10
October 2005
(CAIS)
– Archaeologists working in Tul-Talesh archaeological site, after
opening of an ancient dolmen, have discovered a male and female
skeletons, covered with armaments and jewellery. The evidence
indicates that the grave belonged to an ancient warrior and his
partner, the head of excavation, Mohammad-Reza Khal’atbari
announced today.
According
to Khal’atbari “the discovered burial, could be belong to a
military man, since the grave contain various weapons such as dagger, sword and
a lance.
Also, the grave contains many costume jewellery, including a bronze
mirror, decorative beads, necklace, bracelets and earrings, which is
indicative of their high status”.
However,
discovery of this grave indicates that in ancient time the members
of armed forces were enjoying a high status in their society. Also,
presence of worn ornaments by the woman, and discovery of buttons
around her skeleton, caused archaeologists to conclude that in
ancient times the dead people were buried dressed in that region”, Khal’atbari says.
“Burying
both at the same time shows that they were involved in some sort of
accident, to be buried together” Khal’atbari added.
Iranian
archaeologists last year also have discovered a burial in the same
area, did contain few skeletons, which indicated that they were
members of same family buried together. In that burial at the top of
the grave they have found a skeleton of a woman, with a golden
rhyton and a cuneiform inscription that was placed next to her body.
There are many “kalān sangi” (megalithic) burials were made for persons of a
higher class with large pieces of stone weighing over two tons.
The
350 hectares’ Tul-Talesh cemetery located 140 kilometers northwest
of Rasht dated and back to 1000 BCE is one of
the most unique archaeological sites in the Iran.
In
addition, archaeologists recently discovered a cemetery dedicated
solely to horses at Tul Talesh.
Last
year, they also discovered a cromlech at the site in which members
of a family had been buried. The body of a woman with a golden
goblet and a cuneiform inscription had been buried in the upper part
of the cromlech.
Experts
have not been able to determine the ethnicity of the region’s
inhabitants so far. Nonetheless, there is a strong possibility that they
were of Indo-European stock, due to discovery of a sacred cows an a
bull-horned necklace in two different graves. Reverencing cow was
practiced among ancient Indo-Europeans.
