The
archaeologists found the ruins and artifacts, which are estimated
to date back to 3000 to 1000 B.C., during the third stage of
excavations at the site by a joint team of Iranian and American
archaeologists that began in mid-October.
On
the new discovery, Ahmad Abdi, the head of the archaeological team
at Anshan, said that archaeologists had found ruins dating back to
the very early (3000-2800 B.C.) and mid (1500-1100 B.C.) Elamite
era.
According
to Abdi, who is an Iranian professor at Dartmouth College in the
United States, archaeologists had already discovered various ruins
at the site, but the recent discoveries are of great importance
since they belong to different periods of the Elamite era.
“In
one part of the historical site, the ruins of a mud-brick wall
were also unearthed, which seems to belong to a house built beside
an alley,” he said, adding that six fragments of inscriptions as
well as an ancient seal were also discovered during the third
excavation.
Ruins
from the 2nd millennium B.C. were discovered during previous
excavations at the site.
Experts
in the fields of paleobotany, paleozoology, and paleobiology are
also working with the team of archaeologists.
The
low mounds of Tepe Malyan known as Anshan cover nearly 200
hectares in Fars Province in southwestern Iran. The city's ruins
-- covering 350 acres -- have yielded major archaeological finds
including examples of early Elamite writing.
Anshan
came to prominence about 2350 B.C. as an enemy of the Mesopotamian
dynasty of Akkad. Its greatest period however was during the 13th
and 12th centuries B.C. when, as kings of Anshan and Susa, Elamite
rulers periodically raided Neo-Babylonian cities.
About
675 B.C. the country apparently came to be controlled by
Achaemenid Persians who bore the title kings of Anshan and Susa
down to the accession of Darius I in 522 B.C.
