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A
team of Iranian archaeologists is trying to solve
the riddle of why a newly discovered Median
monument had been deliberately concealed with
material such as stones, bricks, and mud, the
director of the team working at the site announced
on Tuesday.
“The monument contains one large and one small
room constructed in a circular plan. The rooms
have been filled almost to the ceiling with stones
and their outer section has been hidden with a
wall made of stone and brick which is about two
meters thick,” said Mehrdad Malekzadeh, head of
archaeologists working in the ancient site of
Zarbolagh near the central Iranian city of Qom.
“The arrangement of the stones and the high
precision (used in their construction) indicate
that the camouflage had been created deliberately.
In fact, the inhabitants probably wanted to
prevent any access to the monument in the
future,” he said.
Such camouflage has only been observed at the
Median sites of Nushijan Tepe in Malayer in
Hamedan Province, Ozbaki Tepe near Savojbolagh in
Tehran Province, and Vasun near Kahak in Markazi
Province.
“Excavations carried out by British
archaeologist David Stronach at Nushijan Tepe in
the 1960s led to the discovery of a temple with a
beautiful fire altar. The temple was the only
example of a camouflaged Median monument for
years, but another was unearthed at Ozbaki Tepe
over the past few years. This one was a sacrifice
altar,” Malekzadeh explained.
Archaeologists believe that there are
architectural similarities between the camouflaged
Median monument at Zarbolagh and the earlier
examples at Nushijan Tepe, Ozbaki Tepe, and Vasun.
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