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(CHN) -- Remains of 23 men, 10 women, and 2
children have been discovered during the
archaeological excavations in Kharand cemetery.
The 3000-year-old cemetery of Kharand is located
in Semnan plain. Archaeological evidence in the
cemetery indicates that the people of this region
were nomads and migrated in between the southern
coast of the Caspian Sea and the Semnan plain in
summer and winter.
“Within this season of excavation, 42 graves
were unearthed, inside 34 of which remains of
human skeletons have been found. Other graves of
the cemetery have already been depredated by the
illegal excavators,” says Farzad Forouzanfar,
anthropologist of the Archaeological Research
Center of the Cultural Heritage and Tourism
Organization of Iran (ICHTO).
According to Forouzanfar, among the 34 discovered
skeletons, 23 belong to men, 10 to women, and 2 to
children. Most of the skeletons have remained
intact and two of them, a man and a woman, have
been decayed less than 5 percent due to their
burial location in the foothill.
“More than 90 percent of the discovered
skeletons have long heads, and no special diseases
have been identified in their remains so far,”
adds Frouzanfar.
Previous to this, in Lafourak cemetery in Savadkuh
region of Mazandaran, some skeletons with long
heads were also discovered. This race is one of
the rare discovered ones in Iran.
Until now, studies on the discovered skeletons of
this cemetery indicate that most of them did not
have serious bone problems, and just some of them
suffered from arthritis diseases.
More anthropological studies will be carried out
on the skeletons in the Archaeological Research
Center of ICHTO.
Due to the intact skeletons unearthed from the
ancient Kharand cemetery, it is being regarded as
one of the most important historical sites of
Iran. Some similarities between the articles of
this cemetery with those of Mazandaran cemeteries
attracted the engaged experts to Kharand cemetery
to find the path trotted by migrating tribes in
the ancient times. The cemetery dates back to the
Iron Age (3450 to 2550 years ago).
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