Looking for Burnt City Satellite Villages in Afghanistan

News Category: Prehistory

(CHN) -- Regarding the 20-kilometer distance of the Burnt City from Iran-Afghanistan borders, the expansion of the satellite villages toward the borders, and the fact that this city was the most flourished one in the region during its own time, it is probable that some of the satellite villages of the Burnt City are situated inside today’s Afghanistan.

Burnt City is one of the key historical sites of Iran, located in the south eastern province of Sistan va Baluchestan; the city has had booming times in trade and culture some 5000 years ago, considered as an important civilization. It is being considered as the “Mother City” of the eastern half of Iran’s Plateau. The archaeological excavations in this historical site indicate that this city was a main cultural connection between the west and east of Asia.

“Burnt City boomed 4500 years ago, and covered an area about 80 hectares. According to archaeological theories, the population of the city was about 15,000, and since the city was the biggest of its own time, there were a lot of satellite villages around it,” says Mansour Sadjadi, head of the excavation team of the historical site of Burnt City. “Some of these villages, 70 of which have been identified, are located several kilometers far from the historical site of the Burnt City, near the borders of Afghanistan. Since today’s boundaries do not exactly match those of the ancient times, it is supposed that some of the satellite villages of the Burnt City must have been located in today’s Afghanistan,” added Sadjadi.

According to Sadjadi, due to security issues and the after war situation in Afghanistan, study of the Afghanistan boundaries of the villages is not possible at the present time, but the archaeological excavations indicate that the satellite villages should have been stretched beyond Iran’s borders into Afghan territory.

Since archaeologists have not yet found the location people of the Burnt City chose as their residence after deserting the city, it is supposed that they probably had immigrated to Afghanistan.

“Until the completion of the archaeological studies, all these remain as theories, and we hope to discover the issue with further excavations,” explains Sadjadi.

The Burnt City was one of the world’s largest cities at the dawn of the urban era. The city had four stages of civilization and was burnt down three times. Since it was not rebuilt after the last time, it has been named the Burnt City.

Considering the importance of Sistan Plain and the fact that Hirmand river basin extended from Zabol city in Sistan va Baluchestan to Kabul of Afghanistan, leading to the basin of Indus river in Pakistan, and with regard to the relations between the Burnt City and civilizations such as West Asia and Mesopotamia through Jiroft and Khuzestan, the Research Center of Burnt City is aiming at turning the historical site into the first international archaeology and anthropology research center of the eastern Iran’s Plateau.

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