مرکزی شهرستان ارسنجان واقع شده و قدمت آن به پیش از تاریخ برمی*گردد.

نام این غار برگرفته از نام شخصی بوده که سال*ها پیش در این مکان زندگی می*کرده است.

این اثر در فاصله چهار کیلومتری جاده ارسنجان به آباده طشک قرار دارد.

دهانه این غار ۴۲ م*تر، عمق آن ۳۲ متر و ارتفاع دهانه این غار ۴۰ متر است.

غار سیده خاتون به شماره ۱۶۰۳۸ در فهرست میراث ملی ایران به ثبت رسیده است و بر اساس قوانین مجازات اسلامی تصرف و یا تخریب آن پیگرد و مجازات قانونی دارد.


http://matboatfars.com/files/6437/www.matboatfars.com%20-%2058c1fd3e8254785b.jpg
http://matboatfars.com/files/6437/www.matboatfars.com%20-%20cad872a15d212ad7.jpg
http://matboatfars.com/files/6437/www.matboatfars.com%20-%20b12c8d1adc88d8ee.jpg
http://shiraz1400.mihanblog.com/post/611

esfahan, is now atleast 7000 years old

تپه ای که نصف جهان را ۷۰۰۰ ساله کرد



با بررسی بازرسان باستان شناسی سازمان بین المللی یونسکو قدمت

تپه ی اشرف ۷۰۰۰ ساله تخمین زده شد.



برخی از باستان شناسان تپه اشرف را محل کتابخانه شاهنشاهی سارویه اصفهان دانسته اند چنانکه زنده یاد دکتر لطف اله هنرفر در کتاب « آشنایی با شهر تاریخی اصفهان » این تپه را محل « کهندژ جی » یا « سارویه » دانسته و تاکید نموده که کتابخانه بزرگ سارویه که حمزه اصفهانی از آن یاد کرده است در این محل قرار داشته است.

اما متاسفانه طی سال های اخیر آسیب های اساسی به این تپه وارد شده است که روند این تخریب ها همچنان ادامه دارد. اگرچه تپه اشرف با وسعتی در حدود 12 هکتار بنیانی صخره ای دارد اما تا سال های دهه 1330 خورشیدی کشاورزان منطقه بر روی خاک محدودی که از آوار بناهای تپه برجای مانده بود به کشاورزی می پرداختند و در عکس هوایی که در سال 1335 برداشته شده، آثار کرت بندی بر روی تپه به چشم می خورد و هنوز نیز به خاطر محصور نبودن تپه، باغ های اطراف و زمین های چمن کاری شده پارک مجاور به تدریج راه خود را به حاشیه تپه باز می کنند. ساخت و ساز واحدهای مسکونی در حریم تپه نیز موجب تردد افراد و خودرو های شخصی می شود که به تدریج باعث آسیب رسانی به تپه شده اند. تپه اشرف در کنار راه قدیمی اصفهان – یزد قرار داشته است که این راه در سال 1372خورشیدی تعریض شده و امروز به نام خیابان مشتاق دوم شناخته می شود و همین کار باعث شد که قسمت های گسترده ای از سازه های تاریخی بخش شمالی تپه اشرف نابود شود.


http://esfahancite.persiangig.com/%D8%AA%D9%BE%D9%87%20%D8%A7%D8%B4%D8%B1%D9%81/Untitled%20-%208.jpg
http://esfahancite.persiangig.com/%D8%AA%D9%BE%D9%87%20%D8%A7%D8%B4%D8%B1%D9%81/Untitled%20-%206.jpg
http://isfahancity.blogfa.com/

amazing paintings from ashakinian, parthian and sassanid eras in khajeh mountain in sistan, amazing to see such things in colour! very good insight to the dress, and style of people back then
http://www.sistaniha.info/imgup/480/1341310333_480_951ad2f424.jpg
http://www.sistaniha.info/imgup/480/1341310380_480_dcf6767862.jpg
http://www.sistaniha.info/imgup/480/1341310433_480_a2218d6269.jpg
http://www.sistaniha.info/imgup/480/1341310465_480_0a77855592.jpg
http://www.sistaniha.info/imgup/480/1341310654_480_ce2215baad.jpg
http://www.sistaniha.info/imgup/480/1341310615_480_5278d94c54.jpg
http://www.sistaniha.info/imgup/480/1341310560_480_9e322464e2.jpg
http://www.sistaniha.info/imgup/480/1341310506_480_e975c87a60.jpg



http://www.sistaniha.info/tag/اماکن-تاریخی-کوه-خواجه

anar village, historical graves

http://img.irna.ir/1391/13910922/80452383/80452383-3539204.jpg

many more pics
http://ardebil.irna.ir/Display.aspx?SSID=11&NID=180452383
http://ardebil.irna.ir/Display.aspx?SSID=11&NID=180446491

^^ewww wtf? :lol:

lol thats nothing


the older members will remember , there was an ancient site , with statues of the "parts" lol, i think it was around urumiyeh, we posted the pics and interesting was what the iranian press had to say ..

pasargad and cyrus`s grave to be covered with a roof
:/
it grants protection, but this is the cheap way out, it ruins the image
http://www.mehrnews.com/fa/newsdetail.aspx?NewsID=1772705

amazing pics from bishapoor, human mosaic u have never seen before
http://travels.sfsepehr.com/fars_7.html

pasargad and cyrus`s grave to be covered with a roof
:/
it grants protection, but this is the cheap way out, it ruins the image
http://www.mehrnews.com/fa/newsdetail.aspx?NewsID=1772705
I don't know how I feel about this.

neither do i , it has pros and cons

however, u never see this in greece , italy etc at least not permanently, i feel like they are just doging bullets here

amazing news!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19964786


Breakthrough in world's oldest undeciphered writing
By Sean Coughlan
BBC News education correspondent

Experts working on proto-Elamite hope they are on the point of 'a breakthrough'
Continue reading the main story
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The world's oldest undeciphered writing system, which has so far defied attempts to uncover its 5,000-year-old secrets, could be about to be decoded by Oxford University academics.

This international research project is already casting light on a lost bronze age middle eastern society where enslaved workers lived on rations close to the starvation level.

"I think we are finally on the point of making a breakthrough," says Jacob Dahl, fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford and director of the Ancient World Research Cluster.

Dr Dahl's secret weapon is being able to see this writing more clearly than ever before.

In a room high up in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, above the Egyptian mummies and fragments of early civilisations, a big black dome is clicking away and flashing out light.

This device, part sci-fi, part-DIY, is providing the most detailed and high quality images ever taken of these elusive symbols cut into clay tablets. This is Indiana Jones with software.

This way of capturing images, developed by academics in Oxford and Southampton, is being used to help decode a writing system called proto-Elamite, used between around 3200BC and 2900BC in a region now in the south west of modern Iran.

And the Oxford team think that they could be on the brink of understanding this last great remaining cache of undeciphered texts from the ancient world.

Tablet computer
Dr Dahl, from the Oriental Studies Faculty, shipped his image-making device on the Eurostar to the Louvre Museum in Paris, which holds the most important collection of this writing.


Jacob Dahl wants the public and other academics to help with an online decipherment of the texts
The clay tablets were put inside this machine, the Reflectance Transformation Imaging System, which uses a combination of 76 separate photographic lights and computer processing to capture every groove and notch on the surface of the clay tablets.

It allows a virtual image to be turned around, as though being held up to the light at every possible angle.

These images will be publicly available online, with the aim of using a kind of academic crowdsourcing.

He says it's misleading to think that codebreaking is about some lonely genius suddenly understanding the meaning of a word. What works more often is patient teamwork and the sharing of theories. Putting the images online should accelerate this process.

But this is painstaking work. So far Dr Dahl has deciphered 1,200 separate signs, but he says that after more than 10 years study much remains unknown, even such basic words as "cow" or "cattle".

He admits to being "bitten" by this challenge. "It's an unknown, uncharted territory of human history," he says.

Extinct language
But why has this writing proved so difficult to interpret?

Dr Dahl suspects he might have part of the answer. He's discovered that the original texts seem to contain many mistakes - and this makes it extremely tricky for anyone trying to find consistent patterns.

Continue reading the main story
TABLET TECHNOLOGY

Proto-Elamite is the name given to a writing system developed in an area that is now in south-western Iran
It was adopted about 3200BC and was borrowed from neighbouring Mesopotamia
It was written from right to left in wet clay tablets
There are more than a thousand surviving tablets in this writing
The biggest group of such texts was collected by 19th Century French archaeologists and brought back to the Louvre
While other ancient writing, such as Egyptian hieroglyphics, Sumerian and Mesopotamian, have been deciphered - attempts with proto-Elamite have proved unsuccessful
He believes this was not just a case of the scribes having a bad day at the office. There seems to have been an unusual absence of scholarship, with no evidence of any lists of symbols or learning exercises for scribes to preserve the accuracy of the writing.

This first case of educational underinvestment proved fatal for the writing system, which was corrupted and then completely disappeared after only a couple of hundred years. "It's an early example of a technology being lost," he says.

"The lack of a scholarly tradition meant that a lot of mistakes were made and the writing system may eventually have become useless."

Making it even harder to decode is the fact that it's unlike any other ancient writing style. There are no bi-lingual texts and few helpful overlaps to provide a key to these otherwise arbitrary looking dashes and circles and symbols.

This is a writing system - and not a spoken language - so there's no way of knowing how words sounded, which might have provided some phonetic clues.

Dr Dahl says that one of the really important historical significances of this proto-Elamite writing is that it was the first ever recorded case of one society adopting writing from another neighbouring group.

But infuriatingly for the codebreakers, when these proto-Elamites borrowed the concept of writing from the Mesopotamians, they made up an entirely different set of symbols.

Why they should make the intellectual leap to embrace writing and then at the same time re-invent it in a different local form remains a puzzle.

But it provides a fascinating snapshot of how ideas can both spread and change.

Mr One Hundred
In terms of written history, this is the very remote past. But there is also something very direct and almost intimate about it too.

You can see fingernail marks in the clay. These neat little symbols and drawings are clearly the work of an intelligent mind.


A set of 76 lights are used in the capturing of images of surface marks in the ancient tablets
These were among the first attempts by our human ancestors to try to make a permanent record of their surroundings. What we're doing now - my writing and your reading - is a direct continuation.

But there are glimpses of their lives to suggest that these were tough times. It wasn't so much a land of milk and honey, but porridge and weak beer.

Even without knowing all the symbols, Dr Dahl says it's possible to work out the context of many of the messages on these tablets.

The numbering system is also understood, making it possible to see that much of this information is about accounts of the ownership and yields from land and people. They are about property and status, not poetry.

This was a simple agricultural society, with a ruling household. Below them was a tier of powerful middle-ranking figures and further below were the majority of workers, who were treated like "cattle with names".

Their rulers have titles or names which reflect this status - the equivalent of being called "Mr One Hundred", he says - to show the number of people below him.

It's possible to work out the rations given to these farm labourers.

Dr Dahl says they had a diet of barley, which might have been crushed into a form of porridge, and they drank weak beer.

The amount of food received by these farm workers hovered barely above the starvation level.

However the higher status people might have enjoyed yoghurt, cheese and honey. They also kept goats, sheep and cattle.

For the "upper echelons, life expectancy for some might have been as long as now", he says. For the poor, he says it might have been as low as in today's poorest countries.

The tablets also have surprises. Even though there are plenty of pictures of animals and mythical creatures, Dr Dahl says there are no representations of the human form of any kind. Not even a hand or an eye.

Was this some kind of cultural or religious taboo?

Dr Dahl remains passionate about what this work says about such societies, digging into the deepest roots of civilisation. This is about where so much begins. For instance, proto-Elamite was the first writing ever to use syllables.

If Macbeth talked about the "last syllable of recorded time", the proto-Elamites were there for the first.

And with sufficient support, Dr Dahl says that within two years this last great lost writing could be fully understood.

Thank you for the very many offers of help. In response, Dr Dahl has set up a website for people wanting to get involved with the decipherment: http://cdli.ox.ac.uk/wiki/proto-elamite and an email address: cdli.oxford@orinst.ox.ac.uk. A small selection of the earlier comments are published here.

Allow me to be the 967th person to translate this to read "Hello, Sweetie!"

Mark, Durham, New Hampshire

Sounds fascinating. All I've done in this area is trying to decipher the words on 120 year old land grants for this area, but the problem was quality of the images. It appears that may not be a problem here

Peter Vander Sar, Canada

I am fascinated by this article and the attempt to decipher the tablets so would very much like to help.

Susan Merkeley, British Columbia, Canada

It might help, if comparative (pre) Zorastrian phonetic basics are adopted

Anil A. Vyas, Pune, India

Being an agrarian community it's possible that the phases of the moon might also be mentioned re planting cycles though I'm sure that has already been thought about by the deciphering team.

Sarah Waldock, Ipswich

I am currently studying Classics at UCL, and so anything to do with ancient scripts or writing is so interesting, congratulations to Dr. Dahl for all his hard working paying off!

Fiona, London

Sounds a fascinating and intriguing problem. It would be great to contribute, even if only in some small way, to finding the solution.

Simon, Derbyshire

What a great article! More of this please BBC

Simon, London

This is a problem tailor made for the boffins at GCHQ Cheltenham. Let them do something interesting in their spare time. There must be lots of computer + brain power there. Alternatively, or additionally, there may still be some oldies from Bletchley Park who would like to have a go.

Peter Crawford, Banbury

Now this is one of the most fascinating articles I have read for a long time. I dearly hope that there is a documentary going to be made out of this as it may , just may, unlock an unknown understanding of how we all work.

David Ford, Cheshire

I am currently working with an extremely old, yet still spoken language of the Nilotic family in East Africa. I don't know if there is anything that I could do to help but I would love a shot. I am young, 29, however, I have studied linguistic, specifically language acquisition. In my phonology course I loved the code breaking aspects of phonological rule ordering. Some believe that by ordering rules properly one can discover proto-features of a language that has evolved into a new language. I would be curious to see if this approach could be applied to this challenge. Start with suspected language derivatives or cognates and work backwards.

Robert Lane, Uganda

I am delighted to read this story that is tangentially related to Iran. I am not expert in linguistic, but one story from my childhood in Iran always fascinates me. It was 1964-1965 academic year and I was a student in Hadaf High School in Teheran, where Mr. Mohegh, my Persian literature teacher told us the story about the creation of our current Persian alphabets (about 1400 years old) that is also being used (and modified) by Arabs and is from right to left. Apparently this was the research topic of Mr. Mohegh's degree. He said this alphabet is created phonetically and according to the shape of our lips and tongue and artery. For instance, "M" in English is just a symbol, but in Persian when such a sound is created, then our lips and the rest form in such a manner that Persian "M" is sounded and that final shape becomes our "M". Similarly, he showed for many other letters such as "B" and "T", etc.. So, if this is the case in Persian, and since this alphabet is !

Mansour Eslami, Chicago

This sounds like something that would really intrigue some of my students - I am a secondary teacher of MFL - would we be able to get involved please?

Hannah Ryan, Hythe, Kent

Having studied anthropology and linguistics , I would love to try and help solve the mystery of this cipher. No guarantees though! As I live on a South Sea island with few diversions or entertainment, it would certainly be a privilege and challenge to try and help Dr. Dahl with the code.

Helga Saint-Pierre, New Caledonia

Simply fascinating! I would very much like to help in any way that I can with the ongoing project of deciphering the writings of the Proto-Elamites

Dr Giles Hodgskins, British Army (BFG)

So fascinating! Could the representation of cattle (horns) be also the representation of man/god or taboo divinity ? Could it be linked to the reason why the old testament starts with beta and not aleph (horn)?

Caroline, Bath

I know what this is- It's a shopping list and DIY request from a wife for husband, who has "lost"it on the way after a few barley wines. Domestic life really has not changed that much!

David Buxton, Hampshire

It quite clearly says "Take two paracetamol every six hours, with plenty of fluids, and if symptoms persist, come back to the surgery in a couple of days."

Keiron Marsden, Bristol

The attorney general has finally published Prince Charles's 27 letters to government ministers.

Mista C,

Would be very interested in helping in way possible. I am no Champollion or Ventris and it looks as though there is a corpus that would mean it is more possible than the Phaistos Disc. Application of AI/ANN as mentioned by a previous poster will not work as it will potentially show a pattern, but nothing to match that pattern against. What is interesting is that there are potential errors in the text. Probably most things have been tried however my thoughts are that the errors might give an in road. Analyse the distribution of the errors using known translations and where symbols are known to be replaced. Then map the statistical anomaly to the unknown pieces of text generating a candidate true text by substituting potential "correct" symbols. Then using the candidate text, see if there are more symbols resolved than in the original. View the highest resolved texts to see if they make sense in the context.

Richard C, Harpenden

It looks to me like 2, maybe 3 forms overlaid, certainly looks like two different hands have made it.

Tim Copsey (Graphics expert), Holmfirth

I'm looking forward to seeing or reading about how this gets broken. The story of the heiroglyphics breakthrough - where the cartouches were identified as known names and it all flowed from there was a treat. Maybe something similar will provide a breaktrhough here.

Sandy Fox, Derby

Considering that this was a simple agricultural society,where life for the average worker would be short,could this not be a manual/diary of agricultural practices and seasons? This could then be left for surviving members of the community to contiue with what was considered good husbandry.Presumably a record of astrological movements and religious festivals could have also been recorded.

Dan, Spain

I would be interested in helping studying the script. I am a Phd student in formal logic, so perhaps i could contribute something in the way of deciphering relevant patterns.

Riccardo, Amsterdam

I'm 99% sure that someone has thought of this already, but what about using some sort of Artificial Intelligence approach, such as an unsupervised Neural Network for pattern recognition?

Mike Overhill-Smith, York

I would like to congradulate Dr. Dahl & BBC for this fascinating findings. Since I came from (Sumerian and Acadian) Mesopotamian origin. I would like to add some measures like: the size of the symbols and the repeatability of these codes in comparison with Mesopotamian writings which might find some sort of pattern. I agree with Sarah Waldock, Ipswich about it could refer to replanting cycles (Crescent for moon and dots for workers required to do the plantation..etc) as the decipher team might already knows that. Good luck

Dr Safa Ramadaan, Buckinghamshire

I am a very keen amateur cryptologist and find that being a strong County Chess player is useful in such applications. After all The Enigma code was broken by chess players alike.

Sean Ralph, Birmingham

Facinating article. Maybe I can be of help. Partly by genetic heritage (my granfather Gustave Jequier discovered the Code of Hammurabi and must have brought back to the Louvre several of these tablets from his digs in Susa in 1897-1902), partly by personal taste in linguistics (basic knowledge of Semitic languages + Finnish, Chinese, etc.). My basic belief: proto-Elamic linked to African languages, possibly Burushaski and Australian languages. Compare also with Vinca writing

Nicolas Jequier, Lausanne, Switzerland

This is great! I am a professor of linguistics teaching a course on writing systems this term. We have been talking about techniques for deciphering undeciphered writing systems, and I would love to have a look at your database and share it with my class! Thanks!

Dr Laura C. Robinson, Santa Barbara, California

Very interesting.

interesting article
some incorrect stuff but also some good stuff too , worth a read
http://65.55.129.171/att/GetInline.aspx?messageid=d28221cb-7dec-11e2-8ce0-002264c2089a&attindex=2&cp=-1&attdepth=2&imgsrc=cid%3a3.2492085447%40web111008.mail.gq1.yahoo.com&cid=94befaf28fdd3e38&shared=1&blob=MXxpbWFnZTAwMy5naWZ8aW1hZ2UvZ2lm&hm__login=sormanunited&hm__domain=hotmail.com&ip=10.42.148.8&d=d4088&mf=0&hm__ts=Tue%2c%2026%20Feb%202013%2000%3a32%3a15%20GMT&st=sormanunited&hm__ha=01_173a03556c8943a4ff72f7ad4f2b024b4a805668166d5e0f8a4610f99bf31fb1&oneredir=1

گاهشمار تمام سنگي 2500-3000 ساله




بنايي با معماري* خاصي در «نقش رستم» شيراز وجود دارد كه از زمان حمله اعراب به ايران به اشتباه، نام «كعبه زرتشت» را به آن دادند، چون كاربرد واقعي آن را نمي*دانستند. آن زمان فكر مي*كردند كه هر ديني بايد براي خود بُتكده يا عبادتگاهي داشته باشد، براي همين فكر كردند اين بنا هم مركزيت يا كعبه زرتشتيان است.

كعبه زرتشت
در ديوار داخل اين ساختمان لغت «کعبه» حکاکي شده است. در کتاب*هاي زرتشتي آمده است که حضرت زرتشت «زاراتشترا» در اين محل، نيايش مي*کرده است. اعراب، لغت کعبه را از پارسي پهلوي گرفتند. همان*طور که در زمان داريوش کبير به كشور «عمان» امروزي «مکه» مي*گفتند؛ بنابراين كلمه مكه نيز فارسي است.
در محاسبه روز نوروز در کتب زرتشتي نوشته شده است که زرتشت در اين رصدخانه، محل شروع نوروز را محاسبه کرد. نوروز در روز اول فروردين از محلي شروع مي*شود که اولين اشعه آفتاب در آنجا بتابد. بر اساس برآورد گاهنامه زرتشت، هر 700 سال يک*بار نوروز از ايران شروع مي*شود. آخرين*باري که نوروز از ايران شروع شد، 300 سال پيش بود. در سال 1387، نوروز از پاريس و بروکسل و در سال 1388 ار تورنتو و نيويورک شروع شد. سال آينده هم نوروز از محلي بين آلاسکا و هاوايي شروع خواهد شد.

از زمان حمله اعراب به ايران تا به امروز، يعني قرن بيست و يكم ميلادي، كاربرد و تعريف اين بنا كشف نشده بود. خوشبختانه پژوهشگر ايراني «رضا مرادي غياث*آبادي» كه تحقيقات فراواني در زمينه ايران باستان داشته است، نتيجه كشف خود را در كتابي به نام «نظام گاهشماري در چارطاقي*هاي ايران»توسط انتشارات «نويد شيراز» به چاپ رسانده و راز اين بنا را منتشر كرده است.


تا امروز حدث مي*زدند كاربرد اين بنا، محل نگهداري كتاب اوستا و اسناد حكومتي يا محل گنجينه دربار و يا آتشكده معبد بوده است. اما غياث*آبادي با تحقيقات خود ثابت كرد اين بنا با مقايسه با تمامي بناهاي گاهشماري (تقويم) آفتابي در سرتاسر جهان، پيشرفته*ترين، دقيق*ترين، و بهترين بناي گاهشماري آفتابي جهان است. اين در حالي است كه تا قبل از اين بنا هم «چارطاقي*ها» در نقاط مختلف ايران احداث شده بودند و همين وظيفه را با شيوه*اي بسيار ساده اما دقيق و حرفه*اي بر عهده داشتند.

تمامي بناهاي گاهشماري آفتابي در جهان فقط مي*توانند روزهاي خاصي از سال (مانند روزهاي سرفصل) را مشخص كنند و حتي با سال خورشيدي هم تنظيم نيستند. اما اين بنا با دقت و علمي كه در ساخت آن اجرا شده، قادر است بسياري از جزئيات روزهاي مختلف سال و ماه*ها را مشخص كند. زرتشتيان با استفاده از اين بنا مي*توانستند بسياري از مناسبت*ها و جشن*هاي سال را روز به روز دنبال كنند و از زمان دقيق آنها آگاه شوند.
بسياري از بناهاي چارطاقي در سطح كشور (به تصور آتشكده) يا به طور كامل تخريب شده و يا تغيير كاربري داده شده است. ولي خوشبختانه تعدادي هم مانند چارطاقي «نياسر» و چارطاقي «تفرش»، سالم مانده و براي ما و نسل*هاي بعدي باقي مانده*اند.




متأسفانه بناي «كعبه زرتشت» با آن كه تقريباً سالم باقي مانده است به ثبت ميراث جهاني سازمان ملل نرسيده است! حتي سازمان ميراث فرهنگي هم اين بنا را همراه بناهاي عجايب هفتگانه جديد (كه برج ايفل هم يكي از كانديداها بود) پيشنهاد نداد! حتي با كشف راز اين بنا هم هيچ*گونه انعكاس و جنجالي به پا نشد!
اين بنا، يك گاهشمار تمام سنگي ثابت در جهان است كه بايد سازندگان آن از بسياري از نكات علميِ جغرافيايي، نجومي، سال كبيسه، انحراف كره زمين نسبت به مدار خورشيد، تفاوت قطب مغناطيسي با قطب جغرافيايي، مسير گردش زمين به دور خورشيد و... را در 2500 تا 3000 سال پيش، در دوران حكومت هخامنشيان آگاه *بودند. حال آنكه خيلي از آنها را مانندكروي بودن كره زمين و گردش زمين به دور خورشيد را در چهارصد سال اخير در اروپا كشف كردند و به نام خودشان ثبت كردند!

به همه بفرستيد تا به ثبت اين اثر بزرگ تاريخي كشورمان در سازمان ملل اقدام نماييم.

tamookan, a new achaemenid city discovered
http://shiraz1400.ir/index.php/website-subject/mirase-farhangi/496-bardak-siah

amazing piece


a letter , in greek, by artabanus (king, parthian era) tu the people of susa

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/ba/ArtabanIIIGreekLetter.JPG/800px-ArtabanIIIGreekLetter.JPG

for those who said we should make persian be written with latin, GREEK is the way to go !

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ArtabanIIIGreekLetter.JPG

parthians are an interesting and somehow mytical dynasty of iran. they ruled for almost 500 years and did not only removed the greeks out of iran but also could beat rome at their peak of power during crassus, mark antony, trajan etc.

It was an amazing period

Alot of cultural and genetic mix

it also makes you sad since we could those days beat people like crassus, mark antony, nero etc. while today we accepted of being humililated every day by americans und europeans.

humililated every day by americans und europeans.

don't forget humiliated by backward thinking leaders...

Kollan humiliated

tappe hesar , now with a railway through it :( this is one of the oldest and earliest cradles of civilization, it dates to the bronze age
and these bastar*s build railways over it
http://www.chn.ir/NSite/FullStory/Photo/?Id=103173&Serv=5&SGr=35

jiroft artifacts

http://www.chn.ir/NSite/FullStory/Photo/?Id=100505&Serv=5&SGr=35