Burnt City Render 65 Ancient Graves - CAIS Archaeological & Cultural Daily News of Iran©

During the seventh season of excavations in the Burnt City, which is accorded a 5000-year history, 65 ancient graves and part of a memorial building have been discovered.

Located in the southeast city of Zabol, this 150-hectare city is a unique national historical city of the Iranian central plateau. In this historical spot, many important relics have been discovered so far in the residential, industrial, and memorial areas as well as the cemetery of a developed city, which is dated back to the millennia B.C.

Concerning the recent discoveries, Sajadi, head of the excavation team in the Burnt City, said: “Following last year’s excavations, this year’s works, have continued in two sites, i.e. the central cemetery with an area of 570 sq m and the memorial site. In this stage, 65 ancient graves and about 65 human skeletons have been found.”

As for the relics discovered in the graves, he further added: “Among the graves which have been excavated this year, there were two which belonged to two noted people, one of them holding a delicate pounding tool in his hand.”

He went on to say that during this season of excavation, too, many terra cotta vessels containing foodstuff have been found next to the discovered bodies in the Burnt City.

Sajadi believes that this year’s findings in the memorial building of the city indicate that it used to be a public building used for different purposes, such as temple and industrial workshop in three periods.

The Burnt City is a historical city which used to be a dwelling place from 3200 to 1900 B.C. and has different parts such as residential, industrial, cemetery, and memorial areas.

The city had its heyday in 2500 B.C. and its population was about 15000 at that time. The citizens were mostly craftsmen. Due to draught and change of the course of the Hirmand River, the Burnt City was abandoned in 1900 B.C. and buried afterwards.

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