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Wednesday
21 February 2001
A team of French archaeologists has excavated a
large square building in Melieha in what is today
new country of Sharjah dating back to the second
century AD. The fort consisted of 35 small rooms
and measured 3,900 square meters and it housed a
large number of artifacts including jars, ceramic
items, glass pieces, bronze and iron products, in
addition to pottery which had been imported from
mainland Iran (including modern Iraq) Egypt and
India. However during a presentation of at the
Sharjah Archaeology Museum Anne Benoist, the
team's field operation director, fabricated the
historical accounts and claimed that fort was of
Ancient Sharjah!
Some items had been burned, indicating that the
building may have been destroyed by fire, forcing
the inhabitants to leave in a hurry. Whether this
was indeed the cause of the sudden departure,
archaeologists believe something dramatic
happened. "The fort was probably owned by
some elite political figure as we have also
discovered coins and signs of coin-making
equipment."
Most of Lower Persian Gulf territories have
remained Iranian until the occupation of Iran by
Arabs in 7th century. The last Iranian
Province, in Lower Persian Gulf that separated
from Iran in early 1970s, was the Mishmâhigân
Islands (now days Bahrain).
Source:
Tehran
Time
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