The
head of the team said that almost thirty graves dating
back to the early Islamic era were also found near the
Parthian fire temple, a new discovery over the past few
weeks.
Due
to certain types of structures in the fire temple, the
archaeologists surmise that the monument had been used as
a mosque (after the advent of Islam in Iran), Hassan
Rezvani added.
He
also stated that all the corpses but two were aligned
toward south with burial gifts inside the graves, a
tradition of pre-Islamic era persisting up to that time.
In addition, a coin bearing the holy verses of Fatehah
surah belonging to the early Islamic era was also found
near the graves.
Archaeologists
believe that the flowing Shian fountainhead encouraged the
first settlements in the region in about 2400 BC. They
have identified a great number of historic and ancient
sites in the region from the Parthian to the Islamic eras.
Shian
Dam is scheduled to come on stream in 2007.
