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CAIS ARCHAEOLOGICAL & CULTURAL NEWS^©

07 September 2005

Excavations and investigations of Sistan Plain and vicinities of the Burnt City has led to the identification of 102 hills belonging to 5,000 years ago which are believed to have been satellite villages of the Burnt City.

The 152 hectare Burnt City was once the largest settlement area of Iran’s plateau. The archaeological excavations in the historical site indicate that Burnt City was one of the biggest international trade hubs in the region at ancient times. Based on the last studies carried out, most probably more than 700 hills existed around Burnt City.

“The main goal of the Research Center of Burnt City is to register and document the sites of Sistan Plain and the vicinities of the Burnt City. We have also succeeded to identify and register 102 historical hills belonging to 5,000 years ago which were most probably the satellite villages of the government ruling in the Burnt City,” says Alireza Khosravi, head of Burnt City Research Center.

According to him, these 102 hills are part of the 200 hills identified in the area, for which documentation works including providing GPS maps, collecting surface clays, and some initial studies for dating have been completed so far.

700 historical hills have so far been identified around Burnt City, but the documentation of the hills has not been completed yet and therefore can not be easily commented on, however, evidence from the surface clay pieces has for now led experts to date them to the same time as the Burnt city.

Now what is important for the research team of the documentation of the Burnt City is to identify the satellite villages around the Burnt City to determine the extent of the Burnt City domain.

The Burnt City which is known as the “Mother City” of the eastern half of Iran’s Plateau, is one of the significant historical sites of Iran enjoying a 5000-year-old civilization. Archaeological excavations on the site indicate the Burnt City connected the east and west of Asia, functioning as one of the biggest trade and cultural cities of Iran about 5000 years ago.

Considering the importance of Sistan Plain and the fact that Hirmand river basin extended from Zabol city in Sistan va Baluchestan to the Kabul city in Afghanistan, joining the basin of Indus river in Pakistan, and the relations between 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 to the first archaeology and Anthropology international research center of the eastern Iran’s plateau.

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