The
archaeological team determined in initial studies
that the inscription dates back to the Bronze Age
(the first half of the third millennium B.C.).
“The
inscription proves that writing was in use in the
region at the time and it will shed light on the
dark corners of life in the first half of the
third millennium B.C. Thus, we decided to give the
inscription to an expert from France and several
others from the U. S.,” Yusef Majidzadeh added.
“Although
only the left corner and two lines of writing
remain, the script of the inscription has been
definitely identified as Elamite,” he said.
The
oldest Elamite script, known as Proto-Elamite,
first appeared in about 2900 B.C. in Susa, the
capital of Elam, in the southwestern Iranian
province of Khuzestan. The Proto-Elamite script is
thought to have been developed from an early
Sumerian script.
Old
Elamite was a syllabic script derived from Proto-Elamite
and was known to have been used between about 2250
and 2220 B.C., although it may have been invented
at an earlier date. The Inshushinak inscription,
found during an excavation in Susa, had been
written in this type of script.
“The
Konar Sandal inscription is older than the
Inshushinak inscription, thus it seems that the
recently discovered inscription will link proto
and old Elamite scripts,” Majidzadeh said.
Known
as the “archeologists’ lost heaven”, the
ancient site of Jiroft is located next to the
Halil-Rud River in the southern province of
Kerman. Numerous ancient ruins and artifacts of
Jiroft have been excavated by archaeologists, and
also by smugglers unfortunately, over the past
three years.
