The
latest round of excavations at the Ozbaki hillock of Yan
Mound, the oldest Ozbaki site near Tehran, has resulted in
the unearthing of remnants from the Silak I excavation
round, announced the head of the archeologist team engaged
in the area, reported ISNA.
Professor Yousef Majidzadeh complained that the negligence
of Iran’s Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization
(ICHTO) is responsible for the destruction of a major part
of the historical site which dates back to the seventh
millennium BCE.
He said that the edifices unearthed at Yan Mound and
Jeiran Mound had been left without protection for the past
three years and parts of the Median fortress and Ozbaki
Mound have been exposed to ruin.
Majidzadeh said that archeologists are not responsible for
protecting cultural sites and it is the obligation of
ICHTO Research Center to safeguard them, but,
unfortunately, it failed to do so.
Archeologists cover the structures they unearth by daubing
them with adobe which gradually wears thin and should be
preserved by respective entities, he added.
“Several years ago, we built a wall around the site in
cooperation with ICHTO and took measures to prevent water
seeping into the ancient structure by filling the crevices
with gravel. However, the baked brick wall was destroyed
during the past three years and the ancient structure has
been ruined,“ he lamented.
Majidzadeh said that the excavation led to unearthing
edifices from the Silak I excavation round at Ozbaki Mound
at a depth of 6.5 meters.
The archeologist said that the assumption that both Ozbaki
Mound and Yan Mound belong to the same age has proved to
be incorrect.
“We could not trace features of Silak I excavation round
at Jeiran Mound and only remnants from the Silak II
excavation round were unearthed there,“ he concluded.
