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Wednesday
04 January 1999
TEHRAN The second stage of archeological excavations has been launched to
specify the limits of the ancient city of Sharh-e Soukhteh (Burned City) in the
southeastern Province of Sistan-Baluchestan. The city was erected 3200 years BC
and was alive for about a millennium. With a span of 151 hectares, the city is
among the most expanded areas at the advent of the urban dwelling phenomenon in
the near east.
The hilly land where Shahr-e Soukhteh is located is the largest well-known area
and was the main social, political and cultural center throughout southeastern
Iran in the fourth to second millennium BC. The remains of the city which
embodies four linked residential, central, industrial and cemetery hillsides, is
situated 55 km southwest of Zabol, enroute to Zahedan, capital city of Sistan-Baluchestan Province. The unearthed clay water and sewage pipelines and
houses and alleys in an orderly shape are all indications to a sound urban
planning there.
The discovery of evidences proving performance of the first brain surgery for
the treatment of hydrocephaly and wooden pieces of an entertainment device such
as chess, all attest to social development of Shahr-e Soukhteh. Apparently, most
of the inhabitants of the city were engaged in industrial and trade activities
as well as in breeding livestocks, fishing and hunting birds. Shahr-e Soukhteh
which reached the peak of its development about 4500 years ago was affected by a
severe social-political crisis at the same time and later was destroyed as a
result of landslide on the bed of Hirmand River.
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