Peaceful People of Lafourak Left No Armory

24 May 2005

No remains of weapons and armory have been discovered in tombs of the historical graveyard of Lafourak in northern Mazandaran, signing of the peacefulness of the people of the area some 2800 years ago.

Lafourak graveyard is one of the most noteworthy ancient ones of the Iron Age with unique burial rituals and clay pottery found nowhere else in Iron Age sites.

According to head of the archaeological site, Mehdi Abedini, no weapons have been found in Lafourak tombs and all the other graveyards discovered throughout Iran dating to the third era of the Iron Age which is an indication of the peaceful of the people living at the time.

One other probable hypothesis is that at the time the tradition of burying the people’s weapons including swords or daggers alongside the dead was not popular, explained Abedini, adding that however since no weapons have been found in the neighboring sites of the graveyard, the peacefulness hypothesis is more valid.

Previous studies on the skeleton unearthed in Lafourak graveyard have shown that they are of an origin not found today in any part of the northern areas of Iran.