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International
archaeologists from Britain, France, Italy, and
the United States are to participate in the Jiroft International
Seminar, which is to open on January 30, 2005 in Jiroft, Kerman
Province.
The seminar is being organized to introduce the recent archaeological
discoveries made in the historical region of Jiroft, said Yusef
Majidzadeh, the head of the Jiroft archaeological team.
Iranian and foreign experts and archaeologists are to make speeches on
various civilizations of southeastern Iran and the recent excavations in
the area including those at Jiroft, Shahdad, and Yahya during the
four-day event.
Lamberg Karlovsky, an archaeology professor, at Harvard University, and
Hally Pittman, an ancient art professor at the University of
Pennsylvania, are among the guests who have been invited to attend the
seminar.
Jiroft came into the spotlight nearly three years ago when reports of
extensive illegal excavations and plundering of the priceless historical
artifacts of the area by local people surfaced.
Since 2002, two excavation seasons have been carried out at the Jiroft
site, leading to the discovery of a ziggurat made of more than four
million mud bricks dating back to about 2300 B.C.
Jiroft, located in Kerman Province, is one of the richest historical
areas in the world, with ruins and artifacts dating back to the third
millennium B.C. and with over 100 historical sites located along the
approximately 400 kilometers of the Halil Rud riverbank.
Many Iranian and foreign experts see the findings in Jiroft as signs of
a civilization as great as Sumer and ancient Mesopotamia. They believe
that Jiroft is the ancient city of Aratta which was described as a great
civilization in an Iraqi clay inscription.
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