Goddesses Allure Foreigners to Iran

15 October 2005

(CHN) --The most recent excavations in Rabat Teppe in Sardasht, Northwestern Iran, has led to the discovery of two naked goddesses in the 3000 year-old site.

“The significance of the discovery has brought international reporters to the site,” said Reza Heydari, an archaeologist of Western Azerbaijan Organization of Cultural Heritage and Tourism, “correspondents of BBC and a news agency in Iraq came here and a French reporter was given the news via phone.”

Although thousands of goddesses were found all over the world with exaggerated faces which shows them while giving birth, the rare Iranian goddesses have normal bodies. This proves that, contrary to the goddesses who were found in other places, the Iranian ones are not goddesses of fertility.

“Naked goddesses are common in Greece, but they don’t have wings and are symbols of fertility. The found patterns on the toothed bricks of Rabat Teppe have white-yellow wings and their bodies are white. One of them does not have a head and the other one lacks head and legs,” he added.

There is no explanation for their presence in the region yet, but archaeologists hope to find related signs in Iraq or Turkey.

Few days ago, two other winged goddesses were found at the site; those were not naked, but as important and rare as the new ones.

Based on ancient documents, many of the symbols and myths of eastern goddesses were taken to the west through Syria and the Mediterranean, and were labeled new names there.

In initial measures taken, the area of the archaeological site was believed to be 14 hectares but recent studies extend its measures to 25 hectares.

The most outward level of the site belongs to the first millennium BC. The archaeologists’ excavation which started last month is an effort for a comparison of the site to the Mushashir’s civilization which was contemporary to those of Urartu and Assyria.